Machine-Human Interaction: A Paradigm Shift?

Abstract

The abstract should summarize the contents of the paper in short terms, i.e. 150–250 words. In this article, I perform a preliminary exploration on hypothesised the paradigm shift from human-initiated interaction to machine-initiated interaction. There are consequences and structural issues that need to be highlighted when considering such an important topic beyond the academic setting and ontological issues. While continuing to develop the theoretical work related to evaluating this shift, I use this as an opportunity to ask a classic “so what” question. What matters when machines are the ones trying to initiate interactions with humans? Specifically, what happens to parts of humanity that are often excluded from issues related to the deployment of AI in society? How can such groups, which are often marginalised react and to machines that act autonomously? To do this, I chose Black Twitter as the main case study of this article to explore if and how marginalisation can occur when machines initiate interactions with humans. Recently, Twitter has become the ground of much experimentation with AI deployed by its operators. However, it is also the experiment ground for third-party “bots” that interact with humans, often, without the latter being aware that of the interaction undertaken is with a machine. The article is part of a larger study investigating if there are significant differences between the way machines and members of Black Twitter interact with one another.