"Disruption, Upheaval, or Magic? AI Imaginaries and Implementations in a Conjuncture Called Silicon Valley"

Currently, public debates around “Artificial Intelligence” popularize and sensationalize discursive competitions between “doomers” and “accelerationists”, founded on an eclectic amalgam of scientific theory, mysticism, and a canon of speculative fiction while promoting an autocratic, determinist, and illiberal agenda. My contribution discusses digital technologies’ cultural lineages of stagecraft and magic that articulate current promises as well as threats of AI to popular affect. I argue that a Cultural Studies approach to the current conjuncture can de-mystify the discursively sustained hubris of Big Tech while also promoting transparency, privacy, and open access through the digital tools, frameworks, and models available now.