Human prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them. Algorithmic identity politics reinstate old forms of social segregation—in a digital world, identity politics is pattern discrimination. It is by recognizing patterns in input data that artificial intelligence algorithms create bias and practice racial exclusions thereby inscribing power relations into media.
These are just some of the questions explored by Clemens Apprich, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Hito Steyerl and Florian Cramer on Pattern Discrimination, a new book published by University of Minnesota Press in November 2018. After reading it, I wanted to learn more and got in contact with Florian Cramer, reader at Willem de Kooning Academy & Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and author of the essay What Is Post-Digital.