Dr. Zachary McDowell Discusses AI, Wikipedia, and Public Knowledge on Digital Kallipolis Podcast “Think About Your Thinking”
Introduction
What happens to public knowledge when an increasing share of what we read, search for, and learn is mediated by artificial intelligence (Al)?
On Digital Kallipolis, I am joined by Zach McDowell for a conversation about Al, Wikipedia, the digital commons, and the changing ways in which we produce, access, and share knowledge.
Zachary J. “Zach” McDowell is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), whose work examines how information is created, shaped, accessed, and consumed in the digital age.
His research spans Wikipedia, digital media, information equity, technology policy, and the ethics of internet and Al technologies, with particular attention to which knowledge becomes visible, which remains excluded, and why.
Zach previously served as a research fellow with Wiki Education and is the co-author, with Matthew A. Vetter, of Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality, a book that examines how Wikipedia represents reality while grappling with systemic bias, information inequality, and the underrepresentation of marginalized topics.