Artificial intelligence (AI) is often discussed as something
extraordinary, a dream--or a nightmare--that awakens metaphysical
questions on human life. Yet far from a distant technology of the
future, the true power of AI lies in its subtle revolution of ordinary
life. From voice assistants like Siri to natural language processors, AI
technologies use cultural biases and modern psychology to fit specific
characteristics of how users perceive and navigate the external world,
thereby projecting the illusion of intelligence.
Integrating media studies, science and technology studies, and social
psychology, Deceitful Media examines the rise of artificial
intelligence throughout history and exposes the very human fallacies
behind this technology. Focusing specifically on communicative AIs,
Natale argues that what we call "AI" is not a form of intelligence but
rather a reflection of the human user. Using the term "banal deception,"
he reveals that deception forms the basis of all human-computer
interactions rooted in AI technologies, as technologies like voice
assistants utilize the dynamics of projection and stereotyping as a
means for aligning with our existing habits and social conventions. By
exploiting the human instinct to connect, AI reveals our collective
vulnerabilities to deception, showing that what machines are primarily
changing is not other technology but ourselves as humans.
Deceitful Media illustrates how AI has continued a tradition of
technologies that mobilize our liability to deception and shows that
only by better understanding our vulnerabilities to deception can we
become more sophisticated consumers of interactive media.
