Philosophical Foundations of Digital Humanism

The core of humanism in general is human agency - its anthropological preconditions and its  ethical, social and political implications. Digital humanism is the application of it to the challenges of digital transformation. This talk will present the main arguments in favor of (1) humanism in general and (2) digital humanism specifically. It will focus on the philosophical foundations of digital humanism and exemplify their relevance by discussing some of its practical implications. 

Human Power - A Politics for the AI Machine Age

The rapid and tumultuous introduction of AI into our everyday lives has triggered a self-exploratory public debate about what it means to be human. What are our human potential, talents, and powers – what essentially is our place in the modern world? Are we nothing but outdated machines in dire need of a technological fix? 

The keynote is based on the book Human Power - Seven Traits for the Politics of the AI Machine Age and reflects on the shifting power dynamics between humans and the AI-powered technologies and their industrial complexes increasingly shaping our world. Exploring the distinctiveness of human power, it argues for a new foundation of the politics that is needed in the AI Machine Age.

Based on: Gry Hasselbalch, "Human Power - Seven Traits for the Politics of the AI Machine Age", © CRC Press

Marietje Schaake will present her new book "The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley".

Developments in the field of sub-symbolic AI, which are no longer quite so new, continue to surprise us with new insights and results. It is no longer just about text generation and automatic real-time translation (which was very difficult or even impossible in the past), but now problems at doctoral level are already being solved or it is even targeting NP-complete problems such as the SAT problem (with the results surpassing those developed by humans who won the competitions). In this context it is also interesting to note that AI as a field is inherently undefined, highlighting the absence of a universally accepted definition and the resulting ambiguity in what should or should not be classified as artificial intelligence.

The potential is enormous, but it also raises massive social issues (energy, economic concentration, even the question of “What is humanity and its role?”). As never before, computer science is now at the center of public discussion – right up to the political level of geopolitics and global regulation. What does this mean for computer science? It is a discipline that used to pragmatically focus on problem solving – and on a theoretical level (based on formal models) on correctness, certainty and provability – this is now being replaced by uncertain statements based on probability.

At the same time, there are immense implications where interaction with (or even integration of methods from) the social and human sciences is required, almost as if it were becoming a social science itself. Computer science is thus challenged methodologically from “inside” and “outside” by its implications. How to deal with this situation? Does digital humanism provide a framework?