This retreat will bring together researchers from across disciplines and departments at Western to look ahead to future normative, political, and technological dimensions of anticipated impacts that AI will have on democracies. There is already a substantial body of scholarship exploring the ways in which new technologies have impacted democratic practices and institutions and their social, epistemic, and infrastructural dependencies, but by necessity much of this has had to had to play catch-up with rapidly changing technologies, techniques and policies, and the longer timelines at which empirical work develops.

Hosted by The Rotman Institute of Philosophy, this retreat invites speculative and extrapolative conversations to connect the research communities here at Western who are working in related areas, to foster connections and collaborations, and to explore cross-disciplinary and big-picture questions. Which challenges are truly new and novel, which kinds conceptual and normative re-imagining and re-engineering might be required, which issues are important but currently out of frame, what kinds of research are most urgently needed? How can researchers engage productively with the public discussions that often emerge at inflection points, such as the upcoming Canadian and US elections?

When: Wednesday, May 1st from 11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Where: WIRB 4190; WIRB 3000

Schedule:

Networking & Lunch – 11:00 a.m. – 1:20 p.m WIRB 4190
All afternoon sessions – 1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. WIRB 3000

More details forthcoming.

Image credit: Freepik