New Working Paper “The Multiple Returns of Connectionism: Theory and History of Artificial Intelligence” (No. 42) released

The Multiple Returns of Connectionism: Theory and History of Artificial Intelligence

by PD Dr. Sebastian Gießmann (Universität Siegen, SFB) 

 

How do the historical returns of connectionism reshape our understanding of artificial intelligence, media, and cultural techniques? In this working paper, Sebastian Gießmann examines the theoretical and historical foundations of artificial intelligence from the perspective of media theory and history of technology. The paper analyzes how the shifts between symbolic AI and inductive connectionist neural networks influence our media environments, explores the extent to which data-intensive and statistically operationalized networks challenge our anthropological and semiotic structures, and proposes a genealogy to resituate AI between nature and cultural techniques.

 

→ Link Working Paper

 

About the Working Paper

In light of the recent boom in artificial intelligence, what future and what new environments should research in media and cultural techniques focus on? This article returns to a fundamental question posed by Marcel Mauss regarding the constitution of techniques between specific and general purposes.

First, it offers a brief description of the current state of machine learning and recent AI developments between specialization and universalization. Second, I propose a genealogy of artificial intelligence between nature and cultural techniques. It inquires into the historical recurrence of connectionist practices, algorithms, and styles of thinking and acting as a condition of current AI technologies. How could biological neurons become artificial neural networks that work as the infrastructural foundation of artificial intelligence? Third, what is at stake here are the notions of media and mediation themselves. Due to the naturalization and habitualization of connectionist AI, they are becoming statistically operationalized, data-intensive networks.

 

About the Authors

Sebastian Giessmann is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen and PI of  A01 “Digital Network Technologies between Specialization and Generalization” of the Collaborative Research Center 1187 – “Media of Cooperation.”

 

About the Working Paper Series

The Working Paper Series of SFB 1187 “Media of Cooperation” brings together current contributions from the field of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary media research. The SFB Working Paper Series offers the opportunity for pre-publication and rapid dissemination of research work currently being carried out at the SFB or related to it. The aim of the series is to make SFB research accessible to a broader research community. Publication in the Working Paper Series does not preclude the publication of revised versions of the same contribution in other journals. Contributions from postdocs and established researchers are welcome. The series is intended as a publication forum for the researchers represented in the SFB, their projects, and their ongoing research. Contributions are published in open access and in a limited print edition. If you would like to publish an article in the Working Paper Series, please submit your topic proposal in the form of an abstract (max. 300 words) together with a short CV (max. 50 words). For manuscript submission, please refer to our styleguide.

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – Project number 262513311 – SFB 1187. Editorial responsibility: Karina Kirsten, University of Siegen & SFB 1187 Media of Cooperation.