The Trap of Digital Totalitarianism: Gwangju Democracy as a Compass for AI Ethics
KANG Hyun Jeong [Assistant Professor, Chonnam National University]
The May 18 Democratization Movement in Gwangju is a monumental event in which individuals, in the face of the extreme and visible violence causing the fear of death, constituted themselves as autonomous actors. The autonomy shown by citizens at the time was not an isolated assertion of individual rights, but an expression of ‘communal autonomy’ that stimulated one another while responding to and witnessing each other’s sufferings. The imminent violence immediately stirred human moral sentiments. Those sentiments came to form a powerful subjectivity that could resist injustice through solidarity with others. In short, the Gwangju experience demonstrates that human autonomy can never be completed in isolation but within the network of mutual reinforcement.
.
.
.
This situation presents us with a significant ethical conundrum. The way Gwangju citizens visibly recognized each other's suffering and stood in solidarity is losing its effectiveness in the face of invisible systems that operate out of sight. In May 1980, citizens in Gwangju directly witnessed the violence of the martial troops in the streets and squares, responding to one another's pain by carrying the injured and sharing rice balls. It was this sharing of visible suffering and the practice of mutual care that formed the sense of solidarity and enabled collective resistance. However, today, the dynamics of solidarity that once enhanced autonomy are being isolated or fragmented by algorithms in the digital environment. We must now question to what extent the invisible control mechanism of AI is encroaching on our autonomy, and how we can regain ‘mutually empowering autonomy’ in this fragmented digital age. This is the timely call to invoke the spirit of Gwangju’s democracy as a compass for AI ethics in the era of digital transformation.
The Trap of Digital Totalitarianism: Gwangju Democracy as a Compass for AI Ethics
KANG Hyun Jeong [Assistant Professor, Chonnam National University]
The May 18 Democratization Movement in Gwangju is a monumental event in which individuals, in the face of the extreme and visible violence causing the fear of death, constituted themselves as autonomous actors. The autonomy shown by citizens at the time was not an isolated assertion of individual rights, but an expression of ‘communal autonomy’ that stimulated one another while responding to and witnessing each other’s sufferings. The imminent violence immediately stirred human moral sentiments. Those sentiments came to form a powerful subjectivity that could resist injustice through solidarity with others. In short, the Gwangju experience demonstrates that human autonomy can never be completed in isolation but within the network of mutual reinforcement.
.
.
.
This situation presents us with a significant ethical conundrum. The way Gwangju citizens visibly recognized each other's suffering and stood in solidarity is losing its effectiveness in the face of invisible systems that operate out of sight. In May 1980, citizens in Gwangju directly witnessed the violence of the martial troops in the streets and squares, responding to one another's pain by carrying the injured and sharing rice balls. It was this sharing of visible suffering and the practice of mutual care that formed the sense of solidarity and enabled collective resistance. However, today, the dynamics of solidarity that once enhanced autonomy are being isolated or fragmented by algorithms in the digital environment. We must now question to what extent the invisible control mechanism of AI is encroaching on our autonomy, and how we can regain ‘mutually empowering autonomy’ in this fragmented digital age. This is the timely call to invoke the spirit of Gwangju’s democracy as a compass for AI ethics in the era of digital transformation.