Leading scholars share theories on what it means to be human in the age of AI

In 1999, the year that saw the debut of the wildly popular sci-fi dystopia “The Matrix,” N. Katherine Hayles published “How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics,” a groundbreaking critique of humanity’s changing relationship to technology.

More than 25 years later, she will bring her latest insights to San Diego State University as the opening speaker of the College of Arts and Letters HŪMTECH initiative. 

Since 1999, Hayles has matched the exponential advance of technology, writing books and more than 100 articles on humanity, culture, and technology that most recently extend into the fascinating evolution of humanity in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Hayles is the Distinguished Research Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University.

In her new book, “Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts,” Hayles develops a new theory of mind she calls integrated cognitive framework, or ICF, outlining how meaning-making occurs in humans, animals, and some forms of artificial intelligence. 

“Part of my fascination with AI in the form of large language models is my astonishment that we now have machines that can talk to us in our own language,” Hayles said. ”Within the field of AI there is a huge debate on how we should interpret these messages. Some argue that they are probabilistic sequences that have no meaning other than what we project onto them.

“My own position, which is currently a minority view, is that these artificial intelligences have created billions and billions of correlations from the human-authored texts that they have read, and moreover they’ve formed networks between these correlations, and made inferences as a result of these networks.” 

Her conclusions are the starting point for a collaborative conversation with Rita Raley, UC Santa Barbara English professor and a leading thinker on AI/learning from a humanities perspective, at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 24, in the Digital Humanities Center at the University Library. “Science and Humanities: Entanglement in the Age fo AI,”conducted in partnership with SDSU Digital Humanities, begins CAL’s multiyear HŪMTECH initiative. 

“In an age that is increasingly and narrowly obsessed with the possibilities of computing and AI, CAL’s HŪMTECH re-centers our attention on deeper and more vital questions. We’re asking not only what technology is and what it can do, but how, when, and why we should use it, as well as what the long-term consequences are in doing so,” said CAL Dean Todd Butler.

Designed much like an artistic season, HŪMTECH will advance collective conversation, spur research collaborations, and support student learning. It will amplify opportunities for students and encourage innovative course offerings that integrate emerging technologies with deep considerations of environment, ethics, culture, policy, consciousness, and identity.

“Kate Hayles changed my life with her mentorship, and I know I am not alone,” said English professor Jessica Pressman, cofounder of the Digital Humanities Initiative, who was a student of Hayles at UCLA. “She paved the way for thinking about digital technologies as part of literary studies, not as something to fear or to see in opposition to literature but as collaborative, generative, and poetic. .All of my teaching and scholarship, which I share with SDSU students every day, is inspired and informed by Hayles.” 

Additional information about HŪMTECH can be found online.