For a Human-Centered AI

Deep fake: between history and current affairs

May 11, 2022

This month's podcast and vodcast sees a conversation between a human scientist (historian Claudio Ferlan) and a researcher in science and technology (Elisabetta Farella). An interdisciplinary path around the topic of falsehood, in history as well as in the present time. An open reflection that poses new questions and at the same time allows us to take a closer look at what the craft of research is all about, exploring the laboratory of knowledge in the making

An unexpected conversation that starts by describing the analogy between today’s deep fakes and the invention of converts in the diaries of missionaries who encountered pre-Columbian civilizations.

Not only that, the interdisciplinary exchange inherent in the encounter between experts that make up the Foundation’s universe of knowledge tells us something more about the power of writing and the archive.

In other words, those who produce the data and those who later on interpret it are responsible for decisive choices and omissions, becoming custodians of a collective memory capable of giving meaning to the various readings that can be given throughout history, warped by the cultural contexts to which they belong.

An informal conversation that also uncovers almost unsuspected commonalities, primarily the centrality of the scientific method as a modus operandi to inform the daily work of inquiry, be it scientific or humanistic, that each of the two researchers conducts.

More deeply, in Ferlan’s words, “the need to keep checking is (also) the exciting part of our work, because it forces you to ask yourself new questions, suggesting each time suggesting something you have not already taken into account and that can be the seed for a new research.”

Thus, listening to this podcast also becomes a way to step into the “laboratory” of science in the making.

Enjoy!

This episode is part of the Scienza e Società series. Find all Radio FBK productions


The author/s