Welcome to the website of the Global AI Narratives (GAIN) research project. In this introductory post, we show you what this project aims to do and how you can stay up to date.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to have an unprecedented global impact, and public perceptions of AI will influence much of how the technology is developed, adopted and regulated. To better understand the likely impacts of AI technologies around the world, the Global AI Narratives project investigates how people from different cultures and regions view the risks and benefits of AI, and, more specifically, how AI narratives are helping to shape these views.
Who are we?
GAIN is an interdisciplinary academic research project within the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) at the University of Cambridge, conducted in collaboration with our Global Partners who are instrumental in helping us to organize and run successful events and research collaborations around the world.
The core GAIN research team, based in Cambridge, UK, is comprised of the principal investigators Stephen Cave (executive director of CFI) and Kanta Dihal, and research assistants Tonii Leach, Elizabeth Seger, and Tom Hollanek. Each member offers a unique perspective to the multifaceted project.
The Goals of the GAIN Project
Different cultures see AI through very different lenses, moulded by diverse religious, linguistic, philosophical, literary, and cinematic traditions. These public perceptions of AI heavily influence how AI is received in different communities and, consequently, will affect how AI-enabled technologies are used and regulated around the world.
However, many worldviews on AI are currently poorly understood. Public perceptions of AI beyond the Western perspective ( a viewpoint primarily fueled by cinematic narratives like The Terminator and I, Robot) receive very little attention from academics and policy makers. We aim to address this lack of representation through research on the production and dissemination of AI narratives in communities around the world.
The goals of the GAIN Project are as follows:
To understand how different cultures and regions perceive the risks and benefits of AI, and the influences that are shaping those perceptions.
To foster new thinking about AI around the world by disseminating and promoting science fiction and nonfiction narratives about AI from underrepresented regions and groups.
To connect local academic experts on perceptions and communication of AI with each other, and with writers and artists around the world. We hope these connections will allow us to think more collaboratively about AI going forward.
GAIN is a three-year project running from 2018 to 2021. The first phase of the project consists of eleven one- to two-day workshops. Each workshop takes place in a different region outside the UK and North America. For instance, our two most recent workshops were held in Egypt in partnership with the American University in Cairo, and Russia in partnership with Teplitsa (Also see our earlier workshops in Singapore and Japan).Other workshops are planned for New Zealand, Chile, Germany, China, Australia, India, South Africa, and the Czech Republic. We will keep you informed about our movements!
At each of these workshops we ask local experts to present their experience of AI - whether that is an academic presenting their research, an industry expert discussing their current work, an artist or writer presenting their creative work, or an activist talking about the remit or purpose of their civil action. Following each workshop we release a public survey in the workshop’s region to gather quantitative data about public perceptions of AI to augment workshop’s findings. Many of the survey questions are consistent between regions, but other questions are specifically tailored to learn more about the communities each workshop is meant to help represent. These new questions are based on the workshop discussions and are formulated and translated with the help of our local partners.
In the second phase of the project, each workshop culminates in a report on the current state of thinking about AI in the region. Our goal is for the collaborative production of these reports to provide a stage for underrepresented voices in the global AI debates, and to establish a foundation for continued talks on global AI reception and regulation.
About the GAIN blog
Serious research regarding the risks and benefits of AI are often published in academic journals or hidden behind paywalls, while in the more readily accessible press, AI is deliberately sensationalized (a key issue GAIN aims to address). Through our regular blog posts we will share GAIN’s findings on global AI perspectives following on our international series of workshops and public surveys. We will also share any interesting stories and realistic takes on new ideas, narratives and developments in the world of AI.
We hope you find our blog to provide non-sensationalist and thoughtful takes on cutting edge AI narratives research. No specific academic training or institutional affiliation is needed to follow along. Whether you are a technologist, academic, or science fiction enthusiast, we want to help you keep up-to-date with all our research and the wider world and implication of AI narratives.
Staying up-to-date
To stay up-to-date with the GAIN project follow us on Twitter @AI_Narratives. We will let you know when each new blog post is published. Also feel free to check back at our website regularly.
If you would like to find out more about the GAIN project or find out how you can get involved, please complete the contact form here.
Thank you!
The GAIN Team