by Abigail Alty and Dalie Brisson
This exhibit was created for Dr. François Dominic Laramée's course, DHN4300/ISI6300 Machine Learning and the Humanities. Through this exhibit, we aim to present an overview of artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) in particular, within North American pop culture, by looking specifically at music, cinema, and literature. The purpose of the exhibit is to share knowledge on the topic of machine learning, algorithms, and the role they play in pop culture. We will explain how ML impacts each of the selected facets of pop culture, whether it is how they are consumed, how they rise to popularity and influence trends, or how AI contributes to the cultural industry.
We chose to explore this topic because as we learned more about the basics of machine learning we realized that it was a tool we were using every day, without knowing. The more we learned, the more we realized that ML is a tool that was also using us. To demonstrate how many people interact with ML on a daily basis, we have included case studies on three applications that use ML in cultural industries: Netflix, Goodreads, and Spotify. Part of the research in this project involved educating ourselves about the applications and programs we interact with to gain a deeper understanding of their inner workings and be better informed.