Humans of AI

Joseph Wilson has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto and has instructed at York University and Trent University. His work focuses on how scientists communicate with one another and with the general public, and he has written about technology, language, anthropology, and education for The Globe and Mail, CBC, SAPIENS, American Scientist, and Anthropology News.

“Just the book I’ve been waiting for! Drawing on years of fieldwork, Joseph Wilson reveals – as only a skilled anthropologist could – the human stories behind the twenty-first century’s most hyped technology. Exploring the craft of teaching machines how to sound alive, this wry and accessible book makes clear that language is where AI becomes social.” - Graham M. Jones, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “When confronted by AI technologies that seem ever more superhuman, we are often advised to keep the human in the loop. But until I read this fascinating book, I had no idea how ubiquitous and varied those human roles can be. This is a must-read for anyone curious about the social realities of our computer mediated world.” - Webb Keane, author of Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination “Whether you’re curious about artificial intelligence or if it scares you to death, with Humans of AI Joseph Wilson provides us with a deep background field guide to technology that may, or may not, change our entire lives and world.”- Shawn Micallef, author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto “There is no better way to understand what's going on with AI than to understand the people who make it, maintain it, and critique it. In this book, Joseph Wilson expertly introduces us to AI through the many communities that make it up, across the whole ‘human stack’ and its surroundings.” - Nick Seaver, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Science, Technology, and Society, Tufts University “Written for non-experts, the angle of Humans of AI, focusing on the people involved in envisioning, developing, deploying, and criticizing AI is deeply original and interesting. Its conclusion will be eye- opening to the many potential readers who think of AI as magic.” - Vered Shwartz, author of Lost in Automatic Translation “Tracing the lived experience of the author as an ethnographer in an AI lab and into the broader ecosystem, Humans of AI weaves ethnographic fieldnotes with a broader history of AI and contemporary debates on the subject. Important and timely, it’s very exciting to see this book out in the world!” - Anne Lee Steele, Researcher and Writer

• 0. The Anthropologist1. The Pioneers2. The Software Developers3. The Hardware Engineers4. The Entrepreneurs5. The Ghost Workers6. The Content Creators7. The Volunteers8. The Linguists9. The Rationalists10. The Believers11. The Doomers12. The Immortalists13. The Detractors14. The GapAcknowledgementsReferencesBibliographyIndex