Awful AIs and Normalizing Machines

Join us on Sunday, 16 February 2020 at 4:30 p.m. for an afternoon event on the ethics of algorithmic photography with David Dao (researcher at ETH Zurich DS3Lab and founder of GainForest) and Mushon Zer-Aviv (designer, educator and media activist based in Tel Aviv).

David Dao will present his research on unethical and discriminatory uses of AI technologies. He will also introduce his new project Face/Off Singularity commissioned by Fotomuseum Winterthur, in which he aims to raise awareness of such technologies applied to personal image data and to provide a tool to neutralise algorithms, which are used to track and profile citizens on a day to day basis.

Mushon Zer-Aviv will present his ongoing interest in dissecting and make visible the biases of techno-culture as they are redrawn through politics, design and networks. Through an analysis of his work The Normalizing Machine, he will elaborate on how discrimination and bias were already inscribed into early photographic practices and reinforced by algorithms and machine learning systems. The interactive installation was realised in collaboration with software engineers Dan Stavy and Eran Weissenstern and is currently on show as part of SITUATIONS/Deviant.

The presentations will be followed by the two guests in conversation.