June 2, 2021

Events

Art & AI Speaker Series

Join us on the first event of the Art & AI Speaker Series, an initiative carried by Marilène Oliver, lead of the Know Thyself as a Virtual Reality Collaboratory.

This series will be characterized by having two portions, first a presentation where our guest will expose their research followed by a technical demonstration in the shape of a workshop on a different day.

#1 ArtAIfacts: Co-Creation with Non-Human Systems by Dana Dal Bo

Recent advances in generative AI are rapidly blurring the lines between human and machine creation. Deep-fakes are being produced and distributed at an alarming pace with fidelity so dramatic it is increasingly difficult to distinguish what is ‘real’ and what is machine generated. In this presentation and workshop. Dana Dal Bo will consider how we might “co-create” with these systems and explore machine vision algorithms at a catalyst for artistic expression.

Presentation - 12pm (MDT) 3rd June 2021
Workshop - 10am (MDT) 4th June 2021
Register at https://forms.gle/BzGauXcbFJdAYNJT7
More information here

Automated Futures Symposium

Autonomous systems are the foundations of current technological advancement in both our industries and communities. As those who are at the forefront of this technology, we have both short-term goals for development and deployment as well as a long-term vision of the future. Do our visions align? Will our short-term goals lead us toward our long-term aims? Will the current work being undertaken in different sectors integrate harmoniously into a holistic, automated future?
In this symposium, we will address these issues through a dialogue that connects different areas of research and development on autonomous systems.

Keynote presenter Ibrahim Gedeon, Chief Technology Officer, TELUS
Speakers Chris Nash (President, AMTA), Nicole Janssen (Co-CEO, AltaML), Luc Pouliot (COO and CTO, PolyControls), Satvinder Flore (EVP Energy, Resources & Industry, WSP), Debi Larkin (Senior Application Specialist, 3M Canada)

More information Autonomous Systems Initiative
June 2nd, 2021 (9am-3pm), register here

Take Control of Algorithms, Data, and Infrastructure

Meredith Whittaker - In Conversation with Andrew Clement

Meredith Whittaker founded Google’s Open Research Group, co-founded M-Lab, and is a Minderoo Research Professor at New York University where she is co-founder and faculty director of the AI Now Institute. She has been an advisor to the White House, the FCC, the European Parliament among others on artificial intelligence and internet policy. Join Meredith is conversation with Andrew Clement, Professor Emeritus in University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information where he coordinates the Information Policy Research Program and co-founded the Identity Privacy and Security Institute.

Wednesday June 2, 2021 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Zoom link to event ryerson.zoom.us/j/91941276567
More information here

AI4Society Dialogs

Between January 11th and May 24th, 2021 we released the 10 episodes of Season One of our AI4Society Dialogues podcasts. On it, we hosted diverse talks with leading researchers across the disciplines at the University of Alberta, a global leader in artificial intelligence research. The podcast explores how researchers are constructing and using AI in the course of their work and examines opportunities, challenges and concerns as AI becomes an increasingly prevalent aspect of our world.

First season episodes:
Chapter 1: Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer (Computing Science). Building an AI research powerhouse at the University of Alberta.
Chapter 2: Dr. Michael Bowling (Faculty of Science, Computing Science). Game changing AI research.
Chapter 3: Dr. Cathy Adams (Faculty of Education, Secondary Education). Digital technology: the next killer app for education.
Chapter 4: Dr. Francois Bolduc (Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Pediatrics). Genetics, chatbots and the future of medicine.
Chapter 5: Dr. Michael Frishkopf (Faculty of Arts - Music). Advancing ethnomusicology with AI.
Chapter 6: Dr. Nidhi Hegde (Faculty of Science, Computing Science). Nidhi Hegde: Privacy, Ethics and AI.
Chapter 7: Dr. Noah Castelo (Business, Marketing, Business Economics, Law).
Relating to Robots.
Chapter 8: Dr. Jennifer Raso (Faculty of Law). Encoding the law: technology’s impact on institutional decision making
Chapter 9: Dr. Deb Verhoeven (Faculty of Arts, Womens & Gender Studies). Networked Data: Gender, Power and Relationships
Chapter 10: Dr. Rich Sutton (Faculty of Science, Computing Science). Reinforcement learning and the future of AI

Listen to all episodes on these platforms!

AI4Society Dialogues was a co-production between AI4Society, a signature research area at the University of Alberta and the Kule Institute for Advanced Research (KIAS), an endowed institute at the University of Alberta that supports research in the social sciences, humanities and fine arts.

