Daniel Cardoso’s session on ethical and epistemic questions in the era of AI now available on YouTube

The recording of “Ethical and Epistemic Questions in the Era of AI”, featuring Dr Daniel Cardoso, is now available on MeLCi Lab’s YouTube channel. Hosted online on 7 October 2026, the session explored the language, assumptions, and material structures surrounding so-called artificial intelligence.

Cardoso questioned the scientific accuracy and ethical implications of the term “artificial intelligence”, examining how it can obscure the human labour, resources, and extractive processes underpinning probabilistic generative models. Their presentation also interrogated the concept of “critical AI literacies”, inviting reflection on how the words used to describe technologies shape our understanding of their capabilities and consequences.

The session emphasised the importance of situating technological development and use within their political, economic, and material contexts. This perspective challenges technologically deterministic accounts and helps explain how the same technical systems can be mobilised differently.

Cardoso’s preprint also explores this topic, examining how large language models can shape the frameworks through which people interpret knowledge and social reality. The paper argues that these systems can enable non-targeted, non-intentional forms of gaslighting and reinforce existing ways of knowing. Grounding this analysis in the material processes of their development and use, Cardoso locates potential epistemic harms in capitalism’s deployment of these technologies while resisting deterministic explanations of their effects.

Daniel Cardoso holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from NOVA University Lisbon. They are an Associate Professor at Lusófona University and a Guest Assistant Professor at NOVA University Lisbon, with research interests spanning gender and sexualities, digital platformisation, youth and new media, and cybercultures.

Watch the full recording on MeLCi Lab’s YouTube channel and also on our homepage.