• Welcome by the board and the program chairs
  • Greetings by the Federal Minister of Education an Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger
  • Greetings by Berlin Senator for Science, Health, Care and Equality Dr. Ina Czyborra

“Technological violence and high-risk experiments at the border”

Practices of border violence increasingly rely on high-risk technological experiments. Predictive analytics used for interdictions, AI-powered lie detectors and powerful sound cannons are just some of the more recent tools that states, private entities, and even international organizations use to manage migration. Certain places like borders serve as testing grounds for new technologies, because regulation and oversight are limited and an ‘anything goes’ frontier attitude informs the development and deployment of surveillance and automation. A growing multi-billion euro border industrial complex also underpins the development and deployment of high-risk new technologies. Based on comparative work in Europe, East Africa, and the US-Mexico border since 2018, this talk attempts to foreground the lived experiences of people on the move as they are interacting with the sharpest edges of experimental border technologies and blends ethnographic methodology with international human rights law analysis. The issues around emerging technologies in the management of migration are not just about the inherent use of technology but rather about how it is used and by whom, with states and private actors setting the stage for what is possible and which priorities matter. Who gets to ask questions about proposed innovations and why are perspectives from the ground up relegated to the margins?

The following images of chairs were generated with an Ai model titled Stable Diffusion, based on a prompt: a single chair on a white background.

This dataset derived as a result was used to train the Stable Diffusion model again, extending its knowledge capacity of what an image of a chair on a white background is.

This process was repeated again and again until after the 6th iteration, an initially figurative image of a chair was interpreted as a colourful digital noise as a result of a so-called data-cannibalism of a model. Thus revealing how easily is the new computational ontology corrupted through a process of feedback loop in an echo chamber.

“Journalism vs. Propaganda: The Role of Algorithms during the War in Ukraine” (Roundtable)

The session will address the multi-faceted role of platforms’ algorithmic systems in the context of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine. During the session scholars, journalists and practitioners will come together to discuss the challenges of the algorithmic news ecosystem amid the war in Ukraine. The aim will be to highlight insights from various quarters of online news ecosystem and develop an understanding of the algorithmic mechanisms that largely determine information distribution online; bring awareness to their effects on journalistic practices and output; bridge the gap between academic research on platforms’ algorithms, misinformation, propaganda and journalists reporting on the war in Ukraine; discuss an outlook for a more sustainable news ecosystem.

Session Chair: Elizaveta Kuznetsova (Weizenbaum Institute)

  • Mykola Makhortykh (Bern University)
  • Anna Litvinenko (Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Efrat Nechushtai (George Washington Universit)
  • Felix Kröner (Reset.tech)
  • Florian Priming (FU Berlin)

“AI, algorithmic management and labor agency”

The use of AI and algorithmic management in the workplace has a considerable influence on work processes and implies new forms of labor control. How do employee representatives deal with this problem and how do they try to influence the design and usage of the new systems of algorithmic management?

Session Chair: Norbert Huchler (ISF Munich)

  • Virginia Doellgast (Cornell University), “Negotiating over algorithmic management in digitalized services: Cases from Germany, Norway, and the US”
  • Valerio de Stefano (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University), “AI, Neurosurveillance and the right to be human at work?”
  • Philip Wotschack, Leon Hellbach, Florian Butollo, Jordi Ziour (Weizenbaum Institute) “Algorithmic management in the food delivery sector – a contested terrain?”

“Legal and regulatory approaches: the AI Act and beyond”

With the upcoming AI Act, the European Union aims at a comprehensive regulation of Artificial Intelligence technologies. Already during the legislative process, the AI Act Proposal has created much discussion, controversy, uncertainty and hope. In this panel, perspectives from legal, computational, and ethical theory and practice will help us navigate the challenges and opportunities we may expect – as researchers, practitioners, and citizens.

Session Chair: Philipp Hacker (European New School of Digital Studies)

  • Sandra Wachter (Oxford Internet Institute)
  • Brent Mittelstadt (Oxford Internet Institute)
  • Stefan Ullrich (Gesellschaft für Informatik/Weizenbaum Institute)
  • Catelijne Muller (ALLAI)

“Migrant communities, humanitarian action and refugee representations on Social Media”

AI-based systems have a profound effect on the use of social media in the context of migration and mobility. The panel brings together scholars that look at discourses of and about migrant communities and refugees on digital platforms, manipulation of information in the context of migration and displacement as well as the role of technology in humanitarian action.

Session Chair: Elizaveta Kuznetsova (Weizenbaum Institute)

  • Yael Gordon and Noam Tirosh (Ben Gurion University of Negev) “TikTok and the voice of Ukrainian refugees”
  • Sercan Kıyak, David De Coninck, Stefan Mertens and Leen d’Haenens (KU Leuven) “A network approach to the Syrian and Ukrainian refuge crises discussions in the German-language Twittersphere”
  • Andrea Duechting (Centre for Humanitarian Action) “Digital accountability: The untapped potential of participation when using technology in humanitarian action”
  • Franziska Pradel (TU München) “The impact of hate speech about refugees on political attitudes – evidence from an online experiment on search engines”

“AI, platforms and platform workers”

Online labor platforms are a central field of application for algorithmic management and AI. Which forms of algorithmic management are used and how do working conditions develop on platforms in different contexts?

Session Chair: Uli Meyer (Johannes Keppler Universtität Linz)

  • Ladin Bayurgil (KU Leuven), Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven) and Stefan Kirchner (TU Berlin) “Platform market-making and market-shaping as conceptions of control in care and delivery services in Belgium”
  • Dominika Polkowska and Bartosz Mika (University of Lublin) “Ride-pass game in riad-hailing platform industry in Poland”
  • Moritz Altenried (Humboldt-Universität): “Standardization and heterogenization: The automation of management and the multiplication of labour”

“Weizenbaum, ELIZA, and (Chat)GPT”

100 years after Joseph Weizenbaum was born and 57 years after he created the chatbot ELIZA, which turned him into one of the most important critics of AI, ChatGPT re-opens many of the same concerns and adds a whole host of new ones. Are ChatGPT and generative AI in general really the game changers or just the most recent over-hyped development and media scare? We will get to know a “digital version” of an eminent AI philosopher (developed together with the original Daniel Dennett himself, his writings, and GPT), learn about a design process and tool that leverages large language models to give hands-on help to jobseekers, and reflect on creativity in interaction with generative AI. 

Session Chair: Bettina Berendt (Weizenbaum Institute and TU Berlin)

  • Anna Strasser (DenkWerkstatt Berlin)
  • Pieter Delobelle (KU Leuven)
  • Thomas Winters (KU Leuven)

19.00-20.30 Panel Discussion

20.30-22.00 Get together

Panel Discussion “AI as a generative technology – perspectives from science and art”

The evening discussion deals with the possibilities and dangers of using AI as a generative technology. On the one hand, the focus will be on overarching questions of authorship and creativity in the age of AI. On the other hand, the role of AI specifically for the field of generating true and fake news will be discussed. The discussion will focus on scientific and artistic perspectives on these questions. The panelists are David Berry (Professor of Digital Humanities, University of Sussex), Egor Kraft (interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of arts, media, technology, film and research) and Barbara Pfetsch (Professor of Communication Science, FU Berlin). 

Moderation: Marie Kaiser (radioeins)

 

  • Alessandra Abruzzese with Sercan Kıyak (Universidad Católica Boliviana, KU Leuven)
  • Margarita Artemenko (HU Berlin)
  • Julia Barashkova (Wismar University)
  • Pieter Delobelle (KU Leuven)
  • Alexandra Keiner (Weizenbaum Institute)