CMAC & ISS Talk: Synthesis in Generative AI

Much has been written about the generative potential of contemporary large language models and the applications they power. Less, however, has been said about the synthetic aspects of these systems, or on how their creative effects might depend on a capacity to synthesise. This talk will focus on the concept of "synthesis" to address it philosophically. It will discuss as "synthetic" not what artificial intelligence (AI) generates (that it, its outputs) but rather the processes that AI employs to produce these outputs. Synthesis in generative AI will then be understood as a search for unity that is fundamental to the making of a representational reality.

M. Beatrice Fazi is Reader in Digital Humanities in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. Her primary areas of expertise are the philosophy of computation, the philosophy of technology and the emerging field of media philosophy. Her research focuses on the ontologies and epistemologies produced by contemporary technoscience, particularly in relation to issues in artificial intelligence and computation and to their impact on culture and society.