‘Access Code’ for In-Person Tickets: Futures@Flux
Join human rights lawyer Susie Alegre & mechanical engineer Dr. Shini Somara for a series of compelling conversations on the importance of engineering ethical innovations. The increasing dominance of artificial intelligence has unveiled the extent to which human experience is mediated by algorithmic processes and technological advances. It’s more crucial than ever to pause and explore how fundamental human rights and regulation, along with the principles of diversity and inclusion, need to be integrated into new technological developments.
How can engineers and developers incorporate human rights in the design and deployment of emerging technologies? What role should ethics play in the development of artificial intelligence? How do we make innovation accessible to all?
FUTURES Podcast has partnered Flux Innovation Lounge to host this double-bill live recording. This is a hybrid event: the in-person event is invite-only, but it will be accessible to all via an online livestream. Details on how to join the event can be found below.
Schedule
6:30PM - 7:00PM: Welcome Drinks & Networking (In-Person Only)
7:00PM (3PM EDT, 12PM PDT): INTERACTIVE LIVESTREAM BEGINS
7:00PM - 7:30PM: Interview with Dr. Shini Somara
07:30PM - 7:45PM: Break
7:45PM - 8:15PM: Interview with Susie Alegre
08:15PM - 8:45PM: Interactive Audience Q&A with Susie Alegre & Dr. Shini Somara - moderated by Luke Robert Mason
Timezone: Greenwich Meantime (United Kindom).
Speakers
Susie Alegre
Susie Alegre is a leading international human rights lawyer and Associate at Garden Court Chambers. She has been a legal pioneer in digital human rights, in particular the impact of artificial intelligence on the human rights of freedom of thought and opinion. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton, and a Senior Fellow at CIGI.
Dr. Shini Somara
Dr. Shini Somara is a Mechanical Engineer specialising in Computational Fluid Dynamics and an award-winning media broadcaster. She deep dives into all topics on science, technology and innovation to deliver easily accessible and relatable pearls of wisdom for all ages and abilities. Shini speaks to audiences on TV, radio, XR/VR and live events. She has published 7 young persons STEM books and runs a podcast for Women in STEM called eSTEAMd Women. As a TEDx Speaker and mentor to MEng/PhDs at Imperial College in London - Shini is passionate about making science & technology accessible to all, especially amongst under-represented groups in engineering and innovation.
Moderated by
Luke Robert Mason
Luke Robert Mason is a futures theorist who studies the technological developments that will alter what it means to be human. He is the host of the FUTURES Podcast where he explores the topics of artificial intelligence, human enhancement, space travel and virtual reality. Throughout his career, he has interviewed hundreds of the world’s most influential thinkers on their visions for the future. These insights have informed his collaborations with innovators in the fields of advanced science, emerging technology, and the arts; and have provided him with a unique perspective on the world of tomorrow. He is currently an ESRC-funded postgraduate student at the University of Warwick where he is studying towards a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on the public perception of humanoid robots.
Featured Books
Freedom to Think: Protecting a Fundamental Human Right in the Digital Age by Susie Alegre
Without a moment’s pause, we share our most intimate thoughts with trillion-dollar tech companies. Their algorithms categorize us and jump to troubling conclusions about who we are. They also shape our everyday thoughts, choices and actions – from who we date to whether we vote. But this is just the latest front in an age-old struggle.
Part history and part manifesto, Freedom to Think explores how the powerful have always sought to influence how we think and what we buy. Connecting the dots from Galileo to Alexa, human rights lawyer Susie Alegre charts the history and fragility of our most important human right: freedom of thought.
Filled with shocking case-studies across politics, criminal justice, and everyday life, this ground-breaking book shows how our mental freedom is under threat like never before. Bold and radical, Alegre argues that only by recasting our human rights for the digital age can we safeguard our future.
Human Rights, Robot Wrongs: Being Human in the Age of AI by Susie Alegre
No longer an uncertain technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is starting to shape every aspect of our daily lives, from how we think to who we love.
In this urgent polemic, leading barrister Susie Alegre explores the ways in which artificial intelligence threatens our fundamental human rights - including the rights to life, liberty and fair trial; the right to private and family life; and the right to free expression - and how we protect those rights.
Touching on the many profound ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies, and full of fascinating case studies, Human Rights, Robot Wrongs is a rallying cry for humanity in the age of AI.
Engineers Making a Difference by Dr. Shini Somara
Engineers are the superheroes of the real world. They use their problem-solving skills to face down the biggest challenges we have, from creating clean energy to designing prosthetic limbs, from eliminating food shortages to programming AI to exploring the surface of Mars. In this book you’ll meet 46 engineers, from apprentices and lab technicians to university professors and start-up CEOs and hear what problems they are solving and why they love their jobs. Engineers are changing the world. Will you be one of them?
Follow the Discussion
Follow the discussion on Twitter:
@FUTURESPodcast | #FUTURESPodcast
About the Flux Innovation Lounge (Venue)
The Flux Innovation Lounge is a unique hybrid event space that aims to redefine the art of the possible, inviting visitors to think differently in a technology-rich environment curated by Engage Works’ creative technologists. A place to inspire conversations and open minds, the Flux Innovation Lounge is the perfect space to create, showcase, collaborate, challenge, or explore.
Ticket Information
The in-person event is invite-only. Please contact info@futurespodcast.net if you would like to join and for details on how to register.
Anyone can access the online livestream for free, but a donation helps support the podcast.