Public lecture "The Algorithmification of Society: A wake-up call"

On 6 May, from 16:15 to 17:45, Dagmar Monett, Professor of Computer Science at Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany, will give a public lecture "The algorithmification of society: a wake-up call" in room 215 at Lossi 36 and on Zoom.

The algorithmification of society and the narratives used to make it appear inevitable serve specific interests, mostly profitable for and controlled by a few actors. It is not Artificial Intelligence (AI) in itself, but the utilitarian sophistication of optimisation mechanisms and the power structures behind them that profit from controlling all that we do, when and how we do it, our behaviours, and even ourselves.

This lecture calls for radical changes in dealing with the AI narratives that have monopolised recent public debates and discussions. For sharing a common understanding of the terminology and processes behind AI, some concepts related to AI and the factors that have allowed its current momentum will be explained. Examples of the ethical implications of AI-based technologies will be presented, too. If there is a path forward, it is not by algorithmificating our human foundations nor our humanness.

Dagmar Monett's research includes AI, in general, and some of its subfields, in particular, as well as AI ethics, digital ethics, software engineering methods and techniques, and computer science education. Part of her work focuses on intelligence research, particularly on defining and understanding both (machine) intelligence and the boundaries of its discourse.