Understanding the Social Implications of AI

This event featured a variety of U-M experts discussing the ways in which AI impacts social relations, for better or worse. Through mobile phones, the Internet of Things, and web computing, every single day around the globe we create a quintillion bytes of data. Pairing that trove of data with enormous computational power, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making strides into every aspect of everyday living, from emails and targeted advertising, to healthcare and education. But with great power comes great responsibility. This Dissonance Event Series discussion took a multidisciplinary look at the social implications of artificial intelligence and considers the promises and potential pitfalls we may look forward too. To sum up the event in one quotation, we look to Gregory Simpson, a knowledgeable leader in the field of engineering: 

"If we are going to augment humanity with the machine, we need to do it in a way that doesn’t bring along our mistakes of the past."
 — Gregory Simpson, Chief Technology Officer for Synchrony Financial

See also: Dissonance Series Hosts Panel on Artificial Intelligence (The Michigan Daily, 4/17/2019)