Lecturers
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As artificial intelligence begins to infiltrate various aspects of public life, from surveillance systems to algorithmic decision-making, it brings opportunities and challenges for democratic societies. Amongst privacy, surveillance, bias, and authorship concerns, it becomes easy to imagine an expanse of dystopian futures. A.I. features prominently in speculation of Existential Risk (Bostrum, 2002) and the numerous dystopian depictions of societal collapse driven by A.I. in science fiction provides plenty of material for anxiety. Many of these speculative horror scenarios are entering the everyday parlance of technology: the Alignment Problem (Gabriel, 2020), A.I. arms race (Moore, 2016), Superintelligence (Bostrom, 1998) andThe Singularity(Chalmers. 2016). There are inherently more ways for any system to go wrong than to go right: how do we increase the chance of our future with A.I. going in the right direction for the planet and for humanity, instead of the numerous ways to go wrong? Many of the utopian scenarios being provided to us, however, come from people and organisations that stand the most to profit from the rapid and uncontrolled uptake of A.I. technology. For this reason, it is critical that we have an alternative source of visions beyond the solutionism (Morozov, 2013) of Silicon Valley.
Unfortunatly, we are already experiencing some of the dangerous eventualities of Generative A.I. The shift of political discourse to social media has also left our internal and interpersonal realm vulnerable to A.I.-based political manipulation. Yet, AI is now inseparable from all possible future trajectories: finding a non-zero-sum relationship with AI is a societal and ecological imperative.
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In this module, we will build experimental futures for democracy in a spatial context. The course will work in collaboration with researchers from the SNF project “Stories of the Future”, a scientific communication project which aims to sensitize young people in Switzerland to the political and ethical nature of AI.
References
Possible references:
https://www.peopledemocracy.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TYT1QfdfsM&ab_channel=Computerphile
Exercises / Tasks Ideas:
Developing a democratic discourse with AI.
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Week 1 | Monday, 29.04. | Tuesday, 30.04. | Wednesday, 01.05. | Thursday, 02.05. | Friday, 03.05. |
morning | 9:00 Kick-off & Introduction (ZT 4.K14 Seminarraum) | Start “Data, AI and Democracy in the City” Workshop with Ramona | Workshop with Ramona | ||
afternoon | Introduction Workshop with Ramona: “Data, AI and Democracy in the City” | Workshop with Ramona | Workshop with Ramona | ||
Week 2 | Monday, 6.05. | Tuesday, 7.05. | Wednesday, 8.05. | Thursday, 09.05. | Friday, 10.05. |
morning | Presentation of workshop results (In Zurich city, or 5.K06 Aktionsraum for bad weather) | Task 1 Introduction (4.T06 Seminarraum) Task 1 execution | Task 2 Execution | ||
afternoon | 13:00 Input Jérôme and his team (5.K06 Aktionsraum) | Task 1 execution Task 1 presentation & discussion 16:00 Task 2 Introduction (4.T06 Seminarraum) | Task 2 Execution | ||
Week 3 | Monday, 13.05. | Tuesday, 14.05. | Wednesday, 15.05. | Thursday, 16.05. | Friday, 17.05. |
morning | task 2 presentation & discussion (Possible Zoom presentation) | Concept Development | Concept + Prototype Development | Concept + Prototype Development | |
afternoon | Concept Development | 13:00 Concept Mentoring (Via Zoom) ( Luke in PhD Meeting 13.30-14.45)5 | Concept + Prototype Development | Concept + Prototype Development | |
Week 4 | Monday, 20.05. | Tuesday, 21.05. | Wednesday, 22.05. | Thursday, 23.05. | Friday, 24.05. |
morning | (09-12:30 Streichen BA Finals) Concept + Prototype Development | Group work/Production | Group work/Production | Group work/Production | |
afternoon | 14:00 Prototype Presentation & Steering Meeting (ZT 5.F01 Seminarraum) | 13:00 Mentoring (Atelier) Group work/Production | Group work/Production | Group work/Production | |
Week 5 | Monday, 27.05. | Tuesday, 28.05. | Wednesday, 29.05. | Thursday, 30.05. | Friday, 01.06. |
morning | Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production |
afternoon | 13:00 Technical Support LF (Atelier) | 13:00 Mentoring (Atelier) | 13:00 Technical Support LF (Atelier) Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production | Group work/ Production |
Week 6 | Monday, 03.06. | Tuesday, 04.06. | Wednesday, 05.06. | Thursday, 06.06. | Friday, 07.06. |
morning | (BA Thesis exhibition round) | Group work | Vernissage / Final Presentation | documentation/ reflection | documentation |
afternoon | Group work | Group work | Vernissage / Final Presentation | documentation/ reflection | documentation |
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