UHR-Humaniora and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bergen invite to a conference on artificial intelligence and the humanities on May 31st.

The event will be in Norwegian.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up new possibilities for how we communicate, create art, and participate in democracy. However, while the development of AI is often led by quantitative disciplines, there is a growing need for insights from the humanities. The deep understanding of texts and cultural expressions provided by the humanities is crucial for guiding the development of AI in ways that both respect and reflect human experience and cultural diversity.

The goal of the conference is to emphasize the important role of the humanities in the development and understanding of AI. Therefore, we aim to create a forum where humanities researchers can share knowledge, explore new ideas and methods, and build networks that can strengthen the humanities’ contribution to AI research. The conference will thus shed light on the ethical, cultural, and societal implications of AI, and how the humanities contribute and can contribute to this exploration.

The program is still under development and will be updated and adjusted in spring 2024.

Program
Host: Journalist and former culture and debate editor at Bergens Tidende, Hilde Sandvik.

09:00 Welcome

09:15 Language and Language Models

Samia Touileb, MediaFutures, University of Bergen: What is a language model, and what does it mean that we are getting Norwegian language models?
Trond Trosterud, UiT The Arctic University of Norway: Is artificial intelligence good for the Sami language?
Pierre Lison, University of Oslo: Can artificial intelligence understand language? (Pierre Lison, Norwegian Computing Center/UiO)

10:30 Break

10:45 Artificial Culture and Media

Taina Bucher, University of Oslo: Communicating with AI
Scott Rettberg and Jhave Johnston, Center for Digital Storytelling, University of Bergen: AI & storytelling

12:00 Lunch

13:00 Using AI in Research

Short presentations and posters from ongoing research projects

14:30 Break

14:45-16:00 The AI Mirror: Reclaiming our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking

Keynote: Shannon Vallor, Professor at Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies increasingly claim to be able to tell us who we are, what we want, what we can do, and where we will go. Yet these predictions reflect only the choices we have already made, not those still open to us. In this talk, Professor Vallor acknowledges the power and utility of these new algorithmic mirrors while exposing the deception in their promise to define humanity and guide our shared futures.