The discussion on artificial intelligence and its risks is often tied to the natural and social sciences—and currently focuses a lot on the generative aspects of AI. Through my area of expertise, I believe I could bring a different perspective to the topic, not just from a Humanities perspective, but also because I work on the aspects of content removal. 

I was recently invited as the only humanities scholar in full-time employment to the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism's Foresight Workshop on Science and AI. The essence of Humanities perspectives was emphasised by many participants from the computational and natural sciences here. 

As the PI of the international, interdisciplinary Taste of the Algorithm working group (which includes, amongst others, renowned data scientists, ethnographers, artists, legal scholars from numerous countries including Nigeria and Peru), we are currently developing both data-based, legal approaches to tackle unjust algorithmic censorship, as well as developing humanities and arts-based methods to trigger greater awareness of the issue. 

The project tackles censorship of images via algorithm, and the manner in which the repercussions of machine-led decisions lead to the blurring of the line between human and machine, between art and code, between legality and illegality. Despite the wide interest in images generated by AI, the area of suppression of images by AI is surprisingly neglected and under-researched, though just as pertinent in my view regarding governance, ethics, visual culture, security and digital literacy.

Furthermore, in my research (recently presented at Harvard University) on the visual culture of far-right ecologists, I also show how algorithmic content detection can excessively penalise already marginalised groups, whilst letting truly extremist and harmful content slip through the cracks, because it looks desirable.

I have spoken on the topic of AI, digitalisation, art and visual culture in various events, including at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Sciences (BBAW) and the Humanities or the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and regularly cooperate with artists who (critically) engage and apply AI in their work. 

I was also part of the BBAW Artificial Intelligence Working group and the InnoSci Future Lab cohort, and thus have ample experience working on digital and AI themes in diverse, dynamic groups, in which my perspective as an art historian who works transhistorically and transdisciplinarily has often provided new inroads into the field. I consider it useful and important to apply the mechanisms we find in historical examples to the challenges and opportunities we face today.

I would hope to offer my expertise to this group through my knowledge in the following key areas:

1. Algorithmic censorship and its effects on visual culture.
2. The realistic and unrealistic aspects of the concerns and fears of generative AI applied to the field of arts and image production.
3. The visual...