Schumacher in the age of generative AI: Towards a new critique of technology

Abstract

This article sets out to bring E. F. Schumacher’s social theory of technology into dialogue with recent advances in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI). By generative AI, we are here referring to a new constellation of machine learning technologies that aim to simulate and, subsequently, automate human creativity, with a particular focus on OpenAI’s GPT-3 family (ChatGPT and DALL-E). Often overlooked in contemporary debates on machine learning and AI, we argue that Schumacher’s 1973 book, Small is Beautiful, offers a series of insights and concepts that are increasingly relevant for the development of a humanist politics under conditions of computation. With a particular focus on Schumacher’s account of ‘intermediate technology’, we suggest that his emphasis on the social role of human creativity and identification of scale as a crucial concept to deploy in critiquing technology together provide a unique framework within which to (a) address the rise of what we call ‘pathologies of meaning’ and (b) offer a powerful way to consider alternatives to the gigantisms of the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and Silicon Valley-style ideologies of digital transformation.