【Vanguard Summit 13】Interrogating Neoliberalism (I)

▌Date: December 2 (Monday), 2024

▌Time: 09:15 – 17:00 (GMT+08)

▌Venue: Multimedia Room 1301, Tsai Lecture Hall , National Taiwan University (Hybrid Mode)

▌Sign-up Link: https://forms.gle/FFjFLAbPMVzRyRBa8

▌Title: AI and Neoliberalism

▌Introduction: 

As the world is being mesmerized by the advances in AI technology, the reverberations beyond its immediate applications have not escaped the eyes of a few sober-minded observers. Developed at the height of neoliberalism and commercialized at the decline (or recalibration) of it, how much is AI’s evolution involved in the neoliberal project and would it serve to extend its half-life or even push its power up to a second level?

The neoliberal order is characterized by marketizing of all values and treats human beings as isolated individuals who, left to their own device, have to be entrepreneurial and self-sufficient in a world of relentless competition. The consequences of the near complete dominance of this order are extreme social inequality and relentless environmental destruction due to the unlimited free rein given to capitalist expansion. Behind the unleashed beast called “free market” lies another monster which is the neocolonial political project of ensuring the subjugation of the non-Western world, a project most typically manifested by the “end of history” and “clash of civilizations” arguments.

As a product of the neoliberal age, AI cannot but be seen as somehow complicit in the neoliberal project. The fast developments of AI have led to the concern that AI may help to infinitely aggrandize the fast expanding power of the techno-oligarchs in the Silicon Valley and possibly bring about a neoliberalism 2.0 that is presided over by the “broligarchy” formed precisely by these tycoons. If the Anthropocene is considered to be the culmination of neoliberalism 1.0, the broligarchy seems to be ushering in the first phase of the Technocene, which is even more sinister than its predecessor. It is therefore high time we took a critical look at one of the dark sides of the developments of AI amidst the fanfare around its awe-inspiring acrobatics.

▌Speakers:

Sebastian Hsien-hao Liao  (Distinguished Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures; Dean, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taiwan) (bio)

Joff P.N. Bradley  (Professor, Department of Language Studies, Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Teikyo University, Japan) (bio)

Manoj NY  (Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Woxsen University, India; Visiting Research Fellow, Kyung Hee University, Korea) (bio)

Chien-Yi Lu (Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan) (bio)

Alex Taek-Gwang Lee  (Professor, Department of British and American Cultural Studies; Director, Global Center for Technology in Humanities, Kyung Hee University, Korea) (bio)

▌Agenda:

▌Organizer: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, NTU

▌Co-organizer: Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, National Science and Technology Council; National Taiwan University; ASE Cultural & Educational Foundation