First off there’s news about an event, which is being hosted by the Ada Lovelace Institute’s Just AI initiative, from the Almost future AI event registration webpage,

Topic: An evening salon and reading of specially commissioned pieces of fiction on AI futures

Description: Artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies permeate all aspects of our lives. Their proliferation increasingly leads to encounters with ‘mutant algorithms’, ‘biased machine learning’, and ‘racist AIs’ that sometimes make familiar forms of near-future fiction pale in comparison.

In these examples, AI and machine learning tools inscribe a certain future based on predictions from past observations and they foreclose a multitude of other possible futures.

Faced with this potential to limit and constrain what might be, can fiction and narrative offer alternatives for how AI could and should be?

This evening salon will present near-future fiction pieces commissioned by the Ada Lovelace Institute’s JUST AI project to inspire and expand our thinking about our possible relationship to AI and data.

Join the event to listen to the first reading of two commissioned pieces and to discuss with the authors and invited experts.

Live (real-time) captioning will be provided for this event, if you have questions or request for access, please contact: lhickman@adalovelaceinstitute.org.

Chair:
– Alison Powell, Associate Professor, London School of Economics

Speakers:
– Adam Marek – writer of futuristic and fantastical short stories
– Squirrel Nation – reimagining and designing how to live in a warming world
– Tania Hershman – poet, writer, teacher and editor
– Yasemin J. Erden, Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of Twente

Time: Mar 3, 2021 06:30 PM – 8 PM [GMT]

This artwork accompanying the Almost future AI announcement reminds me of a circuit board. In any event, I found this image and a bit more information about the Just AI programme/network and about their event on this Almost future AI webpage,

The JUST AI (Joining Up Society and Technology in AI) programme is an independent network of researchers and practitioners, led by Dr Alison Powell from LSE [London School of Economics], supported by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Ada Lovelace Institute. The humanities-led network is committed to understanding the social and ethical value of data-driven technologies, artificial intelligence, and automated systems. The network will build on research in AI ethics, orienting it around practical issues of social justice, distribution, governance and design, and seek to inform the development of policy and practice.

We are using Zoom for virtual events open to more than 40 attendees. Although there are issues with Zoom’s privacy controls, when reviewing available solutions we found that there isn’t a perfect product and we have chosen Zoom for its usability and accessibility. Find out more here.

I’m glad to see they’ve taken privacy concerns seriously enough to explain why they’re using Zoom. I wish more organizations took the time to inform participants in virtual and online events which technology is being used and to include a reference to or comment on privacy issues.

it’s a relief to see this level of congruence between Just AI’s and the Ada Lovelace Institute’s stated principles and its preliminary actions.

You can find out more about the Ada Lovelace Institute here and more about their Just AI programme here.

Before moving onto the next item and due to a very confused approach to naming (Ada Lovelace Day being both a ‘day’ and an organization), it seems like a good idea to mention that the Ada Lovelace Institute is not associated with the Ada Lovelace Day organization as per the Ada Lovelace Institute’s About webpage,

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The Ada Lovelace Institute was established by the Nuffield Foundation in early 2018, in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute, the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Statistical Society, the Wellcome Trust, Luminate, techUK and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

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One more March 2021 event

Staying on the Ada Lovelace theme, there’s an event on March 8, 2021 International Women’s Day being hosted by the organization called Ada Lovelace Day (there’s more confusion to come). Here’s more about the upcoming March 2021 event from the 2021 International Women’s Day event webpage,

Monday 8 March 2021 [1900 GMT]

We are celebrating International Women’s Day with an hour long live-streamed panel discussion titled Comedy and Communication, looking at how we can all use comedy techniques in our STEM communications and teaching.

The discussion will be hosted by comedy and science writer Dr Helen Pilcher, along with maths teacher Susan Okereke, comedian and science comedy producer Kyle Marian Viterbo, and biologist, YouTuber and science communicator Dr Sally Le Page. We will be live-streaming free on YouTube and Facebook for an hour from 19:00 GMT, and if you want reminders and links sent straight to your inbox, sign up now on Eventbrite.

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The Ada Lovelace Day organization is at findingada.com, which is also the name for one of the organization’s initiatives, the ‘Finding Ada Network’. I find the naming conventions confusing, especially since there is an Ada Lovelace Day celebrated internationally and hosted by this organization (whatever it’s called) each year. In 2021, Ada Lovelace Day will be celebrated on Tuesday, October 12.