Conference session

This presentation proposes to examine the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on the way humans engage with each other, with community, and with society at large. If we truly are at the sudden precipice of a new normal dominated by GenAI, what does this mean for networks of change that facilitate the creation and mobilization of knowledge? Perhaps more importantly, how can meaningful discussions on social justice occur at a time when public trust in social institutions is low and access to GenAI-produced misinformation has never been easier? This presentation would argue that answers to these questions go beyond the confines of an intellectual exercise and speak to a crisis of legitimacy for many longstanding social and political truisms in Canada. Moreover, fueled in part by dramatic increases in the cost of living, Neuman (2024) suggests that a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment has taken hold across the country. This is especially important to be mindful of when one considers the potential for GenAI technologies to engage in dangerous hallucinations that reinforce many harmful stereotypes of ethnic and gender minority groups. Finally, this presentation would revisit Baudrillard’s (1981) conception of hyperreality, and suggests that the blurring of distinctions between “reality” and its “representations” has reached new heights with GenAI technologies that can convincingly mimic human thoughts and behaviours. As such, this presentation would push attendees to consider how harmful GenAI hallucinations can manifest themselves in the “real” world.