October 14, 2019
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Title: Artificial Intelligence and Our Future World
Abstract: What are the practical implications of an AI-enabled world? As we think about the possibilities for digital campuses, corporations and communities in the future, it is important to keep in mind the limits of technology in solving social problems. Despite the optimistic promises of digital evangelists, it has become clear that most large-scale software systems exacerbate existing social inequality.
In this talk, author and professor Meredith Broussard looks at the inner workings and outer limits of technology, and explains why we should never assume that computers always get things right. Making a case against “technochauvinism” — the belief that technology is always the solution — Broussard looks at why self-driving cars don’t really work and why social problems persist in every digital Utopia. If we understand the limits of what we *can* do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we *should* do with it to make the world better for everyone.
Bio: Meredith Broussard is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and the author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting, with a particular interest in using data analysis for social good. She is an affiliate faculty member at the Moore Sloan Data Science Environment at the NYU Center for Data Science, a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, and her work has been supported by the Institute of Museum & Library Services as well as the Tow Center at Columbia Journalism School. A former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she has also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab. Her features and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Vox, and other outlets. Follow her on Twitter @merbroussard or contact her via meredithbroussard.com.