AI, Competitions, and Virtual Medals

May 26, 2023

This paper focuses on Kaggle, a place of competition and experimentation where new ideas for AI are born. Using Discourse Analysis and Digital Archeology, this study examines Kaggle’s history to show how the company evolved as a gamified platform where competitive programmers participate in Machine Learning challenges in exchange for virtual medals. The paper proposes that Kaggle’s business logic pushes toward the unlimited exploitation of human cognitive abilities as a computational resource.

From deepfake to shallow truths

May 31, 2023

In this paper, I discuss how Facebook's Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC) translated deepfakes’ controversial social implications into a technical challenge that rendered unthinkable the political and instead focused on rules and optimalities. I show how Facebook articulated the challenge, the social and cultural biases inherent in the solutions proposed for the competition, and the lack of ethics regarding privacy protection. By crowdsourcing the problem, big tech corporations mobilize free labour, algorithms, and extensive user-generated datasets to produce predictive models for detecting and asserting what is true and what is fake and, consequently, producing new forms of subjectivation.

I/O: Reinforcing Newsmaking Practices Through Algorithmic Media

Jan 24, 2018

This paper discusses two interrelated modalities of algorithmic news: economically efficient production, where news outlets utilize quantitative metrics to improve content effectiveness and desirability; and shared-gatekeeping, where visibility and distribution of information are contextual and based on users’ behaviour.

Accelerating Sharing Economy

Oct 10, 2017

Drawing from accelerationism theory this paper seeks to analyze the political economy embedded in Uber’s free-market libertarian practices. The paper shows that Uber innovative process is not a new alternative to improve quality of life, but a strategic use of digital technology to overcome the “coercive power of the state,” disrupt regulations and strengthen capitalist social relations.

To Build a Human-Machine Territory

Jun 29, 2016

This essay attempts to contextualize the relationship that mobile media establish between digital technologies, human activities, and specific geographic locales in both social and theoretical terms.

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Me
Luciano Frizzera

Interface Designer & Web Developer

Based in Montreal, Canada

lucaju@gmail.com

Luciano is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at Concordia University. His doctoral research explores the political and social implications of sensors, datafication, and hyper-nudges to understand how algorithmic mediation is mobilized to produce subjects and reorganize life.

My background spans a diverse range of disciplines and mediums: media studies, graphic design (print and digital), web design, project management, urban studies, digital humanities, and sociology. I completed my BA in Social Communication at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil, in 2006. In the same year, I founded a start-up company focused on visual communication and interactive digital interfaces. During six years the company successfully delivered high-quality innovative visual and interactive products to its clients, including several websites, logos, flyers, brochures, and communication strategies for political campaigns. In 2011, after a remarkable experience as a voluntary professor, I decided to return to the university and pursue an academic career.

I completed my Master’s degree in Humanities Computing at the University of Alberta in 2014, with the “Mobile Media: New Mediations in the Urban Space”. During my masters, I was a research assistant at Implementing New Knowledge Environment Research Group (INKE), and got involved in several research projects related to interactive visualization techniques to produce new insights in the Humanities, including tools for citation analysis, creation of editorial workflows, and interface for digital variorum editions. The outcomes of his researches were published in the Literary and Linguist Computing (LLC) and presented at several national and international conferences.