APRIL 5th, 2023

Ethics Salon: Perspectives on the New Chatbots and Their Impact

AI4Soceity Ethics Salon Collaboratory presents a conversation featuring experts in the field from Philosphy (Howard Nye, Amy M Schmitter) and Computer Sciences (Alona Fyshe, Matthew Guzdial) departments from the University of Alberta.

There has been a proliferation of new chatbots such as Open AI's chatGPT, Microsoft's Bing, and Google's Bard, that are based on powerful new language models. Initial experimentation on the released versions of these tools have impressed many and have elicited a range of reactions from excitement for AI in the future to fear about the power of AI.

This conference, hosted by Nagoya Zokei University, is organized in collaboration with the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies, the University of Alberta, the University of Delaware, Bath Spa University, Seijoh University, DiGRA Japan, and Liege Game Lab. This conference, the 11^th collaboratively organized event, focuses broadly on Japanese game culture, education, and industry. It aims to bring together a wide range of researchers and creators from many different countries to present and exchange their work.

The main theme of the conference this year will be “Local Communities, Digital Communities and Video Games in Japan.” With the recent interest in the Metaverse and the continuing popularity of titles with strong social elements, digital games are seen more and more as social platforms in their own rights — virtual meeting spaces for digital communities. At the same time, from department store rooftop amusement parks and pachinko parlours, to living room and portable consoles, the history of gaming in Japan is inextricably tied with the changing social fabric of local communities.

Deadline extended to April 15th!

Read our 2021-2022 Report

Curious about our work this past year? Have a look at our interactive report, learn about our goals, success stories, our members’ work and its educational, research, and social impact.

New web presence for AI at the UoA

Opportunities

Frontier Development Lab: AI-focused postdocs

Interdisciplinary team-work is at the heart of the FDL philosophy, and our experience with previous participants has shown that the mix of skillsets creates results far bigger than the sum of the individual parts. Working closely together during the intense eight-week research sprints, teams have achieved outputs that might otherwise have taken years.

Our international network is growing, and provides great value for its members, many of whom have continued work on projects they began at FDL.

Researchers have gone on to join some of the world’s most prestigious tech, earth observation companies and academic institutions in a variety or roles. FDL projects have been featured in peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations, posters and numerous news features.

France - Canada collaboration opportunities

The French Embassy in Canada has a list of excellent opportunities for France-Canada programs, here a list of them and links to their full descriptions:

• FCRF fund, a 2-year mobility fund ($15 000) to fund research and student mobility between the two countries http://francecanadaculture.org/france-canada-research-fund/
  Call is open in Fall.
• Mourou/Strickland program aiming at funding new collaborations (travel and one-week accommodation expenses are covered). The success rate is around 40%.
  Call is open at the beginning of the year.
  http://francecanadaculture.org/mourou-strickland-mobility-program/
• MITACS/French embassy GRA program funds mobility of young researchers (MSc, PhD, post-doc) from Canada to all research institutions in France.
  The call is open all year long. There are still some funds available for 2023. https://www.mitacs.ca/en/programs/globalink/globalink-research-award
• French + Sciences program, a new summer school program that combines learning French (or improving it) and exploring a scientific field among the followings: Ocean, Sustainable development, Energy and Micro/Nanotechnology. The success rate is around 30%. http://francecanadaculture.org/frenchsciences-program/
• Case-by-case subvention, allowing funding special initiatives such as French-Canadian workshops or research mobility.

Who
Any UofAlberta community member (faculty, researcher, or student) interested in any and all aspects of Artificial Intelligence!

Why

• To stay informed about AI-related funding opportunities and events (research grants, internships, competitions, ...)
• To access AI4Society support for research and teaching initiatives
• To profile your research and to collaborate with other community members, through our Forum.

How
Send an email with a brief description of your affiliation, interests, and activities related to artificial intelligence to ai4s@ualberta.ca.