Clarkson University
Fall 2023 David A. Walsh ’67
Arts & Sciences Seminar Series
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Friday, September 15th at 12 pm
Via Zoom, pre-register here:
https://clarkson.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvcuuorD0qE9Z9nQbMDLBxj7av9sqtBsdg
Do Chatbots Dream in Indonesian? Anthropology, Area Studies, and AI
Abstract:
Following Philip K. Dick’s memorable work, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I pose this question about the virtual interlocutors (Chat GPT et al.) who promise (or threaten) to replace us as writers—both instructors and students. Can anthropology and area studies—Indonesian Studies, particularly—articulate these anxieties and address our academic aspirations about androids?
In this talk, I draw on the history of social sciences and second language learning funded by the Department of Education Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies program begun in 1958, for the study of ‘lesser taught’ languages, literature, and translation in higher education in the U.S., to suggest that it can. I also turn to science fiction, as a genre of the same era, to consider the work it can do to help us in the contemporary moment of AI conversations, not just with and about technology but also with those whose languages we have not yet begun to speak, nor understand.
Bio:
G.G. Weix is a Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies at The University of Montana. Since 2019, she has served as vice president of AIFIS, the American Institute for Indonesian Studies, an overseas research institute center in Jakarta and Ithaca, New York. She is currently doing research and archival documentation of area studies and lesser-taught languages in the U.S.