Resource person: Pam Petrie

Location: Nanoose Place Community Centre | 2925 Northwest Bay Road, Nanoose Bay, BC, V9P 9E6

Description:

As AI tools continue to evolve with increasing claims of complexity and fewer and fewer guardrails, there are also increasing concerns that humanity as we knew it, even three years ago, is no longer in our hands. Are we doomed? Is OpenAI our Skynet? Who is calling the shots, if not us?

Digging into the embedded prevalence of AI tools in spaces and places with devices and data – primarily LLM based models, there is a growing list of ethical considerations: 

• the global reliance on the surveillance economy
• media manipulation for personal, political and criminal gain, including a steep rise in hate, harassment and fraud
• a social and cultural erasure, coined ‘Digital Colonialism’, and a ballooning access inequity 
• environmental catastrophizing and real catastrophes

Who is responsible for the impact of these? What do we do about it, if anything? How does one step into the epic flood of technological evolution and navigate the waters safety?

Join me for this Saturday class to sift fact from fiction, as we explore the ethics behind the risks, benefits and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in our time.

Presenter: Dr. Joanna Hesketh is a media psychologist and educator with nearly two decades of experience tracking the evolution of the digital landscape. She blends a rigorous academic background, including a Ph.D. in media psychology, MBA in marketing, and a BA in English and liberal studies. Joanna is a professor in marketing and technology at VIU.

Joanna’s expertise lies at the intersection of technology, human behaviour, and societal impact. She has a deep understanding of the trade offs between convenience and identity (as we choose to adopt new technologies). In her work both as a consultant to industry and as a professor at VIU, Joanna addresses  ethical concerns surrounding our adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, including concerns surrounding large language models.

Available spots: 116 out of 150

Price: $10.00 Taxes included

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