Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard

Harvard Kennedy School of Government | Harvard University
STS Workshop
AI & Democracy Symposium poster

AI & Democracy Symposium: Where Should We Go and How Do We Get There?

April 30, 2024, 2:30pm-5:15pm
Harvard Kennedy School

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and democracy are ubiquitous topics on campuses today, but rarely are the two brought together in a meaningful way. To address this deficit, in Fall 2023, the Harvard STS Program hosted the Conference on AI & Democracy, to explore why the threats that AI poses to democracy cannot be solved by technical experts alone. Democratic institutions and political organizing are vital to our understanding of the nature of these threats and to devising innovative means of addressing them. On April 30, students in the Global Democracy Caucus at HKS are collaborating with the Harvard STS Program, with support from the Ash Center for Democracy, to bring together academics, policy-makers, and change agents for a series of conversations to push the discussion forward. This afternoon event will address these questions: what do we understand about the impacts AI may have on human lives and our ways of living together in the world, and how might we confront the possible risks of AI through more democratic, cross-sectoral, and cross-national forms of organization and action?

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FULL PROGRAM HERE

2:30 PM – 3:30PM

AI and Human Flourishing in Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspective

Rubenstein R-304

Angela Liberatore (European Research Council, Scientific Department)

Mathias Risse (Harvard Kennedy School)

Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)

Moderated by Nicole Bassoff (Harvard STS Program)

 

4:00  – 5:15 PM

AI and Democracy: Charting Pathways to Action

Taubman T-520 (Nye A/B)

Dahlia Peterson (U.S. Department of State)

Mark Lannigan (Office of U.S. Senator Ed Markey)

Callum Hood (Center for Countering Digital Hate)

Bruce Schneier (Harvard Kennedy School)

Moderated by Freddy Guevara (Global Democracy Caucus; HKS Nonviolent Action Lab)