Congratulations to Bodil Hvass Kjems for receiving a SILVER MEDAL
Bodil Hvass Kjems, Phd fellow at the ERC-funded project Women in the Nordic Enlightenment (WHENCE) at the Section of Philosophy, Department of Communication, has been awarded a silver medal by the University of Copenhagen for her 2024 submission to the interdisciplinary prize paper category with her master thesis “Artificial Intelligence as mimesis: How imitation renegotiates normative assumptions of gender, ethics, and ontology”.
The paper combines culture studies, philosophy, and feminist methodology to propose a new strategy for mapping and addressing the challenges, particularly those relating to gender, posed by AI today. This strategy is exemplified by applying readings of Plato’s Republic and the Sophist to two case studies, namely Apple’s SIRI and an art installation by Lauren McCarthy, in which the artist imitates a chatbot.
In the paper, Kjems examines AI through the Platonic concept mimesis (imitation). Her argument is twofold: First, Kjems shows how AI is a culturally coercive instrument which can sustain and subvert gender bias and ethical standards. Then, Kjems argues that AI, when analysed as an imitative practise, both reflects and intervenes in what we define as human.
Kjems is only the second receiver of a medal in the interdisciplinary category ever.
Her paper is available through KB.