Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
by Kate Crawford
In "Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence," Kate Crawford examines the intricate and often troubling relationships between artificial intelligence, surveillance, and environmental exploitation. One key theme is the emergence of a self-perpetuating surveillance network, exemplified by Amazon’s collaboration with police departments, which incentivizes the proliferation of surveillance technology at the expense of civil liberties. Crawford critiques the assumption that democratizing AI can address systemic power imbalances, likening it to advocating for weapon manufacturing as a means to achieve peace. Crawford emphasizes the disconnect between data, often perceived as abstract and immaterial, and its material origins, highlighting the ethical implications of this perspective. She argues that AI systems, often viewed as disembodied entities, are deeply rooted in specific political and economic contexts, raising critical questions about who benefits from these technologies and their broader planetary impacts. Furthermore, the book explores the epistemological violence inherent in the simplification required for machine learning, which reduces the complexity of human experience to quantifiable data points, ultimately masking the nuanced realities of social and environmental issues. Crawford calls for a more holistic understanding of AI’s consequences, urging readers to recognize the interconnectedness of technology, power, and the planet. Through her analysis, she challenges the dominant narratives surrounding AI and advocates for a more responsible approach to its development and deployment.
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In one case, Amazon negotiated a memorandum of understanding with a police department in Florida, discovered through a public records request filed by journalist Caroline Haskins, which showed that police were incentivized to promote the Neighbors app and for every qualifying download they would receive credits toward free Ring cameras. The result was a “self-perpetuating surveillance network: more people download Neighbors, more people get Ring, surveillance footage proliferates, and police can request whatever they want,” Haskins writes. Surveillance capacities that were once ruled over by courts are now on offer in Apple’s App Store and promoted by local street cops. As media scholar Tung-Hui Hu observes, by using such apps, we “become freelancers for the state’s security apparatus.
From the perspective of deep time, we are extracting Earth's geological history to serve a split second of contemporary technological time, building devices like the Amazon Echo and iPhone that are often designed to last for only a few years.
Controlling time — whether via the clocks for churches, trains or data centers — has always been a function of controlling the political order.
It is a common practice of life to focus on the world immediately before us, the one we see and smell and touch every day. It grounds us where we are, with our communities and our known corners and concerns. But to see the full supply chains of Al requires looking for patterns in a global sweep, a sensitivity to the ways in which the histories and specific harms are different from place to place and yet are deeply interconnected by the multiple forces of extraction.
To suggest that we democratize Al to reduce asymmetries of power is a little like arguing for democratizing weapons manufacturing in the service of peace. As Audre Lorde reminds us, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.
