Previous AI Engagements and Events
While AI and other computational technologies are starting to make their mark across society, the general public might not be as well equipped to understand how these technologies work and impact their lives.
This might hinder them from actively advocating the use of technologies that will benefit them most, and most importantly, being unknowingly harmed by technologies that they view as benign without any way to rectify the situation.
To address this situation, we asked students studying the ethical impact of computational technologies in 2022 to engage communities around Pittsburgh and help them build technological fluency on tech-related issues that are relevant to them.
In 2020- 2021, the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University also held a series of events engaging the public online via talks and discussions
around the issue of AI ethics. Designed to be approachable and for the general audience inside the Pittsburgh community and abroad, these sessions included differing viewpoints of the ethics in AI usage and application in our day-to-day lives.
Community Engagements, 2022
Collaboration with Casa San Jose
Contributing students: Homanga Bharadhwaj, Ben Gafford, Behnam Mohammadi, Lincoln Smythe
The increasing number and variety of scams taking advantage of immigrant groups through the internet is a worrying trend. Due to the minimum moderation of the internet, the unique situation they face as they enter a new country, as well as inequitable access to reliable information sources, immigrant groups face a great challenge in detecting and acting on fraudulent information they receive through web pages, emails, messenger chats, texts, and calls. Our students collaborated with Casa San Jose in creating infographics and educational videos that aim to inform Latinx and other immigrant communities in Pittsburgh of such scams and how to act upon them.
Learn more about Casa San Jose on this link
Collaboration with Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC)
Contributing students: Mohammed Alsakabi, Cristin Connerney, Josh Kim, and Joe Yu
The rapid development of artificial intelligence and its adoption in major industries has led to a growing concern for the potential impacts on the white-collar workforce.The Community College of Allegheny County and our students have collaborated to host the The Future of Artificial Intelligence and the Workforce, to inform students and the educational community about the capabilities of AI. The goal of the panel is to dispel common misconceptions about AI, provide a picture of what may be expected, and share how to work symbiotically with future and developing technologies.
Past Engagements
July 27, 2021: Discussing Ethical perspectives of AI through Contemporary Gaming
Through the lens of the video game, Detroit: Become Human, panelists Professor Illah R. Nourbakhsh, Beatrix (Bea) Livesey-Stephens, Adya Danaditya, and Abhijat Biswas, discussed the future implications should intelligent AI become commonplace or sentient. Released in 2019 by Quantic Dream, this video game is a narration-driven adventure game set in the near future where humanoid androids are commonplace.
November 3, 2021: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity
Experts from Carnegie Mellon University—a worldwide leader in AI—and the University of Pittsburgh explored the intersection of technology in creative practices including music, architecture, and literature and AI will, and should, shape the future of human creativity. Panelists included professors Joshua Bard, Roger B. Dannenberg and Annettee Vee.
This panel was presented in partnership with the City of Asylum. City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating creative free expression. We provide sanctuary to endangered literary writers, so that the writers can continue to write and their voices are not silenced. We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange.
November 6, 2021: Where Does Our Mental Health Fit in a Digital Future
Presented in partnership with CompFest, this lecture discussed the good and bad effects of online platforms like social media and other forms of computer-mediated communications on our mental health and interpersonal relationship. The discussion reflected findings from CMU Professor, Robert E. Kraut's 25 years of research in this field and historical progresses in technology-mediated communication
CompFest is the biggest student-led computing and information technology conference in Indonesia, comprised of seminars, competitions, bootcamps and job fairs held annually.
December 1, 2021: All Tech Is Human University Summit
All Tech Is Human, a non-profit committed to building the Responsible Tech pipeline, held it's first Responsible Tech University Summit on December 1, 2021. Open to the entire community, this summit focused on uniting multiple stakeholders, discussing career paths and education journeys, and learning where the Responsible Tech movement is headed.
Founded in 2018 and based in Manhattan with a global audience, All Tech Is Human is a non-profit organization that has intentionally brought together a diverse range of individuals and organizations across civil society, government, and industry. Their aim is to grow the Responsible Tech field by promoting knowledge-sharing and collaboration among multiple stakeholders in order to co-create a better tech future.