Dr. Kathryn “Katie” Conrad, professor of English at University of Kansas and a leading authority on Artificial Intelligence (AI), will speak about the ethics of the emerging technologies in a presentation at University of the Ozarks on Thursday, April 3, as part of the University’s Walton Arts & Ideas Series.
The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend.
The title of Conrad’s talk is, “Pandora’s Bot: The Ethics of Generative AI.” She will explore the world of generative AI and the ethical issues that it entails from development to deployment, asking us to consider how we think about technological change and what we value about human work.
“AI is appearing seemingly everywhere now–in music, text, video, presentation, translation, social media, education, and other applications as well in hundreds of bespoke apps.” Conrad said. “AI-generated material is also showing up in work emails, social media posts, advertisements, textbooks, and political ads. What is it? And why is it so controversial?”
Conrad is also the Dean’s Fellow for Humanities Advancement for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and affiliate faculty in the Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics at KU. Her primary research focus is on technology and culture, particularly but not exclusively with regard to contemporary AI; surveillance technologies; and technology in British, Irish, and Northern Irish literature and culture.
Her current research and work focuses on ethical questions that accompany the development, deployment, and use of generative AI tools. She is the author of “A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for Education,” and she has published several articles and book chapters on technology and culture. She is co-director (with Sean Kamperman) of the AI & Digital Literacy project, in partnership with the National Humanities Center.
She has also served as associate editor for Education Policy for Critical AI and on the founding advisory board for Harvard’s AI Pedagogy Project. She has spoken on topics including critical AI literacy, AI & writing, AI ethics, and AI risk & compliance at the University of Kansas, Rutgers University, and Kansas State University as well as on several webinars, panels, and podcasts.
Topics: WAIS
