Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Why do we fear Artificial Intelligence (and should we)?

Can we not stand the thought of non-humans being more intelligent than us? Or are we perhaps afraid that artificial superintelligence will do to us, what humans tend to do to the creatures we outsmart? In a multi-disciplinary evening we will debate our fear of AI through the lens of ethics, philosophy, and art.

Cees Snoek will elaborate on our thinking of, and interaction with artificial intelligence. How can we live well and be happy in the face of super-smart technology, and use it to our advantage?

Researcher and art curator Anne Rogers will take us on a visual journey through the depictions of AI, in her fascinating research project on communication, perceptions and understanding of Artificial Intelligence, and will take the audience along in some analysis of, for instance, AI stock imagery.

Patricia de Vries, finally, researches AI from a philosophical perspective. Debates on the future of AI often centre around the anxiety about the loss of autonomy. De Vries will argue that ideas of what the self is and what knowledge might achieve is a major cause of anxiety about the future of AI. She will discuss how our relation to AI is shaped by our understanding of what knowledge actually entails, followed by a panel discussion with the speakers and the audience.

About the speakers

Cees Snoek is professor Intelligent Sensory Information Systems at the UvA, focusing on video and image recognition. He heads the UvA’s Intelligent Sensory Information Systems Lab as well as the QUVA Lab, a joint research facility with Qualcomm on deep learning and computer vision.

Anne Rogers is an art and design consultant specializing in visual storytelling, strategic partnerships, and arts programming for brands and corporations. Her primary interests lie in projects that bridge relationships between art and technology, exploring the impact of technology through innovative, participatory art practice. She is the founder of creative and curating consultancy Culture A.

Patricia de Vries is a PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures, in The Netherlands.