Defactualization and
Artificial Intelligence: A Study of an Epistemic Precarity
Sundaram Singh
ABSTRACT
With the prevalence of a highly
mechanized, algorithmic and artificially intelligent environment,
epistemology, democracy and the concept of “Being” are being
challenged at multiple levels. Of course, AI and machines are useful
tools, but they are threats when in the wrong hands; indeed, people
have seen the diabolical effects of Deepfakes. Currently, they
perform at the tunes of their masters, but efforts and advancements
are being made to provide these machines with the qualities,
exclusive to the human brain. In such a scenario, the question that
emerges is— will they, then, only learn and spread the good (truth)
and not the evil (falsehood)? AI, which largely feeds on the
digitally available data, mostly provided by the Internet, is
already subject to human and algorithmic biases. Here is when Hannah
Arendt’s term “Defactualization” (erosion of factual reality,
broadly), comes into picture.
This paper intends to shed light on the above precarity using the
analysis of some of the cinematic representations of AI, Automatons
and especially, the man-machine relationships. Through the analysis
of The Matrix (1999), and M3GAN (2022), the paper attempts to
ascertain as well as predict the cataclysmic outcomes of
misinformation, misinterpretation, post-truth and deliberate
falsehood. Ultimately, the study aims to recommend some possible
measures to address the epistemological crisis in this epoch of AI.
Keywords: AI, Defactualization, Post-truth, Epistemic Crisis,
Machine.
