Visiting Speaker

Due to circumstances beyond our control, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

The Chinese government has become increasingly involved in global standards-making events such as the annual Internet Governance Forum and China’s Wuzhen Internet Summit (aka the World Internet Conference) that leverage China’s national standing in international standards-building events to shape global the future of global Internet governance. At the same time, Chinese regulators are also exporting standards not through national, or international governance frameworks, but through the community standards of individual platforms. This talk examines how the Chinese government is expanding its regulatory control over global consumer platforms through the expansion of Chinese-owned consumer platforms.

When an earthquake happens in California today, residents may turn to Twitter for government bulletins and the latest news, check Facebook for updates from friends and family, look to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for online maps that show the quake's epicenter, and hope to count on help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This information order articulates a particular epistemic experience of earthquake...

Rayid Ghani was Chief Scientist of 2012 Obama Campaign. He is presently Distinguished Career Professor in Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University.

Facial recognition technology is sweeping into our public and private lives. The government is deploying it at the border and throughout law enforcement investigations. Technology companies are building it into their social networks. Employers are using it to monitor movements and productivity. As the technology becomes increasingly powerful, accurate, and versatile, it’s raising more and more privacy and civil liberties concerns, especially for marginalized or vulnerable populations. Christopher Calabrese, Vice President for Policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology will discuss the pros and cons of facial recognition technology, how it is changing many aspects of our lives, and how policymakers should address it.

Data science technology promises to improve people's lives, accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, and bring about positive societal change. Yet, if not used responsibly, this same technology can reinforce inequity, limit accountability, and infringe on the privacy of individuals. In my talk I will discuss recent technical work in scope of the "Data, Responsibly" project. The goal of this project is to establish a foundational new role for database technology, in which managing data in accordance with ethical and moral norms, and legal and policy considerations becomes a core system requirement.

Data science technology promises to improve people's lives, accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, and bring about positive societal change. Yet, if not used responsibly, this same technology can reinforce inequity, limit accountability, and infringe on the privacy of individuals. In my talk I will give an overview of the "Data, Responsibly" project that aims to operationalize ethics and legal compliance in data science systems. In particular, I will speak about my involvement in efforts to regulate the use of data science and AI in New York City, and about the imperative to establish a broad and inclusive educational agenda around responsible data science.

Where does Blackness manifest In the ideology of Western technoculture? Utilizing critical technocultural discourse analysis, Afro-optimism, and libidinal economic theory, this presentation employs Black Twitter as an exemplar of Black cyberculture: digital practice and artifacts informed by a Black aesthetic.