On March 21, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Artificial Intelligence, calling for the “promotion of ‘safe, secure and trustworthy’ artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will also benefit sustainable development for all” (UN News). That the United Nations was moved to pass this resolution suggests that a) Artificial Intelligence is a new and emergent part of human life that needs to be addressed at the global level and b) there are serious concerns about the dangers posed by the current and future use of Artificial Intelligence.
This year’s Challenge Week will help us think through the hopes and concerns expressed in the UN’s resolution: what might the explosive use and development of AI mean for
- labor, education, and art;
- our ability to make and analyze meaning and knowledge;
- the relationship between citizens and states and inter-state relations?
All events are free and open to the public.
AI: The Past & Future of Meaningful Work
Cole Makuch, IBM
Monday, September 23
College of Business Auditorium
4:30-5:30 PM (with refreshments starting at 4:00)
Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence technology threaten to automate and replace human knowledge labor in domains previously thought untouchable by machines. While the breadth of industries affected by AI might be wider than with any other innovation in generations, the story of technology replacing people’s jobs has millenia of historical precedent. I will use the example of elevator operators replaced by automation by the 1970s along with other historical cases of labor replacement to show how technology replaces human jobs, who wins and loses from these changes, and how the impact from AI might be different than the impact from preceding technologies. I will also examine some more existential questions related to human labor including, ‘does everyone need to be employed, anyways?’ Cole Makuch is a Senior Strategy Consultant for IBM where day-to-day he works on projects related to IT modernization for large enterprises. Cole has also collaborated with IBM Research, where he has contributed to publications on Reinforcement Learning (RL) AI, and they help mentor IBM researchers seeking to pitch their AI startup ideas to leadership.
Mirrors of Meaning: AI as a new instrument in the study of culture
Dr. Zachary Stine, UCA Computer Science Department
Tuesday, September 24
Doyne Lecture Hall
5:00-6:00 PM (with refreshments starting at 4:30)
Recent advancements in generative language models have brought questions around AI and meaning into the public consciousness. But how is meaning extracted from (or projected onto) data by such models? And what exactly does “meaning” really mean in the context of such models? In this talk, Dr. Zachary Stine will argue that such models of meaning can be usefully understood as a kind of descriptive tool that enables new ways of viewing and analyzing our collective meaning-making activities. He will then highlight burgeoning areas of research in which humanities scholars and scientists are coming together to study culture in creative and exciting ways. Dr. Stine joined the UCA Department of Computer Science and Engineering as assistant professor in 2022 where he teaches classes on artificial intelligence and machine learning. He conducts research that involves the use of computational methods to study human sociocultural systems.
Teaching, Learning, & Thinking in an age of AI
Panel Discussion
Dr. Donna Wake, UCA Education
Dr. Vicki McDonald, UCA Biology
Dr. Zach Smith, UCA History
Moderated by Dr. Jen Talbot, UCA Communication with introductions by Dr. Amy Hawkins
Wednesday, September 25
Schichtl Room 115
5:00-6:00 PM (with refreshments starting at 4:30)
The availability of AI platforms such as ChatGPT has been for educators and students alike a source of both deep concern and excitement, aversion and attraction. In the spring of 2024, UCA’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Leadership led a faculty symposium on the use of AI in education. The goal of this panel is to not only share perspectives and understandings that emerged from this symposium, but to engage with students in the audience about their use of and thoughts on AI in their education.
Global Perspective on AI Messaging
Shazeda Ahmed
Thursday, September 26
College of Business Auditorium
7:00-8:00 PM (refreshments following)
How we talk about AI matters. More specifically, how experts and policymakers talk about the future of AI matters. How are people framing the future of AI? What do people think AI is capable of doing and becoming? Are they excited or concerned? How is AI entering conversations about national and global security? Shazeda Ahmed, Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, will help us understand and explore current conversations around AI. Who is shaping and driving these conversations and why? How is AI messaging shaping national policies?
Shazeda Ahmed is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center on Race and Digital Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information. Her research has explored how tech firms and the Chinese government co-produced the country’s social credit system, the political economy and human rights implications of emotion recognition technologies in China, and the epistemic culture of the emerging field of AI safety. Previously, she has been a research fellow at Upturn, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) Institute, NYU’s AI Now Institute, and Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.
Creativity Redefined: AI’s Impact on the Future of Artistic Expression
Holly Laws and Scott Meador, UCA Art Department
Friday, September 27
Schichtl Room 115
3:00-4:00 PM (with refreshments starting at 4:00)
AI’s ability to generate pieces of writing and images has added complexity to a long-standing philosophical question: what is art? Holly Laws and Scott Meador will share their experiences using AI in their creative endeavors and will help us explore what AI might mean for the future of art and art professionals.
Challenge Week Trivia Night!
Hosted by UCA Honors with MC Amber Wilson
Friday, September 27
Skinny J’s off of Dave Ward
7:00-9:00 PM
Cap off Challenge Week with an AI trivia challenge! Questions will be sourced from the week’s events and beyond. Starter appetizers and sodas will be provided.
