After Alignment: Orienting Synthetic Intelligence Beyond Human Reflection

The emergence of machine intelligence must be steered toward planetary sapience in the service of a viable longterm future. However, instead of a strong alignment with “human values” and anthropocentric models, that steerage means treating these with nuanced suspicion.

Synthetic intelligence refers to the wider field of artificially-composed intelligent systems that do or not correspond to humanism but which can complement and combine with human cognition, intuition, creativity, abstraction and discovery. Inevitably, both sides are forever altered by these diverse amalgamations.

Benjamin Bratton, director of Antikythera and Professor of Visual Arts at University of California San Diego, will share work from the program’s design studio and will discuss shifts from AGI to artificial generic intelligence, the importance of recursive simulations, the de-centering of personal data, the emergence of cognitive infrastructures, intelligence as an evolutionary scaffold, the limitations of mainstream AI ethics, and why a planetary model of synthetic intelligence must drive its geopolitical project.

Doors open at 5:30pm. The lecture will be 6:00-7:30pm. A reception at the Platform Bar will follow the lecture.

Benjamin Bratton is Director of the Antikythera program at Berggruen Institute. He is Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at the University of California, San Diego. His research spans philosophy of technology, social and political theory, computational media & infrastructure, and speculative design. He is the author of several books including The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (MIT Press, 2016), The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World (Verso, 2021), The Terraforming (Strelka Press, 2019), and Dispute Plan to Prevent Future Luxury Constitution (e-flux/Sternberg Press, 2015).  He previously directed several think-tanks at the Strelka Institute. His current book project develops a new philosophy of the “artificial” in relation to climate change, planetary science, synthetic intelligence and the prospects of viable planetary futures.

The lecture is produced as part of the Planetary Sensing in the City, a project exploring futures for CSM in catalysing emerging technologies in research, teaching, and strategy.

Planetary Sensing in the City is led by Stephanie Sherman (Course Leader, MA Narrative Environments), John Wollaston (CSM Digital & Emerging Technologies) and Stefan Sloneczny (CSM Digital Innovation), and supported by the Creative Action Fund and the Staff Development fund.

Antikythera, Berggruen Institute

MA Narrative Environments