Ekow Eshun is a writer and a curator of art exhibitions. He looks at the images and ideas that we use to build our view of the world - and, as a black person living in a mainly white society, he’s been thinking about race all his life. In this series, he’s on a personal journey to explore what he believes could be one of the most influential and elusive ideas of the modern age - whiteness.

In this second episode, Ekow looks at the role artificial intelligence has to play in reinforcing ideas about whiteness. From stock images to fictional robots, he finds out how whiteness dominates. He also hears why algorithms and machine learning are more powerful than the programmers themselves.

And he goes back in time to discover how persistent tropes about East Asia and technology originated.

Producer: Philly Beaumont
Executive Producer: John Shields
A Loftus Media production for Radio 4

Artwork inspired by The Late Estate of Broomberg and Chanarin Show less