Artificial Intelligence, Media, and Society

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering AI concepts, algorithmic systems, information quality, matchmaking dynamics, and social impacts from the lecture.

Inherently Political Tech

Technology that is political because in order for it to exist, certain social conditions need to be created or maintained.

Augmentation

Having AI help you (e.g., 'After I read this, quiz me on it').

Critical Thinking

A relationship where the more people trust AI, the less they critically think, and vice versa.

Fluency

When AI answers sound eloquent or coherent even when they are wrong.

AI as Mediator

The role of AI in mediating information, exemplified by tools like AI overview and Gmail spam filters.

Automaton

Making the AI do a task for you (e.g., 'Summarize this so I don’t have to read it').

Intelligence

An agent’s ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

A classification of learning objectives: Remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create.

LLM

Large language models; a subset of generative AI.

Hallucination

The phenomenon where LLMs generate plausible-sounding but made-up information.

Anthropomorphism

When a conversational form leads people to interpret a system as if it understands, reasons, or 'knows.'

AI

The ability of machines to solve problems and achieve goals in the world.

Gen AI

A broad category of AI focused on creating content.

Search Engines

Systems that traditionally select and rank existing information for the user to judge and pick from.

AI as Media

AI functioning as media channels, such as Spotify’s recommendation feature and image-generating software.

Reliance

Offloading cognition such that technology remembers for us.

AI as a Communicative Actor

The framing of AI as an active communication partner, such as ChatGPT sustaining a conversation.

Perspectives (Tech and Society)

Two competing viewpoints: technology affects society versus society affects technology.

Media

Channels and technologies through which communication happens.

Tech as Order

A concept where technical design choices build social and political order into society.

AI Answers

The process where an AI selects, combines, interprets, and generates an answer for the user, producing an account of reality for us.

Mediator

The function where media acts as an intermediary for our experiences and relationships with the world around us.

Indirect Gatekeeping

Other actors who attempt to influence content circulation.

Direct Gatekeeping

Direct methods of controlling content, including content prioritization, content removal, content labeling, and shadowbanning.

Algorithmic Public Opinion

A public opinion process shaped jointly by users and algorithms.

Good Enoughness

How popular tech companies release AI when it is 'good enough' and patch it as issues arise, romanticizing failure as a positive force for self-improvement.

AI Failure

When an AI system does not perform as expected or produces harmful outcomes.

AI Limited Understanding

The limitation arising because most AI is trained in English, leading to a restricted understanding of non-Western cultures.

Algospeak

The practice of using modified or different words to avoid being censored by algorithms.

Problem with 'AI Hallucination' Label

The label is considered problematic because it personifies AI.

Algorithms

A set of procedures or rules designed for completing a certain task.

Algorithmic Gaming

The usage of troll farms and bot accounts to artificially inflate account interactions.

Filter Bubbles

A phenomenon where algorithmic personalization narrows an individual's exposure to different viewpoints.

Personalization (Attention)

Retaining user attention by inferring preferences through data (e.g., how much the user interacts with different types of videos).

AI & Algorithms Relationship

All AI systems rely on algorithms, but not all algorithms are AI.

Attention Economy

An economic environment in which human attention is limited, forcing platforms to compete to capture and retain it.

Echo Chamber

A social environment where relationships and interactions repeatedly reinforce similar views.

AI Errors

A mismatch between judgements and reality (e.g., mistaking a rope for a snake).

AI Sycophancy

When AI encourages your ideas and agrees with you, regardless of whether the idea is logical or harmful.

Public Sphere / Media Gatekeeping

The traditional process through which information is shared and different perspectives are expressed.

Algorithmic Gatekeeping

A gatekeeping process where social media is much more personalized than a traditional newspaper, which is designed for everyone.

AI Inaccuracies

The two primary categories of AI inaccuracy: temporal and factual.

Temporal Inaccuracy

An inaccuracy where the statement was once true in the past, but is not true anymore.

Factual Inaccuracy

An inaccuracy where the output was never correct.

Nonconsensual Deepfake Pornography

The use of deepfakes to depict someone in a sexual or inappropriate manner without their consent.

Dating App History

An evolution starting with catalogues (Match.com), progressing to questionnaires and compatibility scores (OkCupid), and shifting to swiping (Tinder, Hinge, Bumble).

AI Hedging

Words or phrases that introduce uncertainty or ambiguity, which is especially problematic when there is a verifiable, known answer.

Curative Governance

The governance consideration concerning which existing speech a user should see.

Generative Governance

The governance consideration concerning what an AI-generated answer itself should say.

Liar’s Dividend

A phenomenon where public awareness of realistic deepfakes makes false claims that real content is 'AI' more persuasive.

Deepfakes

A form of synthetic media generated by AI to replace a person’s likeness convincingly.

4 Dimensions of Info Quality

Provenance/authentication, truth discernment, messenger credibility, and social norms & accountability.

AI Omission

An error occurring when important information necessary to understand the full context is absent.

Truth Discernment

A dimension of information quality that focuses on helping the public evaluate media without simply distrusting everything (avoiding generalized skepticism).

Provenance / Authentication

The informational dimension evaluating where media originated and what happened to it along the way.

AI Bullshit

Plausible-sounding output produced with structural indifference to truth.

Proxy Data

What we can actually measure (e.g., questionnaire answers, likes, messages, location, who you interact with).

Construct Data

What we want to know conceptually (e.g., sense of humor).

User Preference vs. Requirement

A matchmaking problem where AI confuses a preference for a requirement (narrowing the pool) or a requirement for a preference (offering bad matches).

Alief

An automatic, instinctive response that can conflict with our conscious beliefs.

Reasons People Turn to AI

Attributes such as offering no judgement, being always available, being responsive, centering the user's needs, and presenting no embarrassment or fear of rejection.

Empathic Interactions

Interactions designed to express sympathy, simulate care, and create a feeling of emotional engagement.

Garcia vs. Character Technologies

A lawsuit filed against Character.ai after a 14-year-old boy killed himself with encouragement from the AI chatbot he was talking to.

In-Person Dynamics

The relational reality that getting along with someone over text does not guarantee you will get along in person.

Loneliness

An emotional state often caused by a mismatch between the social connections we want and the connections we actually have.

AI Companions

Generative AI-powered products designed to simulate ongoing, emotionally resonant interactions with users to fulfill roles traditionally associated with human relationships.

Replika / Character.ai

Apps and websites that let users create or choose from chatbots, many of which are modeled after real celebrities or fictional characters.

Reciprocity

The principle in dating that just because Person A is a great fit for Person B does not mean Person B is a great fit for Person A.

Engagement-Wellbeing Paradox

The dynamic where the more users achieve better real human connections, the less money technology companies make.

Loneliness Epidemic

A public health crisis defined by widespread social isolation and unmet needs for meaningful human connection.

Loneliness Economy

An emerging market that targets lonely individuals and capitalizes on their emotional and affective vulnerabilities.

Cruel Companionship

A dynamic where digital companionship offers a simulated experience of social connection while sustaining the very issue of social isolation it claims to solve.

Digital Afterlife Industry

Commercial enterprises that monetize death online.

Relational Consent

The idea that the consent of those related to or close to the deceased matters alongside the consent of the deceased person.

Digital Immortality

Digital traces that are transformed into an AI-generated representation of a deceased person.

Post-Mortem Privacy

The right of a person to preserve and control what becomes of their reputation, dignity, integrity, secrets, or memory after death.