Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022: Speakers and sessions announced
The full complement of speakers and sessions for Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022 have been revealed. The annual academic conference hosted by the Schwartz Reisman Institute will be held virtually from June 20–22, and features speakers from UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Google Brain, Harvard, McGill, Microsoft, New York University, University of Southampton, the University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo.
The schedule and speakers for Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022 have been announced. Now in its second year, the annual academic conference hosted by the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society convenes leading thinkers from a rich variety of fields to engage in unique interdisciplinary conversations that will inspire insights at the forefront of contemporary research.
“We are excited to host a remarkable group of speakers for this year’s Absolutely Interdisciplinary,” says SRI Executive Director Monique Crichlow. “Each panel has been developed by our research leads to showcase how integrating diverse areas of scholarship brings new questions and solutions to the table. The event will demonstrate not only the range of research currently being conducted at SRI, but how the connections formed by the institute are generating new inspiration and approaches.”
The conference begins on June 20th with a graduate workshop centered on the theme of “Technologies of Trust.” On June 21st and 22nd, the event will convene 17 speakers across six sessions. Speakers from a variety of academic disciplines and industries—including computer science, philosophy, law, public policy, and evolutionary biology—will explore research, share ideas, and help foster new ways of thinking about the challenges presented by artificial intelligence (AI) and other powerful technologies.
➦ Visit the Absolutely Interdisciplinary website and explore the 2022 schedule.
Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022’s featured guest speakers: Boris Babic (University of Toronto), Finale Doshi-Velez (Harvard), Eric Horvitz (Microsoft), Aziz Z. Huq (University of Chicago), Natasha Jaques (Google Brain), Kate Larson (University of Waterloo), Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto), Taylor Owen (McGill), Robert Seamans (New York University), Pamela Snively (TELUS), Jonathan Stray (UC Berkeley), Richard Watson (University of Southampton).
Day one: Data boundaries, justifiable AI, and social learning
A variety of legal tools help respect the rights of companies, allowing them to draw fences around the data they collect and process for their own private incentives. However, access to this data can be a valuable public resource, with numerous potential benefits for social good. Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022 kicks off with “Redrawing data boundaries,” a panel convened by SRI Associate Director Lisa Austin featuring guest speakers Aziz Z. Huq (University of Chicago), Eric Horvitz (Microsoft), Robert Seamans (New York University), and Pamela Snively (TELUS), who will discuss the potentials of public data access, how data about persons would be affected by the construction of public data trusts, and how to balance the interests of data subjects and the public good in an increasingly data-driven world.
Calls for AI to be “explainable” have been mounting in recent years as new AI systems increasingly contribute to decision-making processes in healthcare, law, and public policy. This assertion for a “right to explanation” is also beginning to appear in proposed legislation governing the use of AI, which has spurred developers to provide accounts for the factors that influence an AI system’s decisions. But is explanation enough? In “Explanation and justification in AI,” SRI Director and Chair Gillian Hadfield moderates a discussion between computer scientist Finale Doshi-Velez (Harvard University) and philosopher Boris Babic (University of Toronto) that asks if what we really need from our AI systems is not actually explanation, but rather justification—an account of the reasons that show a decision is consistent with governing rules and principles.
Finally, in “Natural and artificial social learning” SRI Associate Director Sheila McIlraith moderates a discussion between affective computing researcher Natasha Jaques (Google Brain) and philosopher Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto) that will explore the power of social learning. Across both the animal kingdom and human societies, principles of cooperation and emulation enable groups to improve their abilities and outperform others who go it alone. This session will investigate the foundations of social learning, how social learning principles can be utilized to build better AI systems, and what we can learn from these applications about this remarkable feature of natural intelligence.
SRI Research Leads Lisa Austin, Gillian Hadfield, Peter Loewen, Sheila McIlraith, Denis Walsh, and Wendy H. Wong will each present one of the six main conference sessions at Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022.
Day two: Human rights, collective agency, and democratic algorithms
At the start of the conference’s second day, Absolutely Interdisciplinary shines further light on how digital data is shaping the world we live in. In “From subjects to stakeholders: Human rights and datafication,” SRI Research Lead Wendy H. Wong explores how the quantification of our existences through digital information poses new challenges for one of the major political innovations of the 20th century: international human rights. While the “stickiness” of data poses unique tensions for the paradigm of human rights, Wong contends that they are nonetheless an essential tool in enabling us to become stakeholders in today’s digital landscape.
What can the evolution of collective agency in natural agents teach us about the design of artificial agents, and what can the experience of designing artificial agents teach us about our own evolution? In “Collective agency in evolution and AI,” SRI Research Lead Denis Walsh is joined by Kate Larson (University of Waterloo) and Richard Watson (University of Southampton) to explore these questions through the intersecting lenses of computer science and evolutionary biology.
In the conference’s final session, “Building democratic social choice into recommender systems,” SRI Associate Director Peter Loewen will be joined by Taylor Owen (McGill University) and Jonathan Stray (UC Berkeley) to explore ideas around recommender systems—the powerful algorithms that guide what we encounter when searching, clicking, and scrolling on digital platforms. While the current design of most recommender systems respond primarily to user engagement metrics, could these tools be built to adhere to broader democratic principles? What forms of consultation and design would be required to reshape tools designed to generate clickbait towards strengthening democracy?
Join us on June 20th
By combining unique perspectives across a broad variety of fields, Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022 promises to be another landmark SRI event, in which participants will learn and explore alongside some of the foremost minds engaged with pressing questions concerning the role of powerful new technologies in shaping the society we live in—and the society we want to build.
Registration for Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022 is now live, with student discounts and group rate pricing available. For any questions, accessibility concerns, or media inquires, please contact the SRI communications team.
UPDATE - JUNE 3, 2022: Due to a scheduling conflict, Wendy H. Wong is no longer able to present at Absolutely Interdisciplinary 2022. SRI Faculty Fellow Anna Su will instead give a talk entitled “Digital constitutionalism and the futures of digital governance.”
