Atlas der KI

Neither artificial nor intelligent - a critical analysis of the AI industry
We tend to think of artificial intelligence as a wondrous and disembodied form of machine intelligence. From the award-winning scientist Kate Crawford, however, we learn that AI is in fact neither artificial nor intelligent, but in its material reality amounts to resource exploitation and concentration of power.

Crawford takes us on a fascinating journey to lithium mines and click factories, to automated workplaces and huge data archives, to AI training camps and the Pentagon's algorithmic warfare team. In this way, she draws an atlas of artificial intelligence, mapping the different areas of its concrete reality to train our critical eye. Drawing on a decade of original research, Crawford shows that AI is first and foremost a technology of extraction - of siphoning off minerals, cheap labour and an immeasurable amount of data. The planetary network of AI is massively damaging our environment, deepening social inequalities and threatening democratic principles. Crawford's book provides us with an urgent reminder of what is at stake when large corporations and state institutions use AI to reshape the world.

"A valuable corrective to the hype around AI and a useful instruction manual for the future."
John Thornhill, Financial TimesA new look at what artificial intelligence really is What materials are AI systems made of, and where do they come from? What forms of human labour, what knowledge systems and power relations need to be in place? Crawford shows: AI is the exploitative industry of the 21st century AI has devastating ecological, social and political effects.