Art for an Ethical AI

A conversation in two worlds

Technologies related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) play an increasing important role affecting all parts of present and future societies. While the benefit of AI is not put into question, it is essential to work towards a „trustworthy AI“. One key field of trustworthy AI is ethics, and this is where art also contributes essentially as a form of „critical thinking“.

What role can art play in building an ethical AI? This question will be answered from different perspectives during the panel „Art for an ethical AI – a conversation in two worlds“. Nora Al-Badri, multi-disciplinary and conceptual media artist and director of the AI+Art initiative at the ETH AI Center in Zurich, will address this question via insight into her work around (digital) colonialism and (techno) heritages.

Al-Badri as well as many other artists react to and critically reflect about new and emerging technologies, using them not just as a tool, but also this medium itself as a message. A new form of „spectacularization“ is created: spectators are part of the show and nurture it. Marie-France Rafael, tenure-track Professor at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Department Fine Arts, will then share her reflections on „contemporary spectacle in the algorithmic regime“.

The panel – co-organized by ZHdK and ETH Zurich in the framework of „Zurich Meets Berlin“ and the „Berlin Science Week“ – will be introduced by Swetlana Heger-Davis, Vice-President for Internationalisation and Head of the Fine Arts Department at ZHdK and moderated by Adrian Notz, curator at the ETH AI Center. The panel will be followed by a networking lunch.