OffScript with Ge Wang | Episode 2: What Do We (Really) Want from AI in the Research World?

Event Details

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. PST

Event Type

Seminar

Location

Hybrid

Contact

Madeleine Wright
mwright7@stanford.edu
OffScript: The HAI Vodcast

Episode 2: What Do We (Really) Want from AI in the Research World?

Resources from Jessica Riskin: 

Preamble: 

  1. What do we (really) want from artificial intelligence?
  2. We live in a time when advancements in AI technology is shaping our world, while critically outpacing our understanding of this technology in various humanistic contexts (cultural, social, ethical, historical).
  3. Look at us, we are Stanford, one of the most powerful academic institutions, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. And yet it is all too easy to be in a profound bubble. Much of the world knows and cares about AI far less than we might assume. It is all too easy, also, to be sure of ourselves, as the technology creators, while remaining out of touch with the rest of the world. We tell ourselves that more technology is the solution—for technology is what we know, and we are eager to apply our craft. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to do so with a shallow understanding of the social, cultural, historical contexts—while not even considering the possibility that problems in the world are seldom “lack-of-technology” problems, but entrenched humanproblems (including technology itself). But of course, we keep moving fast because that is good for business. Even when we “design tech for social good”, we too often just end up making something slightly more convenient, because slightly more convenient fits the prevailing economic narrative. This is the bubble, the technology cave we don’t know we are living in.
  4. We need to interrogate ourselves to better understand how we as individuals and as communities would want to live with AI technology—and through our creations how we would want to live with one another. We will seek distinctions between intelligence and wisdom. (working definitions: “Intelligence—having the means to achieve what you desire. Wisdom—having  the capacity to assess your desires in the first place, and to assess the means to achieve them.”) So we ask again: what do we (really) want from it all?
  5. And above all, what does it mean to do AI with heart and compassion?

We will be looking forward to discussion with the live audience to address: 

  1. What do you (really) want from AI in the real world? —In your world?
  2. How do we want to live with our technologies?
  3. Through our technologies, how do we want to live with one another?
  4. What are the foregone premises in AI that we could re-think?

Speakers

ge wang

Ge Wang

Associate Professor, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA); Department of Music and, by courtesy, of Computer Science, Stanford University

Ge Wang is an Associate Professor at Stanford University. He researches the artful design of tools, toys, games, musical instruments, VR, and AI systems with humans in the interaction loop.

James Landay

James Landay

Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan Professor, School of Engineering, Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University; Denning Co-Director (Acting) of Stanford HAI

Vanessa Parli

Vanessa Parli

Director of Research

Vanessa Parli is the Director of Research at HAI. She leads the HAI grant programs, research convenings, student groups and “state of AI” reports such as the AI 100 and the AI Index where she is a member of the Steering Committee.

Jessica Riskin

Jessica Riskin

Frances and Charles Field Professor of History; Director, Graduate Teaching, Stanford University

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