Poor Technology

"Levi Checketts's unique and poignant view of technology--AI in particular--and the poor is fascinating. Checketts uses the experience of poverty to question the narratives of technology and to create a hermeneutic of poverty to pursue the ethical problems specific to AI. In the era of AI, orchestrated by tech capitalism, the concern for the poor is the moral apparatus of twenty-first-century global ethics, and this book will be one of the must-reads. --Sophia Park, professor emerita of religious studies and philosophy, Holy Names University Checketts offers a searing critique of both AI enthusiasts and doomsayers, arguing that their utopian and dystopian futures leave the poor and marginalized of the world invisible and voiceless. He argues that AI optimizes capitalist, first-world, patriarchal, and instrumental values, to which he contrasts an alternative technology framed from the worldview and lifeworld of the poor and oppressed--a ""poor AI"" that enhances rather than transcends our common humanity. It is a fascinating and informative read, especially relevant in light of the recent controversies around the need to regulate generative AI such as ChatGPT, as well as a timely critique of the millennial mirage of ""effective altruism."" --Timothy Clancy, SJ, associate professor of philosophy, Gonzaga University Poor Technology is a unique and important contribution to the landscape of technology studies for several reasons, but two are crucial: First, its analysis of artificial intelligence focuses on the experiences of poor people, which often go unnoticed in other studies of that technology. Second, it offers a nuanced Christian perspective on artificial intelligence, work, and our conceptions of the less privileged. We are so lucky to have Checketts's voice today. --Lee Vinsel, associate professor of science, technology, and society, Virginia Tech, and coauthor of The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most Poor Technology is a forceful provocation to contemporary AI narratives, whether utopian or dystopian. In clear and illuminating prose, Checketts exposes our reluctance to confront the uncomfortable relationship between our visions of the machine ""other"" and those of us who have always and everywhere been other: the poor. --Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Professor in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh, and author of Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting"