May. 13, 2021
Tonight's CWU Panel to Focus on Future of Artificial Intelligence
Central Washington University will host an interdisciplinary panel this evening — Thursday, May 13 — concerning the issues facing the current and future development of artificial intelligence (AI).
The Zoom webinar, sponsored by the William O. Douglas Honors College, will feature a panel of guest speakers from various disciplines related to the digital landscape, and the connections it has to issues of race, gender and class.
The event, “Artificial Intelligence: The Future is Now,” is scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and pre-registration is required.
With the world spending more time online, using digital interfaces, AI has a larger role in our lives than some may realize, regulating everything from cell phones and computers to cars and homes.
Much of the data collection used to make our lives more convenient is stored in databases, and contributes to a “digital footprint,” which is used to define our presence in the online world. This information is used to target advertisements and news content and determines what we see and hear when we look to the internet for information and socialization.
Tonight’s webinar will explore these issues and more, with the help of three guest panelists:
- Stephanie Dick, assistant professor in History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s currently working on Making Up Minds: Computing, Proof, and AI in the Postwar United States, a book about historical efforts to automate mathematical proof.
- Halcyon Lawrence, assistant professor of Technical Communication at Towson University in Maryland, has 20 years of experience as a technical trainer, writer, and usability practitioner. Her research focuses on speech recognition and interactions, particularly in populations not normally able to use their native language to verbally interact with AI.
- Luke Stark, assistant professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario, has been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian for his work examining the historical, social, and ethical impacts of AI.
For more information about the AI webinar, email dhc@cwu.edu.