Mona Bhan is the Lender Center for Social Justice faculty fellow for 2022-2024. As Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies and professor of anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, she studies artificial intelligence (AI) weaponry from her perspective as a cultural anthropologist. Bhan’s work shows how AI systems can transform conceptions of autonomy, accountability, human rights and justice.
On Friday, March 22, Bhan and her student fellows present their findings at the Lender Center symposium, “DeCoded Vision: Land, Bodies and AI in Syracuse,” from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center’s Comstock Room. The event is open to the campus community; registration is required.
The researchers will define AI and show how the technology transfers to industry, workforce training, community development policies and such everyday activities as police presence and the use of technology in social contexts. They will discuss how AI technologies are fueling the “Syracuse Surge,” a city- and regionwide initiative boosting technology education, tech-job training and new industries, and offer insights about their exploration.
Student fellows are ParKer Bryant, a Ph.D. student in literacy education, School of Education; Aren Burnside, a Ph.D. student in anthropology, Maxwell School; Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer ’25, a sociology major in the College of Arts and Sciences; Cheryl Olanga ’25, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science; and Anna Terzaghi ’24, an international relations and anthropology major and a member of the Renée Crown Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.
In this SU News Q&A, Bhan previews key findings.
AI is a very broad term. Throughout this project and over many conversations with scientists, police departments and various community interests, it was clear that it was not always easy to define AI. One engineer we talked to described it as “a moment-in-time agreement that keeps shifting course.”
AI is many things in Syracuse, and it is also shaping many different initiatives: the Syracuse Surge initiative, Micron Technology’s arrival, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education activity, policing software. There are social, economic and political interventions that are meant to transform Syracuse into a smart city. Data-driven technologies often shaped by AI are at the core of this transformation.
Mona Bhan, 2022-24 Lender Center faculty fellow
The Syracuse Surge is the city’s ambition to position itself as one of America’s smartest cities. Regarding Micron, we’re mindful that semiconductor chips are what AI is made of, so you can’t think about AI without considering the role of Micron. Millions of dollars are being invested to create the region’s first STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) high school downtown. Multiple technology investments are being made that are transforming the Syracuse economy. AI plays a huge part in that.
There is also a broad community conversation taking place regarding AI in policing, such as the use of license plate readers and Shot Spotter technology and how those technologies impact what kinds of bodies.
What’s become very clear is that you can’t look at artificial intelligence in isolation or outside of what it means for the wider economy, ecology, questions of citizenship and our political rights. Technology cannot be divorced from external social forces; technology exerts a force on society and is simultaneously shaped by societal contexts.
When people think about AI, they tend to think of technology that is dehumanized, that has no human presence, and that’s the big worry for many. AI is never going to be devoid of humans; humans develop the tools and the algorithms that power AI. So, there will always be a human at the end of that chain, even when you’re thinking simply about the labor of mining chips from around the globe or building chips or other technologies. Human labor is still at the center of it, as many scholars have argued.
Professor Mona Bhan’s Lender Center for Social Justice research group studied the presence of AI technology in Syracuse and its ongoing community impact. (Photo by Amelia Beamish)
This project tries to repopulate AI with humans and make visible the bodies that create AI as well as the bodies that are impacted by it.
Regarding community policing, we are looking at what types of technologies are being used and how they impact bodies—and which bodies.
With Micron, we’re interested in whose land and water are impacted, which bodies are being recruited to the project, who finds employment there.
Regarding the City’s STEAM and STEM education efforts, we’re looking at who can access STEAM/STEM education and to what end. We’re asking the question of whether this is just a way to label the effort or whether it is an investment in the meaningful transformation of the community.
We’re mindful that computer chips are considered the new currency and that there is an ongoing chip war happening politically, particularly between the U.S. and China. Semiconductors are what all artificial intelligence is made of, when you look at the constituent parts of AI. So, the idea is to understand how the seemingly innocuous chips have the power to transform landscapes and societies.
Initially, I focused predominantly on the use of AI in warfare, but an overwhelming focus on wars often distracts from other equally important conversations regarding how AI is used in society on a day-to-day basis in policing and law enforcement, for instance. We often see an uncritical, enthusiastic embracing of technology and AI in particular as a quick solution to our problems. We’re looking at how AI is being used to transform surveillance capabilities and re-energize software—but with what implications and for whom?
Micron’s arrival in Syracuse will further reinforce our technocentric approach toward social problems. We’re looking at multiple dimensions and varying stakeholders to understand what it means for Syracuse to be a smart city and what is at stake. It doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.
