Transcriber: Alexey S. Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg
How to engage with AI systems through the lens of the history,
the sociology, the anthropology and the pedagogy of the oppressed?
And perhaps more importantly,
how to let the oppressed themself engage with AI systems?
People like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
have a deep history of experiencing and fighting oppressive political systems.
They successfully turned their lived experiences with such systems
into drivers of political, social, emotional, spiritual change.
Why are people like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
able to turn adversity into power
to free themselves from systems of oppression
and to change those systems,
and others are not?
Why are so many people worldwide suffering from oppressive systems,
and only a few managed to free themselves
and become drivers of social change, justice and equity?
Decades ago, Paulo Freire gave us potential answers to these questions.
In his groundbreaking work The Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
Paulo Freire questioned how the oppressed,
as authentic and unauthentic and divided beings,
participate in the development of pedagogy of their liberation.
He claimed that only the oppressed
and those who are in true solidarity with them
can bring about change,
and that this can only happen when the oppressed themself
discover that they are the host of the oppressor.
As long as the oppressed facilitate the oppressor or become the oppressor,
and vice versa,
the cycle of oppression will continue.
I have firsthand experience with the cycle of oppression.
I was born during the civil war between Eritrea and Ethiopia,
when my parents were part of the liberation movement
of the Eritrean Liberation movement.
They dedicated much of their life
fighting against war, injustice and oppression through education,
as did my grandparents and great-grandparents
during the colonization of Eritrea by the Italians and later by the British.
I grew up under the wise wings of my ancestors
and in the shadows of the liberation movement.
I witnessed how this movement succeeded in liberating Eritrea,
only to see the country devolve in a brutal and oppressive regime.
Within a decade, the unthinkable happened:
the oppressed became the oppressors.
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
Paulo Freire provides fundamental concepts
to help everyday people get out of the cycle of oppression
and into the cycle of liberation.
These concepts help in the first place
to understand the pattern of how people are socialized
to play certain roles,
how they are influenced by mechanisms of oppression,
and how they help maintain an oppressive system.
Second, these concepts help to understand how such systems can be undone
by identifying and changing recurring and self-reinforcing oppressive patterns.
Paulo Freire’s thinking goes beyond just a pedagogical method.
It is a paradigm for social change, justice and equity.
The concepts that Paulo Freire considers essential
for breaking the oppressive cycle and entering the liberation cycle
are more important now than ever.
Social inequalities are spreading widely.
Economic disparities are increasing rapidly,
and political divisions are deepening on a daily basis.
And sadly, out of sight for most people,
AI systems are perpetrating and amplifying these developments
rather than stopping or even reversing them.
This is why I believe we must focus on the question
how to engage with AI through the knowledge lens
and the lived experiences of the oppressed.
Rather than regulating or prohibiting oppressive systems,
we should create a culture
in which those who are oppressed by such systems
can engage with the systems
in order to bring about sustainable social and technological change.
To cultivate such a culture,
AI education, science and practice need to incorporate concepts
that Paulo Freire deems important and necessary
for breaking the cycle of oppression
and going into the cycle of liberation.
I will highlight two concepts that help understand
how AI systems are brought into the cycle of oppression.
The first is the concept of banking education.
In the concept of banking education,
knowledge is - as Paulo Freire says -
a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable
upon those who they deem and consider to know nothing.
This is a typical characteristic of the ideology of oppression.
According to Paulo Freire, authentic thinking only occurs in everyday contact.
Not in the ivory tower.
False generosity is a concept
that focuses on the symptoms of social injustice.
It is false not because it’s ineffective in helping people.
Rather, it’s false since it serves to maintain systems of oppression
by addressing symptoms, not the fundamental causes of oppression.
Banking education and false generosity are two of the many concepts
used to sustain and spread systems of oppression.
These concepts are dominant in our current educational, social,
economic and political systems,
including in the fields of technology and in the field of AI.
As a result, it should come as no surprise that technology is not neutral.
How can we expect on technology,
which is often the product of the educated and privileged, to be neutral
if education in general is not neutral, if learning in general is not neutral.
Let me end with a concept
that may help bring AI systems into the cycle of liberation: praxis.
Praxis in the Freirian sense is a process that involves the ongoing interaction
and integration between reflection and action.
When knowledge and reflection aren’t followed by action
in the real world,
then there’s nothing more than empty words in them.
The opposite is also true:
When action is not based on knowledge and reflection,
it becomes mere naive activism.
Praxis is about making impact by appreciating
and benefiting from one another’s lived experiences and expertise
and through that developing knowledge and knowledge communities.
If we are able to create new AI systems in the Freirian spirit,
countering banking education and false generosity
and taking into account the concept of praxis,
we may be able to realize AI systems
that connect instead of polarize people,
that break instead of perpetrate historic, socioeconomic inequalities
and power structures,
and that empower instead of oppress communities.
And perhaps we can start by reaching out to vulnerable groups
and marginalized communities in our own surroundings
by reflecting with them how AI systems affect their everyday lives
and by reimagining with them a more just and a compassionate future
through AI.