18 DEC 2025 (THU) 14:00-17:00

Geography Distinguished Seminars Series

The Silicon Gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place

Authors: Francisco W. Kerche, Matthew Zook, Mark Graham 

Date: 18 DEC 2025 (Thursday)

Time: 14:00-17:00 (HKT)

Venue: Chamber, Faculty of Social Sciences, 11/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Mode: Hybrid

Via Zoom: Zoom link will be provided upon successful registration

Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=104388

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Abstract:

This paper introduces the concept of the silicon gaze to explain how large language models (LLMs) reproduce and amplify long-standing spatial inequalities. Drawing on a 20.3-million-query audit of ChatGPT, we map systematic biases in the model’s representations of countries, states, cities and neighbourhoods. From these empirics, we argue that bias is not a correctable anomaly but an intrinsic feature of generative AI, rooted in historically uneven data ecologies and design choices. Building on a power-aware, relational approach, we develop a five-part typology of bias (availability, pattern, averaging, trope and proxy) that accounts for the complex ways in which LLMs privilege certain places while rendering others invisible.

Professor Matthew Zook

University Research Professor, University of Kentucky

Matthew Zook is a University Research Professor whose work explores the intersections of digital technologies, economic geographies, critical financial studies, and urban geography. His research focuses on three main areas: (1) How are digital technologies changing the spatial economy, globalization and cities? (2) How do big data and digital technologies provide new ways to study economic networks and cities? (3) What do big data and digital technologies mean for governance and policy?

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