Discourses of fear around AI and their implications for library and information science

Abstract

Introduction. Since its inception, the seemingly unlimited potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to alter human existence has evoked feelings of fear and amazement. Today, all sectors of industry, academia, and society are anticipating the potential changes new AI technologies are forecasted to bring and mitigate their harms. In this climate, there is a clear need to centre the complex interactions between discourse, power, and individual/institutional actors within sociotechnical systems and their material consequences.

Theoretical framing. While scholars have previously made connections between discourses of fear and library and information science (LIS), there has not yet been an attempt to understand how discourses of fear may currently be shaping the field's response to AI. In this paper, we argue that focusing our critical gaze on the discourses of fear shaping the material interactions between LIS, technological artifacts, industry, and society better positions us to intervene in the predicted trajectory of AI innovation.

Conclusion. We posit that cultivating discourses of refusal – which are committed to the belief that more just worlds must be possible – requires both individual and collective consideration of how fear has and continues to shape our own responses to new technologies.