2022 Session 2
Thursday, April 14, 2022 from 4 to 5:30 pm
Optional debriefing session from 5:30 to 6:00 pm with Julie Lee (CNS) and Angela Radulescu (CDS)
Meredith Broussard
Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, NYU
“Artificial Intelligence and Social Justice”
Abstract:
What are the practical implications of an AI-enabled world? As we think about the possibilities for digital campuses, corporations and communities in the future, it is important to keep in mind the limits of technology in solving social problems. Despite the optimistic promises of digital evangelists, it has become clear that most large-scale software systems exacerbate existing social inequality—especially in the case of racial injustice.
In this talk, author and professor Meredith Broussard looks at the inner workings and outer limits of technology, and explains why we should never assume that computers always get things right. Making a case against “technochauvinism”—the belief that technology is always the solution—Broussard looks at why self-driving cars don’t really work, why facial recognition amplifies racism, and why social problems persist in every digital Utopia. If we understand the limits of what we *can* do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we *should* do with it to make the world better for everyone.
Speaker Bio:
Meredith Broussard is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and the research director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology. She is the author of an upcoming book, More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech (MIT Press, 2023), as well as the 2018 book Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting, with particular interests in AI ethics and using data analysis for social good. She appears in the documentary “Coded Bias,” now streaming on Netflix. Her work has been supported by the Institute of Museum & Library Services, the Tow Center at Columbia Journalism School, and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. A former features editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she has also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Vox, and other outlets. Follow her on Twitter @merbroussard or contact her via meredithbroussard.com.
Recommended Readings:
- Artificial Unintelligence, chapters 1-3 and 6