Queering AI: Undoing the Self in the Algorithmic Borderlands

TL;DR

This paper explores how queering can challenge fixed identities in human-AI interactions, using a digital twin experiment to demonstrate fluidity and interdependence in selfhood within algorithmic systems.

Contribution

It introduces queering as a strategy to subvert fixed identities in AI, demonstrated through an embodied digital twin experiment that highlights fluid, interdependent subjectivities.

Findings

Queering offers new ways to navigate human-AI entanglements.

Fluid identities are crucial for ethical and innovative HCI practices.

The digital twin experiment reveals the potential for interdependent selfhood in AI interactions.

Abstract

This paper challenges fixed orientations towards the self in human-AI entanglements. It offers queering as a strategy to subvert the individuation and fixing of identities within algorithmic systems and the loss of futurity that it brings about. By exploring queerness, the paper examines how one's sense of self and futurity are interpellated within the algorithmic borderlands of human-AI entanglements. The study discusses an embodied experiment called "Undoing Gracia," a Digital Twin simulation where the first author Grace and their AI twins (Lex and Tortugi) interact within the fictional world of Gracia. The experiment probes into Grace's multifaceted subjectivities by conceiving themselves as interdependent entities evolving through their interactions within Gracia. The paper outlines the process of creating and implementing the simulation and examines how the agents co-perform and become-with alongside Gracia's making. The findings illuminate queer gestures for navigating human-AI entanglements in HCI research and practice, highlighting the importance of fluid identities in shaping human-AI relations.