Socio-Cultural and Political Implications of Artificial Intelligence Summit

The Summit will showcase the research of GES Program students. Interactive student exhibitions will be on display, inviting participation from the broader Waterloo community. We hope to engage in important conversations about the impacts of Artificial Intelligence, such as automation of jobs, corporate ownership, biases of algorithms and privacy concerns. The objective is to contribute towards the development of meaningful responses to timely global issues.

The GES Program brings together students from across all six University faculties. It applies methods drawn from diverse disciplines to study global problems where politics, economics, science, philosophy, history, and technology intersect.

DAY 1 - APRIL 3, 2019

Roundtable 6:30pm-8:30pm

"Why Artificial Intelligence Matters: A round table discussion"

Featuring:

Mimi Onuoha - New Media Artist

Mimi Onuoha is a Nigerian-American, Brooklyn-based new media artist and researcher whose work deals with the missing and obscured remnants forged from a society based on automation. Through layerings of code, text, interventions, and objects, she seeks to explore the ways in which people are abstracted, represented, and classified.

David Jones - Executive Producer / Principal Program Manager at Microsoft

I work on a small multi-disciplinary team at Microsoft that explores the future of work through the lens of human-centered design. We recently expanded our scope to include life achievement & personal well-being. We build to learn, and share our research and ideas through experiential prototypes, videos, and immersive storytelling. My team is responsible for Microsoft’s Envisioning Center on our main corporate campus.

Diane Reynolds - Chief Data Scientist within IBM Watson Financial Services

Diane Reynolds works as the Chief Data Scientist for Customer Insights for Banking, Wealth Management and Insurance within IBM Watson Financial Services. Based in Toronto Canada she is responsible for a team of data scientists who build, adapt and integrate statistical and machine learning models for the Customer Insights solutions, train Watson engines on BlueMix for Regulatory Compliance Analytics and work with ICM devops to improve hardware performance and deliver value-added reports for clients.

Branka Marijan - Program Officer with Project Ploughshares

Branka leads the research on the military and security implications of emerging technologies. Her work examines ethical concerns regarding the development of autonomous weapons systems and the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on security provision and trends in warfare.

DAY 2 - APRIL 4, 2019

Student exhibitions 10am-5pm

• Guilt, Machines, and Confession: Trust in the Digital Age

• AI, will you work?

• Mood: An Exploration of Emotion Detection Algorithms

• Explaining Bias with Music

• AI: A People’s Perspective

• Bias in the Black Box

• ArtIfact: an overview of AI policy

• Project Matthias

Keynotes by 2019 GES Program Jarislowsky Fellows

• "Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Work" with David Jones
• "What Is Missing Is Still There" with Mimi Onuoha

AGENDA

Wednesday, April 3

6:00pm - 6:30pm: Registration

6:30pm - 8:30pm: "Why Artificial Intelligence Matters: A round table discussion" with Mimi Onuoha, David Jones, Diane Reynolds and Branka Marijan

Reception to follow

Thursday, April 4

9:30am - 5:00pm: Registration

10:00am - 5:00pm: Interactive Student Exhibitions

11:30am - 12:30pm: Lunch

12:00pm - 1:30pm: "Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Work" Keynote with David Jones

1:30pm - 2:00pm: Coffee Break

2:00pm - 3:30pm: "What Is Missing Is Still There" Keynote with Mimi Onuoha

3:30pm - 4:30pm: Coffee Break

5:00pm - 6:00pm: Dinner

6:30pm - 9:30pm: Student Presentations and Closing Remarks with Mimi Onuoha and David Jones

Reception to follow

REGISTRATION Options

Please register for one or more of the following:

April 3, 6:30pm - Roundtable and Reception

April 4,10:00am - Student Exhibitions, Lunch and Keynote (David Jones)

April 4, 2:00pm - Student Exhibitions, Dinner and Keynote (Mimi Onuoha)

April 4, 6:30pm - Student Presentations and Reception