Geographies of artificial intelligence: Labor, surveillance, and activism

Abstract

This article reviews geographic work on artificial intelligence in the context of labor, surveillance, and activism, paying particular attention to developing strengths, as well as current gaps, in the discipline's critical engagement with this emerging topic. Across its sections, we frame artificial intelligence as a societal transformation that cannot and should not be contained to one field or subdiscipline within geography, arguing, instead, that this emerging technology must be drawn into conceptual and empirical debates within all parts of our scholarly community. To conclude, the article identifies ways that geography, especially critical human geography, can contribute to better understanding the complicated and proliferating geographies of artificial intelligence in the world around us and bring a multi-faceted framework to discussions of this disruptive technology.