Feb 4, 2019
Today, we’re chatting with Dr
Niels Wouters, Head of Research and Emerging Practice for Science
Gallery Melbourne and Research Fellow in the Interaction Design Lab
at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Wouters’ research focuses on
social good and the human element of technology, especially as it
pertains to AI and Human-Computer Interaction. A renowned speaker
across national and international media, Wouters regularly speaks
about the impacts of new technology on urban life. He has been
featured on The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC, BBC, The Washington
Times, World Economic Forum, Dazed Digital and CNN.
Dr Wouters is the creator of
Biometric Mirror, Stories of Exile, Encounters, and Street Talk.
His work will be featured in a permanent Science Gallery exhibit in
Melbourne.
During today’s discussions, Dr
Wouters will explain the purpose behind such fascinating projects
as Biometric Mirror and the implications of trusting an AI trained
on subjective data. He will also lead us through the journey of
Street Talk and the very human, life-changing connections made via
technology placed on the outside of homes in Belgium. How can
technology bring us together as a community? How might unreliable
AI be used against us in the future?
Today, we will explore these
questions and more with one of society’s most creative researchers
on Human-Machine Interaction, Dr Niels Wouters.
- Street Talk - What happens when you equip
family homes with technologies that engage the outside world?
Explore the results of note printers for passersby, LED ambient
noise detectors, and even a headphone that lets others hear the
conversations within the home.
- How
do we treat data privacy differently when looking at digital data
vs. linking people in analogue ways?
- How
did Dr Niels Wouters go from computer science to finance to
architecture to find a home here linking science, art, ethics, and
the human element?
- How
is Science Gallery bringing together artists and scientists to stir
interest in STEM among young adults? What’s happening with Science
Gallery in Melbourne?
- Biometric Mirror - How do people react to an AI
that determines their gender, age, ethnicity, weirdness,
aggression, and emotional instability? What if that data were used
against them for job selection or insurance rates?
- How
simple is it to build an AI from an unreliable dataset? And how
open are people to believe an assessment is correct due to the
simple fact it was made by a machine?
- What
is AI’s impact on human rights? What concerns does a university’s
ethics review committee have surrounding a project like Biometric
Mirror?
- What
are the ethics behind showing AI-generated attractiveness
assessments to young adults? Are young people more or less likely
to accept a machine-generated assessment as fact?
- Which
sci-fi future are we in the midst of creating? The Jetsons?
Bladerunner? Black Mirror? Or something else entirely?
- Eliza’s “granddaughter” shows up as a special
guest.
- What’s coming in the future? Will there be a
Biometric Mirror 3.0? Beyond facial recognition, what would happen
if Wouters hacked an Alexa to do unexpected things? How will
Biometric Mirror be used as an ethics probe? What’s next for
Science Gallery?
- What
two or three things could listeners and legislators do now to
jumpstart AI ethics in Australia?