The 2022 Buffalo Humanities Festival will investigate the many complex, often paradoxical, ways artificial intelligence now intervenes in our lives with the help of artists, scholars and community activists who will showcase the integration of algorithms, machine learning, and other forms of artificial intelligence in both common and other-wordly applications. Please join us for an interdisciplinary examination of not only AI itself—but how our lives are built around, with, and in spite of its influence.

SCHEDULE
11:00 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks | Design Studio
Christina Milletti, Interim Director, UB Humanities Institute

11:15 AM | Session 1 | Willow Trellis
AFRORITHMS FROM THE FUTURE: AFTER THE GAME
Ahmed Best, Co-Founder, AfroRithm Futures Group and Adjunct Professor, USC School of Dramatic Arts
Lonny J Avi Brooks, Co-Founder, AfroRithm Futures Group and Professor of Strategic Communication, California State University East Bay.

Moderated by Dalia Antonia Caraballo Muller, Associate Professor, UB, with featured guest players from the night before.

12:30 PM | Break

12:45 PM | Session 2
AI: FROM AUTOMATION TO ANIMATION | WILLOW TRELLIS
Karthik Dantu, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, UB
Mark Gallimore with Tyler Kron Piatek, Center for Online Learning & Innovation, Canisius College
Mike Jones, Director of Animation, Daemen University

ARTIFICIAL LIMITS? MOVING BEYOND POPULAR AI NARRATIVES | DESIGN STUDIO
Marc Böhlen, Professor, Media Study, UB
Andrew Lison, Assistant Professor, Media Study, UB
Steve Petersen, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Niagara University

2:00 PM | Break

2:15 PM | Session 3
VOICE AND AI | WILLOW TRELLIS
Ho Eui Holly Bewlay, Associate Professor, Music, SUNY Buffalo State
Chris Heffner, Assistant Professor, Communicative Disorders and Sciences, UB
Jeff Higginbotham, Professor, Communicative Disorders and Sciences and Director, Communication and Assistive Device Laboratory, UB

AI, DATA, AND JUSTICE | DESIGN STUDIO
Clairissa Breen, Associate Professor, Criminal Justice, SUNY Buffalo State
Atri Rudra, Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, UB
Melanie Sage, Senior Researcher, Meta

3:30pm | Day 1 Closing Performance | Willow Trellis
Jonathan Golove, Associate Professor, Music and Director, Morris Center for 21st Century Music, UB presents “Neo-Future is Now: New Works for Theremin Cello”