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
GOOD SYSTEMS PROJECT | HUMAN VALUES AND AI
Samuel Baker, Associate Professor, UTexas at Austin and Co-Founder Good Systems Group
Sharon Strover, Professor, UTexas at Austin and Co-Director, Technology & Information Policy Institute
Moderated by Kenny Joseph, Assistant Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, UB

12:30 PM | Break

12:45 PM | Session 2
THE ALGORITHMIC PRESENT-FUTURE: CAUTIONARY TALES | WILLOW TRELLIS
Bruce Pitman, Professor, Materials Design and Innovation, UB
Jasmina Tacheva, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University and PhD student, Comparative Literature, UB
Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, Julian Park Professor, Comparative Literature, UB
Moderated by David Castillo, Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures and Co-Director, UB Center for Information Integrity

LIFE ON MARS | DESIGN STUDIO
Evan Moritz, PhD student, Center for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, University of Toronto
Kevin Williams, Associate Professor, Earth Sciences and Director, Ferguson Planetarium, SUNY Buffalo State

2:00 PM | Break

2:15 PM | Session 3
NO FACTS, NO PEOPLE: GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS | WILLOW TRELLIS
Lindsay Brandon Hunter, Associate Professor, Theatre & Dance and Interim Executive Director, Humanities Institute, UB
Mark Shepard, Associate Professor, Architecture and Media Study, UB

SRS (SILK ROAD SONGBOOK) | DESIGN STUDIO
Millie Chen, Professor, Art, UB
Arzu Ozkal, Associate Professor, School of Art & Design, San Diego State University [participating as an exhibiting artist, not present]

3:30pm | Day 1 Closing Performance | Willow Trellis
Evan Moritz, Center for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, University of Toronto performs his original piece, “Deep Time Network”