AI at the University of Amsterdam
Launching the Research Priority Area Human(e) AI
Date: Wednesday May 15, 2019
Location: University of Amsterdam – Roeterseilandcampus. Registration starts at 9.00 (Hall of REC-A)
Watch the event live here
For over three decades, the University of Amsterdam has featured world-class research and education programs on artificial intelligence (AI). To continue and strengthen this tradition, we organize an event that brings together researchers working on AI technologies and on their societal applications and impact. This event also marks the launch of the new Research Priority Area (RPA) Human(e) AI, which aims to synthesise ongoing work and stimulate new research on the societal consequences of AI.
Researchers from all faculties at the UvA are warmly invited to the event of AI at the University of Amsterdam on May 15, 2019. This interdisciplinary one-day event will celebrate and showcase the diversity of AI research and education at the university. During the day, the Rector Magnificus and key UvA researchers will provide an overview of AI research at UvA and participate in panels discussing the three main foci of the new RPA Human(e) AI: AI & Society, AI & Public Values and AI & Science.
The event aims to bring together scholars interested in AI research by showcasing existing research and enabling networking in dedicated sessions with the purpose of considering interdisciplinary research projects that may be submitted for seed funding by the RPA. A call for seed funding will be launched immediately after the event.
Full program
9.00-9.30 Registration
Coffee and tea
9.30-10.15 Opening: AI at the University of Amsterdam
Chair: Julia Noordegraaf
Location: C0.01
- Opening by Rector Magnificus
- Keynote by Maarten de Rijke
- Introduction of new RPA by Natali Helberger
Plenary panels
Location: C0.01
Three plenary panels will develop the thematic foci of the new RPA.
10.15-11.00 Panel I: AI & Society
Panelists: Maarten de Rijke, Bernhard Rieder, Claes de Vreese, Raquel Fernández
Chair: Theo Araujo
The migration to more data-driven and machine-learning enabled forms of decision making will directly affect the actual decision making processes and players involved. Societal issues and effects on individuals and groups need investigation, including the influence on trust and individual and collective participation in the political system, economy, and culture. The panel will bring different perspectives towards a research agenda about the host of new legal, ethical and societal questions about the adequate division of tasks, legal and ethical responsibilities, fundamental rights and societal impact of these technologies.
11.00-11.20 coffee
11.20-12.05 Panel II: AI & Values
Panelists: Natali Helberger, Ulle Endriss, Beate Roessler, Iris van Domselaar
Chair: Jef Ausloos
There is clearly the need for more conceptual, normative research into the fundamental rights, societal values and ethics of automated decision making, what these values are and should be, and how they must guide automated decision making. The panel will discuss how such research can be articulated and, in particular, how these values should be developed in tandem with technical research.
12.05-12.50 Panel III: AI & Science
Panelists: Max Welling, Sonja Smets, Han van der Maas, Julia Noordegraaf, Ivana Isgum
Chair: Thomas Poell
AI technology invites continuous critical assessment of the origin and composition of data, how technology processes data and shapes its output, and requires the participation of societal actors. The panel will provide input towards a research agenda that includes the development of strategies to translate normative frameworks for evaluating bias, detecting presupposed notions of meaning in reasoning processes, explaining the effect of epistemic and rationality assumptions, analyzing methods to boost comprehensibility, explainability and interpretability, and formulating recommendations for best practices and methodological criteria.
12.50-14.00 Lunch
Location: REC-A – Het Eiland (balcony above the hall)
14.00-16.45 parallel workshops
Locations to be announced at the registration (in the morning), and at 13.45 at the Hall of REC-A
These sessions are reserved for UvA members eligible for seed funding, and for PhD candidates and lecturers interested in joining the discussions
Workshop sessions to formulate initial proposals for interdisciplinary research projects along the three thematic foci: (1) Society (2) Values and (3) Science
- 14.00-14.15 Information about seed funding and call for proposals
- 14.15-15.00 Fishbowl format: exploring the problem space and freely formulating initial ideas for research proposals within the chosen track.
- 15.00-15.15 Participants get the opportunity to create one slide for a potential research project, following the fishbowl conversation.
- 15.15-16.00 Participants can pitch their research project, which they have just formulated or brought to the event.
- 16.00-16.45 Networking on research proposals. Participants split up in smaller groups to discuss the research ideas that have been pitched.
17.00-18.30 Closing statements and networking drinks
Location: Hall of REC-A
Natali Helberger, Claes de Vreese and Sonja Smets