SEMINAR \/ DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND DESIGN
\nTitle: \u201cAI & Media Futures\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaker: Ali E. Erol, Ph.D. (Visiting Professor, Communication, Boston College)<\/p>\n
Date: Nov. 3, 2026
\nTime: 12:30-13:30
\nLocation: FFB-011<\/p>\n
Abstract:
\nEveryday consumers might see Generative AI (GenAI) as a harmless interactive media
\ntechnology that can generate texts, images, and videos, used to enhance gaming technologies and keep people company with chatbots, grief-tech, and AI partners. On the other hand, GenAI is developed and used as a weapon, powering mass surveillance, engaging in automated killchain operations, and fueling predictive \u201cpattern-of-life\u201d analytics platforms. In my research, I argue that the banal, affective appeal of consumer GenAI and its weaponized deployment by the state are mutually constitutive. As an example, I examine how US homeland security agencies (DHS\/ICE) use GenAI media to generate promotional imagery, recruiting personnel into an AI designed mass surveillance, population control, and \u201caffective enforcement\u201d apparatus. I contextualize this case study within my broader project on AI and media, which theorizes GenAI as a control value technology\u2014a technology subsidized by the state for its capacity for governmentality, despite commercial underperformance. By integrating analyses of the political economy of media, self-representation of GenAI companies, and visual analyses of security
\napparatuses that rely on AI, this research offers a critical framework for understanding how
\nGenAI manufactures compliance and powers the modern security state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEMINAR \/ DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND DESIGN Title: \u201cAI & Media Futures\u201d Speaker: Ali E. Erol, Ph.D. (Visiting Professor, Communication, Boston College) Date: Nov. 3, 2026 Time: 12:30-13:30 Location: FFB-011 Abstract: Everyday consumers might see Generative AI (GenAI) as a harmless interactive media technology that can generate texts, images, and [\u2026] <\/p>\n