Artificial intelligence not only powers our cars, hospitals and
courtrooms: predictive algorithms are becoming deeply lodged inside us
too. Machine intelligence is learning our private preferences and
discreetly shaping our personal behaviour, telling us how to live, who
to befriend and who to date.
In Algorithmic Intimacy, Anthony Elliott examines the power of
predictive algorithms in reshaping personal relationships today. From
Facebook friends and therapy chatbots to dating apps and quantified sex
lives, Elliott explores how machine intelligence is working within us,
amplifying our desires and steering our personal preferences. He argues
that intimate relationships today are threatened not by the digital
revolution as such, but by the orientation of various life strategies
unthinkingly aligned with automated machine intelligence. Our reliance
on algorithmic recommendations, he suggests, reflects a growing
emergency in personal agency and human bonds. We need alternatives,
innovation and experimentation for the interpersonal, intimate effort of
ongoing translation back and forth between the discourses of human and
machine intelligence.
Accessible and compelling, this book sheds fresh light on the impact of
artificial intelligence on the most intimate aspects of our lives. It
will appeal to students in the social sciences and humanities and to a
wide range of general readers.
