Journal of Science and Technology Studies (과학기술학연구)

Korean Association of Science and Technology Studies (한국과학기술학회)
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The Rated Self: Credit Rating and the Outsoursing of Human Judgment

평가된 자아: 신용평가와 도덕적, 경제적 가치 평가의 외주화

  • 이두갑 (서울대학교 과학사 및 과학철학 협동과정)
  • Received : 2019.01.30
  • Accepted : 2019.03.06
  • Published : 2019.03.31
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Abstract

As we live a life increasingly mediated by computers, we often outsource our critical judgments to artificial intelligence(AI)-based algorithms. Most of us have become quite dependent upon algorithms: computers are now recommending what we see, what we buy, and who we befriend with. What happens to our lives and identities when we use statistical models, algorithms, AI, to make a decision for us? This paper is a preliminary attempt to chronicle a historical trajectory of judging people's economic and moral worth, namely the history of credit-rating within the context of the history of capitalism. More importantly this paper will critically review the history of credit-rating from its earlier conception to the age of big data and algorithmic evaluation, in order to ask questions about what the political implications of outsourcing our judgments to computer models and artificial intelligence would be. Some of the questions I would like to ask in this paper are: by whom and for what purposes is the computer and artificial intelligence encroached into the area of judging people's economic and moral worth? In what ways does the evolution of capitalism constitute a new mode of judging people's financial and personal identity, namely the rated self? What happens in our self-conception and identity when we are increasingly classified, evaluated, and judged by computer models and artificial intelligence? This paper ends with a brief discussion on the political implications of the outsourcing of human judgment to artificial intelligence, and some of the analytic frameworks for further political actions.

21세기 빅데이터와 알고리즘, 인공지능의 발달로 점점 더 많은 영역에서 우리의 선택과 판단이 외주화(outsourcing)되고 있다. 그렇다면 통계적 모델과 컴퓨터 분석, 그리고 인공지능과 같은 새로운 기술들이 우리의 평가와 선택 활동들을 대체할수록, 우리의 삶에는, 그리고 우리의 정체성에는 어떠한 변화가 일어나는가? 본 논문은 자본주의 발전 과정에서 인간 자아에 대한 경제적, 도덕적 판단을 수행했던 활동, 즉 신용평가(credit rating)의 등장, 통계화와 자동화, 그리고 알고리즘화까지의 변화를 분석했던 연구들을 살펴보며, 이 과정을 추동했던 경제적, 기술적 요인들을 규명하려 할 것이다. 이를 통해 21세기 인간의 정치적, 사회적 가능성의 조건들, 그리고 자본주의 진화 과정에서 나타난 "평가된 자아"라는 새로운 주체들의 특징과 양상을 살펴볼 것이다. 마지막으로 자본주의적, 기술적 힘의 공간에서 형성된 "평가된 자아"가 어떻게 새로운 해방적 가능성을 이끌어낼 수 있는지 간략히 논의하며, 점차 인간의 판단을 대체하고 외주화하고 있는 인공지능 기술의 사회적 정치적 함의에 대해 논의해 볼 것이다.

Keywords

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