AI, Media, and Algorithmic Bias (Yale F24 Syllabus)

Algorithms, a systematic way to perform a task in a finite number of steps, existed long before the computer was invented. In the digital age, algorithms are chains of actions or steps that define how software will perform and react. As such they condition, shape, and transform our daily lives: Algorithms and AI have come to play a crucial role in deciding which clothes we buy, which songs we listen to, which books we read, who we might date, and how much we would pay for a flight ticket. They help shift political opinions and shape cultural tastes. However, the logic on which AI and algorithmic systems are based and the infrastructures that sustain them are still largely unknown to their users (and, increasingly, to their developers). This course explores several case studiesfrom Netflix's recommendation system to Large Language Models (LLMs)in order to demystify the logic of algorithms and map the understudied ways in which they paradoxically decrease diversity of tastes, opinions, and experiences despite the technoutopian promise of endless choice. This process of "un-black boxing" will emphasize "the implantation gap" in AI and algorithmic systems and the ways in which they give birth to new systems of control, surveillance, and biopower. This undergraduate seminar counts for the Humanities (HU) and Writing Skills (WR) distributional designations.