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Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo
The global technological field has witnessed a computing shift - from focusing on human-device use to focusing on human-device ambient and social interaction. This shift is notably accompanied by a societal one that increases desire and dependency on everyday smart technologies powered by artificial...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2021
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| _version_ | 1867613419229675520 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed |
| author_browse | Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed |
| author_facet | Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed |
| author_sort | Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The global technological field has witnessed a computing shift - from focusing on human-device use to focusing on human-device ambient and social interaction. This shift is notably accompanied by a societal one that increases desire and dependency on everyday smart technologies powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. One of such growing AI-enabled technologies is the virtual personal assistant (VPA). In this project, I draw on my filed-work with my four interlocuters in Cairo with their respective VPAs, Siri and Alexa. In analyzing my experiences and observations, I focus on three main themes: subservience, simultaneity and surveillance. Examining the role of gender, labor, identity, discourse, time and temporality, as well as surveillance is at the heart of this work. Guided by Haraway’s cyborgism, Marxist feminism and arguments brought forth by the post-humanities I first begin by a genealogy of the female automata, followed by dissecting gender’s role in VPA design/interaction, as well as capitalist-digital logic. I then move on to discuss the VPAs’ relationship to other digitalities, such as the calendar and smart home contrivances. Finally, I tie previous arguments and observations to how VPAs may be approached as the eyes and ears of Capitalism. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2649 |
| institution | American University in Cairo (Egypt) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:35:50.652Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| publisherStr | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| spelling | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2649 Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed The global technological field has witnessed a computing shift - from focusing on human-device use to focusing on human-device ambient and social interaction. This shift is notably accompanied by a societal one that increases desire and dependency on everyday smart technologies powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. One of such growing AI-enabled technologies is the virtual personal assistant (VPA). In this project, I draw on my filed-work with my four interlocuters in Cairo with their respective VPAs, Siri and Alexa. In analyzing my experiences and observations, I focus on three main themes: subservience, simultaneity and surveillance. Examining the role of gender, labor, identity, discourse, time and temporality, as well as surveillance is at the heart of this work. Guided by Haraway’s cyborgism, Marxist feminism and arguments brought forth by the post-humanities I first begin by a genealogy of the female automata, followed by dissecting gender’s role in VPA design/interaction, as well as capitalist-digital logic. I then move on to discuss the VPAs’ relationship to other digitalities, such as the calendar and smart home contrivances. Finally, I tie previous arguments and observations to how VPAs may be approached as the eyes and ears of Capitalism. 2021-06-17T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1628 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2649/viewcontent/Habiba_Ahmed_Elsayed_Thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Artificial intelligence Virtual Personal Assistants Siri Alexa Gender Surveillance Temporality Smart Homes Cairo Digitality Arts and Humanities Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| spellingShingle | Artificial intelligence Virtual Personal Assistants Siri Alexa Gender Surveillance Temporality Smart Homes Cairo Digitality Arts and Humanities Social and Behavioral Sciences Elsayed, Habiba Ahmed Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title | Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title_full | Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title_fullStr | Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title_full_unstemmed | Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title_short | Living with and Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity and Surveillance in Late-Capitalist Cairo |
| title_sort | living with and through artificially intelligent virtual personal assistants subservience simultaneity and surveillance in late capitalist cairo |
| topic | Artificial intelligence Virtual Personal Assistants Siri Alexa Gender Surveillance Temporality Smart Homes Cairo Digitality Arts and Humanities Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| url | https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1628 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2649/viewcontent/Habiba_Ahmed_Elsayed_Thesis.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elsayedhabibaahmed livingwithandthroughartificiallyintelligentvirtualpersonalassistantssubserviencesimultaneityandsurveillanceinlatecapitalistcairo |