Vulnerability Assemblages: Situating Vulnerability in the Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence

“Vulnerability” is one of the terms recently used to discuss ethical aspects of artificial intelligence (AI). Current discussions on AI vulnerability tend to individualize vulnerability, largely neglecting its political dimensions, which are rooted in systems of inequality and disadvantage. This article draws on data from a multiple-perspective qualitative interview study to explore how notions of vulnerability underpin the development and implementation of AI. Results uncover how AI designers use narratives around missing data on vulnerable populations as justifications for the creation of synthetic data that were artificially manufactured rather than generated by real-world events. Although this was a profitable business model for AI companies, these practices ultimately situated long-term care residents as voiceless in the development of AI. This contribution shows how vulnerability is situated in a political economy of AI, which understands the absence of data on vulnerable groups as a possibility of profit creation rather than a chance of fostering inclusion.