Robots vs algorithms : Prophecy and critique in the media representation of AI controversies

Résumé 0

An open letter published in 2015, signed by Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak and Noam Chomsky, warned of the existential risks facing humanity as a result of new developments in AI. This letter constitutes a milestone in the reactivation of a set of narrative and normative resources aimed at bringing a critical debate on the progress of AI into the public arena. Successive waves of promises and warnings about artificial intelligence have occupied public debate in a spectacular way. Using NLP methods applied to a large corpus from the English-language press, this article shows that the focus on algorithms and AI has been growing steadily in the media sphere over the past five years. The corpus is structured around two semantic spaces that constitute two predominant regimes of critique, one based on the injustices produced by algorithms, and the other on fears of AI’s and robots’ autonomy. A comparative analysis of these spaces shows that they mobilize distinct technological and human agents, issues, and time frames. By developing a critical discourse on the damage caused by these technologies, the media sphere contributes not only to shaping public opinion but also to defining the forms of acceptability of these calculating agents.