Ann-Kathrin Koster // Contingency and Conflict - Democratic Prospects of Artificial Intelligence
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Fellow
NameAnn-Kathrin Koster
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Research Project: Contingency and Conflict - Democratic Prospects of Artificial Intelligence
Subject: Political Science
Mentoring professor: Prof. Dr. Sabine Müller-Mall
The PhD project approaches applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the discipline of Political Theory and thereby pursues a genuine democratic theory perspective. The core of the discussion is formed by the democratic contingency assumption of radical democratic theories, which emphasize the possibilities for contesting and questioning social concepts of order as well as core democratic values through forms of conflictual actions in democratic.
Taking radical democratic theories as a starting point to investigate AI means to approach analytically where the possibilities to change a given situation are being minimized or neglected at all – where an absolute agreement between the data-based representation of society and individuals through algorithmic procedures and their (prospect) democratic social form is assumed. One main point of the argument is, that the representation of society through interlinked data points in the course of AI applications breaks with the democratic ideal of openness and changeability. Yet the possibilities for contestation and questioning as fundamental democratic practices are based precisely on the assumption of a disagreement between – for the context of AI – data point and whole. In a political context the disagreement means the political subject and social groups can never be identical. But it is exactly because of the of non-conformity why society, its concept of (political) order and the definition of specific values – freedom, equality, participation – can be changed through collective action. The guiding assumption of the dissertation is, that AI applications and their epistemological approach affect this perceptibility of openness in different ways and thereby affect democratic societies on a deeper level.
Consequently, the aim of my dissertation is to develop a democratic-theoretical perspective of analysis based on radical democratic approaches – especially their emphasis on conflict, their ideal of openness and changeability – which guides the investigation of basic assumptions of AI on the one hand, and concrete algorithmic systems on the other band with regard to their democratic effects and possibilities.
CV
| 2019 | M.A. Political Science/ Intercultural Gender Studies, Universität Trier |
| 2017-18 | Georgetown University, Washington D. C |
| 2015 | B.A. Political Science/ Sociologie, Universität Trier |
Publications
Journal Articles
- Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2021): Das Ende des Politischen? Demokratische Politik und Künstliche Intelligenz. In: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft. Online first. (peer review)
- Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2020): Das radikaldemokratische Moment von Hashtag-Aktivismus. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 33(1): 442-456.
- Berg, Sebastian; König, Tim und Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2020): Political Opinion Formation as Epistemic Practice: The Hashtag Assemblage of #metwo. Media & Communication 8 (4): 84-95. (peer review)
Chapter in Vollected Volumes
- Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2020): Im Zeichen des Hashtags. Demokratische Praktiken unter algorithmisierten Bedingungen. In: Jan-Philipp Kruse und Sabine Müller-Mall (Ed.): Digitale Transformation der Öffentlichkeit. Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 103-123.
Other
- Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2021): Digitalisierung und die Frage ihrer politiktheoretischen Bearbeitung, theorieblog.de, 8.6.2021.
- Mosene, Katharina; Dinar, Christina; Koster, Ann-Kathrin und Schmidt, Francesca (2020): Zoff um Wiki. Missy Magazin 03/20: 56-61.
- Berg, Sebastian und Koster, Ann-Kathrin (2019): DVPW 2018: Materielle Grenzziehungen der Demokratie. Ein Tagungsbericht als Spurensuche. Theorieblog.de.
Lectures
*on invitation
- (2021) *„Künstliche Intelligenz und demokratische Gesellschaft“, Vortrag im Rahmen des Workshops Die frühe Geschichte der Künstlichen Intelligenz im deutschsprachigen Raum. Methoden und Theorien des Forschungsprojekts IGGI – Ingenieur-Geist und Geistes-Ingenieure, Deutsches Museum München, 20.-21. Mai 2021
- (2021) * „Normative Algorithmen“, Paneldiskussion im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe „Daten. Macht. Recht“ des Lehrstuhls für Internationales Öffentliches Recht und Internationalen Menschenrechtsschutz (Prof. Dr. Nora Markard), Universität Münster, 13. Mai 2021
- (2021) * „KI und Demokratie“, Paneldiskussion im Rahmen des KI-Kamps der Gesellschaft für Informattik, 27. April 2021
- (2019) „#MeTwo – Articulated injustices and political subjectivation“, Vortrag auf der Jahrestagung Soziale Bewegungen im digitalen Zeitalter des Instituts für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung Weizenbaum-Institut für die vernetzte Gesellschaft Berlin, 15.-16. November 2019
- (2019) „#MeTwo and the voices of the sans-parts? The ambivalent potential of digital counter publics and radical democratic interpretations”, Vortrag auf der Tagung Transformations in the digital age #1: Transformation of the public sphere der Themengruppe “Internet und Politik – Elektronische Governance” der DVPW, Universität Hildesheim, 25.- 26. April 2019 [mit Sebastian Berg und Tim König]
Teaching
- Winter Semester 2020/2021: Introduction to the Studies of Political Theory