Artists have a critical role for providing reflection, analysis, and exploration of every aspect of human experience. As humanity hovers on the verge of a dramatic leap towards integrating technology into the very definition of being human, disrupting our sense of purpose for living, and changing the meaning of life, we must use direct and indirect approaches to finding our bearings in a new future. No where are these questions more pressing than in search for ethics for the emerging artificial intelligence.
The Ethics and Technology Salon
The ethics of emerging technology is both a complex and complicated problem. Harnessing a curated collective consciousness of a group of intentionally diverse, professional experiences brings a different approach to research and policy discussions.
For the past year, the dinner salon for ethics and technology has hosted an eclectic mix of people. The guest list is engineered to balance the range of expertise and personalities and drive productive conversation. The guest list is kept intimate enough to have a singular conversation.
The purpose of these dinner salons is to promote deeper dialogue on human values and technological advances. The guest list is balanced between technologists, artists, academics, philosophers, psychologists, and experts from relevant fields to create rich dialogue about the evening’s topic. To hold a single conversation, dinner is limited to 12 guests. There are no outside business interests and our conversation is not recorded. The goal is to increase our individual and collective knowledge through discourse on emerging tech + ethics. nexus.
Dinners 1 & 2
With sophia Brueckner
Code of Ethics
It is an amazing time to be alive: technology can be harnessed to solve any problem- it seems limitless. It is hard to pause to question whose problems, benefit to whom, what is the cost, how are we making these decisions. What solutions are there if human progress comes at the expense of human values? Where do we turn to when there is a conflict in conscience; are we alone in these decisions? Is there accountability in our algorithms? Should there be? Doctors take a Hippocratic oath. Let’s discuss our code.
DinNER 3
With Jeannine Shinoda
Quantitative Ethics
There are many pockets in academia that are discussing problems in machine learning around the concepts of fairness, accountability, and transparency. Algorithmic decision making is becoming ubiquitous in all areas of our society. What are guidelines we can follow and contributions we can make towards a fairer future? Are we asking too much from our data?
Dinner 4
Chinese Censorship
Just last week, Springer Nature announced they have removed hundreds of articles at the request of the Chinese government on topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and human rights. Chinese censorship has been very successful and continues to grow. How is the relationship between China and our businesses influencing human rights globally? What are the ethical repercussions of doing business in China and what should be done to change them?
Dinner 4
AI and Creative Work
As AI becomes increasingly creative, are there some things that are outside the purview of technology? What role should artists have in shaping digital culture? How will advances in AI changeart, artists, and the art market?