Monday, March 1, 2021 at 4 pm: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=41566 (it will be archived at the same link)

I thought this would be of interest to people here, especially to those interested in AI alignment.

The full announcement follows:

National Library of Medicine Lecture on Science, Technology & Society – “Atlas of AI: Mapping the social and economic forces behind AI”

Please join us on Monday, March 1 at 4 pm, when Dr. Kate Crawford will deliver the inaugural annual National Library of Medicine (NLM) Lecture on Science, Technology, and Society, entitled, “Atlas of AI: Mapping the social and economic forces behind AI.” The lecture will be videocast and is open to all https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=41566.   

Dr. Crawford is the inaugural Visiting Chair of AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure, as well as a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and the cofounder of the AI Now Institute at New York University. 

NLM is pleased to have her launch this annual series, which aims to raise awareness and spark conversations about the intersection of societal and ethical considerations with the conduct of biomedical research and the use of advanced technologies. 

Machine learning systems are already playing a significant role in many of our social institutions, including healthcare, education, hiring and criminal justice. Despite the patina of objectivity and neutrality, many scholars have shown how these systems can reproduce and intensify forms of structural bias and discrimination. In this talk, Dr. Crawford shares insights from her new book, Atlas of AI, to show the historical origins, labor practices, infrastructures, and epistemological assumptions that underlie the production of artificial intelligence. The classificatory logics and predictive approaches raise challenges that extend well beyond the current bias debate. Dr. Crawford offers new paths for thinking through the research ethics and policy implications of the turn to machine learning, which are increasingly urgent in a time of a pandemic and growing inequality in the United States.

Dr. Crawford is a leading scholar of science, technology, and society. Over a 20-year career, her work has focused on understanding large scale data systems and AI in the wider contexts of history, politics, labor, and the environment. Dr. Crawford has held academic positions around the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Sydney, New York University, Microsoft Research, and the École Normale Supérieure. Her collaborative projects, Anatomy of an AI System and Excavating AI, have won international awards including the Ayrton Prize, and she has contributed to policy discussions across the US, EU, UK and Australia. Her research has been published in journals such as Nature, New Media & Society, Science, Technology & Human Values, and her writing has appeared in venues such as The New York Times, Harpers’ Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

This lecture is sponsored by Dr. Michael Huerta, Associate Director of the National Library of Medicine and Director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives. This lecture will be live-streamed globally, and subsequently archived, by NIH videocasting: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=41566   

Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate in this event should contact Maryam Zaringhalam, maryam.zaringhalam@gnih.gov and/or the Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339. Requests should be made five days in advance. 

Submit questions during the meeting to: maryam.zaringhalam@nih.gov.