We want to thank the team that worked very hard on this season:

Host: Katrina Ingram, Founder and CEO, Ethically Aligned AI
Technical Producer: Corey Stroeder
Special thanks to Dr. Scott Smallwood and the Sound Studies Institute at the University of Alberta for providing recording space.
Theme music: “Seeing the Future” by Dexter Britain

We also thanks our friends from the UofA Student Journalist Society for their insightful note on The Gateway online newspaper.

Looking for more podcasts? visit the UofA Podcast directory!

AI4Society
News

The Ethics of Datafication and AI

Our Associate Director Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell gave a talk on “The Ethics of Datafication and AI” for a course on Information Ethics, Politics and Policies in the Digital World for the Masters in Digital Humanities program at Linnaeus University.

We all want artificial intelligence to be responsible, trustworthy, and good... the question is how to get beyond principles and check lists. In this paper I will argue for the importance of the data used in training machines, especially when it comes to avoiding bias. Further, I will argue that there is a role for humanists and others who have been concerned with the datafication of the cultural record for some time. Not only have we traditionally been concerned with social, political and ethical issues, but we have developed practices around the curation of the cultural record. We need to ask about the ethics around big data and the creation of training sets. We need to advocate for an ethic of care and repair when it comes to digital archives that can have cascading impact – Geoffrey Rockwell

Anual Report

Interested on our activities of our first year? have a look to our annual report by clicking on the image above. We thank all our members, students and associates for your hard work and support, this is a shared success!

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.

Opportunities

Calls for Papers

Ethics in the Age of Smart Systems: Special Issue of IRIE

In collaborative partnership, the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin, the AI4Society Signature Area at the University of Alberta, and the Center for Digital Ethics and Policy at Loyola University Chicago call for papers for a collection with the title Ethics in the Age of Smart Systems - Special Issue of IRIE. This publication builds on the 10th Annual International Symposium of the Center for Digital Ethics and Policy. This Symposium was on the topic of Ethics in the Age of Smart Systems and was held on April 19th, 20th, and 21st. This Symposium brought together researchers from Canada, the USA, Germany and beyond working in the interdisciplinary area of AI, ethics and policy. It built upon a series of Ethics Dialogues that took place between February and March 2021.

CFP deadline for abstract: June 30th
More information here

Post Doc Openings

Post Doctorate Fellow in Health Data Science
The McMaster Centre for Transfusion Research

The Post-Doctorate Fellow will work and collaborate in a multi-disciplinary group of data scientists, clinicians, researchers, and graduate students. The candidate will have access to a large healthcare database centred on blood transfusion, inventory, laboratory tests, and administrative data in Ontario. The Post-Doctorate Fellow will contribute to the development of a comprehensive data platform for Transfusion Medicine interventions and outcomes. The candidate will analyze the data for emerging trends and predictions. The candidate will work closely with health professionals and clinical researchers in transfusion medicine to address relevant questions in health services research and outcomes.

Find the full call here

Scotiabank Postdoctoral Fellowship on Ethical and
Inclusive AI at the AI + Society Initiative

The AI + Society Initiative at the University of Ottawa is seeking candidates for a Scotiabank Postdoctoral Fellowship on Ethical and Inclusive AI that will support an innovative research program focused on reimagining how to design ethical and inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.
Applicants are encouraged to propose creative ideas for a postdoctoral fellowship, emphasizing how they plan to contribute to new knowledge in developing effective inclusive and participatory ethical design/engineering frameworks for AI systems that avoid the disturbing risk of amplifying global digital injustices through AI for marginalized populations (women, youth, seniors, Indigenous People, LGBTQIA+, racialized people, people with disabilities, and linguistic minorities—and those marginalized by intersecting oppressions).

Further details for the application can be found here
The selection committee will start to review applications on June 15, 2021.

Research Internships

Digital Health and Discovery Platform - Mitacs
Call for Proposals
DHDP Catalyst Program

A national mobilization and skill development program to engage key stakeholders, foster collaboration, share learnings and trigger new projects.

This program will support the development of innovative and interdisciplinary training internships that will directly contribute to the development of highly qualified personnel through work-integrated learning and advancement of state-of-the-art innovation, through which the benefits to the health and digital technology sector will be realized.

This initiative has three major goals:

Increasing AI data readiness of members to facilitate DHDP appliance deployment;
Develop AI specialists with appreciation of life sciences concepts and processes; and,
Upgrade clinical and scientific researchers' and trainees understanding of AI concepts to assist in science and health care.

The investments by our partners, like Mitacs, in training programs, R&D initiatives, and industrial internships will also develop a deep pool of expertise, with STEM graduates that have multi-disciplinary exposure, including AI, health-related topics, as well as in some cases entrepreneurship and business exposure.

Now accepting letters of Intent-LOI deadline: June 18, 2021.

More information here

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For information about
AI experts, and AI-related events and opportunities,
visit https://ai4society.ca