Credibility Deficits: Miranda Fricker and the Illusion of AI Literacy

Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice — particularly testimonial injustice, where a speaker receives less credibility than they deserve due to prejudice — has transformed how we think about knowledge, power, and trust.

AI systems create new forms of credibility hierarchy. They determine whose content is surfaced and whose is suppressed, whose claims are flagged as misinformation and whose are amplified, whose expertise is recognised and whose is invisible. The illusion of “AI literacy” suggests these systems are neutral arbiters — but Fricker’s framework reveals them as active participants in the distribution of epistemic credibility.

This episode examines how AI reproduces and intensifies testimonial injustice — and asks what it would mean to design systems that recognise, rather than erase, the credibility of marginalised voices.