Henrik Skaug Sætra considers the basis of democracy, the nature of politics, the tilt toward digital sovereignty and what role AI plays in our collective human society. Henrik and Kimberly discuss AI’s impact on human comprehension and communication; core democratic competencies at risk; politics as a joint human endeavor; conflating citizens with customers; productively messy processes; the problem of democracy; how AI could change what democracy means; whether democracy is computable; Google’s experiments in democratic AI; AI and digital sovereignty; and a multidisciplinary path forward. Henrik Skaug Sætra is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Digitalisation and Head of the Technology and Sustainable Futures research group at Oslo University. He is also the CEO of Pathwais.eu connecting strategy, uncertainty, and action through scenario-based risk management.Related ResourcesGoogle Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pvgdIpUAAAAJ&hl=enHow to Save Democracy from AI (Book – Norwegian): https://www.norli.no/9788202853686AI for the Sustainable Development Goals (Book): https://www.amazon.com/AI-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Everything/dp/1032044063Technology and Sustainable Development: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-Solutionism (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Technology-Sustainable-Development-Pitfalls-Techno-Solutionism-ebook/dp/B0C17RBTVLA transcript of this episode is here.
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Generating Safety Not Abuse with Dr. Rebecca Portnoff
Dr. Rebecca Portnoff generates awareness of the threat landscape, enablers, challenges and solutions to the complex but addressable issue of online child sexual abuse. Rebecca and Kimberly discuss trends in online child sexual abuse; pillars of impact and harm; how GenAI expands the threat landscape; personalized targeting and bespoke abuse; Thorn’s Safety by Design Initiative; scalable prevention strategies; technical and legal barriers; standards, consensus and commitment; building better from the beginning; accountability as an innovative goal; and not confusing complex with unsolvable. Dr. Rebecca Portnoff is the Vice President of Data Science at Thorn, a non-profit dedicated to protecting children from sexual abuse. Read Thorn’s seminal Safety by Design paper, bookmark the Research Center to stay updated and support Thorn’s critical work by donating here. Related Resources Thorn’s Safety by Design Initiative (News): https://www.thorn.org/blog/generative-ai-principles/ Safety by Design Progress Reports: https://www.thorn.org/blog/thorns-safety-by-design-for-generative-ai-progress-reports/ Thorn + SIO AIG-CSAM Research (Report): https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/ml-csam-report A transcript of this episode is here.
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Inclusive Innovation with Hiwot Tesfaye
Hiwot Tesfaye disputes the notion of AI givers and takers, challenges innovation as an import, highlights untapped global potential, and charts a more inclusive course. Hiwot and Kimberly discuss the two camps myth of inclusivity; finding innovation everywhere; meaningful AI adoption and diffusion; limitations of imported AI; digital colonialism; low-resource languages and illiterate LLMs; an Icelandic success story; situating AI in time and place; employment over automation; capacity and skill building; skeptical delight and making the case for multi-lingual, multi-cultural AI. Hiwot Tesfaye is a Technical Advisor in Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI and a Loomis Council Member at the Stimson Center where she helped launch the Global Perspectives: Responsible AI Fellowship. Related Resources#35 Navigating AI: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities a conversation with Hiwot TesfayeA transcript of this episode is here.
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The Shape of Synthetic Data with Dietmar Offenhuber
Dietmar Offenhuber reflects on synthetic data’s break from reality, relates meaning to material use, and embraces data as a speculative and often non-digital artifact. Dietmar and Kimberly discuss data as a representation of reality; divorcing content from meaning; data settings vs. data sets; synthetic data quality and ground truth; data as a speculative artifact; the value in noise; data materiality and accountability; rethinking data literacy; Instagram data realities; non-digital computing and going beyond statistical analysis. Dietmar Offenhuber is a Professor and Department Chair of Art+Design at Northeastern University. Dietmar researches the material, sensory and social implications of environmental information and evidence construction. Related Resources Shapes and Frictions of Synthetic Data (paper): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517241249390 Autographic Design: The Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World (book): https://autographic.design/ Reservoirs of Venice (project): https://res-venice.github.io/ Website: https://offenhuber.net/ A transcript of this episode is here.
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A Question of Humanity with Pia Lauritzen, PhD
Pia Lauritzen questions our use of questions, the nature of humanity, the premise of AGI, the essence of tech, if humans can be optimized and why thinking is required. Pia and Kimberly discuss the function of questions, curiosity as a basic human feature, AI as an answer machine, why humans think, the contradiction at the heart of AGI, grappling with the three big Es, the fallacy of human optimization, respecting humanity, Heidegger’s eerily precise predictions, the skill of critical thinking, and why it’s not really about the questions at all. Pia Lauritzen, PhD is a philosopher, author and tech inventor asking big questions about tech and transformation. As the CEO and Founder of Qvest and a Thinkers50 Radar Member Pia is on a mission to democratize the power of questions. Related ResourcesQuestions (Book): https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/23069/questions TEDx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/pia_lauritzen_what_you_don_t_know_about_questions Question Jam: www.questionjam.comForbes Column: forbes.com/sites/pialauritzen LinkedIn Learning: www.Linkedin.com/learning/pialauritzen Personal Website: pialauritzen.dk A transcript of this episode is here.
How is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) shaping our human experience?
Kimberly Nevala ponders the reality of AI with a diverse group of innovators, advocates and data scientists. Ethics and uncertainty. Automation and art. Work, politics and culture. In real life and online. Contemplate AI’s impact, for better and worse.
All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.
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