Who Is Awful? Black Mirror and the Dystopian Imaginary of AI Labor
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F24%3A10487902" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/24:10487902 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=fBvey_-Tpo" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=fBvey_-Tpo</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.58193/ilu.1784" target="_blank" >10.58193/ilu.1784</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Who Is Awful? Black Mirror and the Dystopian Imaginary of AI Labor
Original language description
The future of labor has become one of the most urgent topics in the current public debate regarding Artificial Intelligence. Related imaginaries, primarily following the emergence of Chat GPT, have gravitated towards blaming the technology for threatening people's livelihoods. However, these visions suffer from "sociotechnical blindness" and overlook the human actors who create and hold the decisive power behind AI. One of the most mediatized examples of this was the strike by Hollywood workers in 2023. Pop culture, notably sci-fi television series, has been an influential source of inspiration for these dystopian visions. Despite that, scholars have overlooked representations of AI labor in the area. This case study responds to that, focusing on representations in Black Mirror, a prominent sci-fi television series that has covered topics around AI for over a decade. Specifically, it analyzes the "sociotechnical imaginary" in the episode Joan is Awful, reflecting on the concerns of Hollywood workers. Methods of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analyses reveal mutual interactions between human and AI laboring agents. They highlight the interdependence in the labor process and how societies are vulnerable to the power of tech corporations encouraged by digital capitalism. The analysis demonstrates how AI, as an entertaining sci-fi television trope, might critically reflect on the contemporary issue of capitalist alienated labor, emphasizing the inseparability of technology and human actors.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>SC</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50401 - Sociology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2024
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Iluminace
ISSN
0862-397X
e-ISSN
2570-9267
Volume of the periodical
36
Issue of the periodical within the volume
2
Country of publishing house
CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC
Number of pages
28
Pages from-to
79-106
UT code for WoS article
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EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85211366096