Not my Existential Risk! The politics of controversy in an age of AI

29. Januar 2024, 19 Uhr

Im Auftrag des internationalen Forschungsprojekts Shaping 21st Century AI laden das Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft (HIIG) und das ZeMKI der Universität Bremen in Zusammenarbeit mit AlgorithmWatch und dem Museum für Kommunikation Berlin zu einer Abendveranstaltung zum Thema KI-Kontroversen ein.

Die Veranstaltung ist auf Englisch.

About the event

Controversies about AI abound. But are we having the conversations and controversies about AI that we need to have? Some hold that the public debate about AI is increasingly dominated by state and industry. While activists, journalists and researchers have played a key role in getting issues of AI-induced discrimination, surveillance and worker exploitation on the public agenda, current initiatives focused on “responsible AI” seem designed to strengthen the “innovation state” and create opportunities for business. As development and investment in AI is again rising sharply after the ChatGPT moment, even technologists and world leaders articulate warnings that AI might cause fundamental damage to societies, including the risk of extinction. But are these the harms and risks that we should prioritise in public and policy debates about AI? How can we put forward an agenda of controversies on AI that puts society centre stage?

In this evening panel, experts from activism, journalism and politics engage with today’s big challenges at the intersection of AI and society. The conversation draws on findings from the international research project Shaping AI and the concluding conference Shifting AI Controversies. 

Host and Intro: Dr. Christian Katzenbach (University of Bremen / Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society) and Dr. Maria Merseburger (Museum of Communication Berlin)

Moderator: Noortje Marres (University of Warwick)

Panelists: Brenda McPhail (Canadian Civil Liberties Association), Mark Scott (Politico), Matthias Spielkamp (AlgorithmWatch), Prof. Dr. Gloria González Fuster (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Agenda

Participation

To participate in this event, please register via this link.

The evening panel is organised as part of the closing conference of the project Shaping 21st Century AI, which is a multinational collaboration of partners in Germany, France, UK and Canada that examines the global trajectories of public discourse on artificial intelligence. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Germany), the Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), the Economic and Social Research Council of UK Research and Innovation (ESRC, the UK) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC, Canada) in the Open Research Area (ORA) scheme.