AI: Oppression or Innovation?

Artificial Intelligence is constantly in the news, and the question on everyone’s mind is whether it will help us or replace us. But, of course, these decision-making systems are shaped by the work of many hidden humans, developing the technology, enriching and refining the data the AI depends on, and intervening when it fails.

So, will AI amplify our biases, or help us transcend them? Does AI simply distill our own ideas and reflect them back at us, or does it provide something new? And what democratic processes can, or should, govern the creation and uses of AI?

Stephanie Forrest, Cris Moore, and Melanie Moses will discuss their work on AI and algorithms in health, housing, criminal justice, cybersecurity, and energy. They’ll share their thoughts on where new tools like ChatGPT are taking us, and how we can build a hopeful future.

Stephanie Forrest is a Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University, where she directs the Biodesign Center for Biocomputation, Security, and Society, where she focuses on the intersection of biology and computation, including cybersecurity, software engineering, and biological modeling.

Cris Moore is a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute who studies the uses and misuses of algorithms in criminal justice and housing.

Melanie Moses is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico. She studies complex biological systems including the adaptive immune system and ant colonies, and she uses this understanding to design efficient, robust, adaptive and scalable engineered systems, including autonomous robots that mimic ant behaviors to collect resources cooperatively.