A Machine that Reads Images: a Social and Technical History of Artificial Intelligence in Computer Vision,
Dominique Cardon, professeur de sociologie à Sciences Po/médialab
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Abstract
Taking advantage of the spectacular successes of deep learning techniques, the promises of Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence) have returned to occupy a space in public debate. In this conference, I propose to retrace some aspects of the history of Artificial Intelligence, with a special focus on computer vision. The third spring of Artificial Intelligence is characterized, indeed, by the return of the connexionnist paradigm that had been marginalized during the second spring of Artificial Intelligence in the eighties. The new wave of promise of Artificial Intelligence has taken shape thanks to the new opportunities offered by massive data as well as the new computing capabilities of computers. But above all, it offers another way to make machines "intelligent". It is no longer a question of asking computers to reason, but of learning from data and forming prediction models from thar data. Image processing has played a singular role in the history of connectivity: what does the machine "see" in the pixels of images? How does it manage to recognize shapes and visual identities regardless of the size or orientation of the shapes? Are the questions encountered by the engineers who build these new interfaces independent of the issues of visual aesthetics?
Biography
Dominique Cardon is a professor of sociology at Sciences po/Medialab. His work focuses on the uses of the Internet and the transformations of the digital public sphere. His recent research focuses on Internet social networks, forms of online identity, amateur self-production and the analysis of forms of cooperation and governance in large online collectives. He is currently conducting a sociological analysis of the algorithms used to organize information on the web. He has published La démocratie Internet, Paris (Seuil/La République des idées, 2010), with Fabien Granjon, Mediactivistes (Presses de Science po’, 2010), with Antonio Casilli, Qu’est-ce que le digital labor ? (Ina Éditions, 2015), A quoi rêvent les algorithmes. Nos vies à l’heure des big data (Seuil/République des idées, 2015) and, with Jean-Philippe Heurtin, Chorégraphier la générosité. Le Téléthon, le don et la critique (Économica, 2016).
