Join Dr. Eleanor Drage & Dr. Kerry McInerney to explore how feminist approaches can lead to more ethical technological developments.
Developments in artificial intelligence reignite discussions about the ethical foundations of technology. Discover how feminist principles can reshape innovations towards more inclusive and equitable outcomes.
FUTURES Podcast has partnered with SPACE4 and Housmans Bookshop to present a series of live events about the impact of capitalism on digital technology.
Speakers
Dr Eleanor Drage
Dr Eleanor Drage is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge Centre for the Future of Intelligence. She teaches AI Professionals about AI ethics at Cambridge and presents widely on the topic. She specialises in using feminist ideas to make AI better and safer for everyone. She is currently building the world's first free and open access tool that helps companies meet the EU AI act's obligations. Eleanor is also an expert on women writers of speculative and science fiction from 1666 to the present - An Experience of the Impossible: The Planetary Humanism of European Women’s Science Fiction.
Dr Kerry McInerney
Dr Kerry McInerney (née Mackereth) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, where she co-leads a project on how AI is impacting international relations. Aside from The Good Robot, Kerry is the co-editor of the collection Feminist AI: Critical Perspectives on Algorithms, Data, and Intelligent Machines (2023, Oxford University Press) and the co-author of the forthcoming book Reprogram: Why Big Tech is Broken and How Feminism Can Fix It (2026, Princeton University Press).
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 Book
What is good technology? Is 'good' technology even possible? And how can feminism help us work towards it? The Good Robot addresses these crucial questions through the voices of leading feminist thinkers, activists and technologists. Each thinker provides a snapshot of key challenges, questions and provocations in the field of feminism and technology. While the question of whether various AI and technological advances can be ethical is not new, the embedded nature of feminist perspectives pulls out whether this perceived 'goodness' or 'wrongness' might actually impact our lives in the 21st century. This book explores both the radical possibilities of technology to disrupt practices of patriarchy, colonialism, racism and beyond but also provides a significant critique of how we can contain the ethical possibilities of entities we cannot predict. In exploring unjust technological practices and engaging critical voices in the tech industry, the existing moral issues are brought to light as well as the possible ethical quagmires. This book opens a new space of discussion on digital technologies - one that insists that the future of AI is an urgent feminist issue.
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About the SPACE4 (Venue)
SPACE4 is part of Outlandish, a co-op that builds websites and digital tools for social good. They are interested in tech for good, progressive economics, and social change. They provide co-working, meeting, and event space, primarily to social enterprises and digital activists.
About Housmans Bookshop
Housmans is the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959. They specialise in books, magazines, and periodicals of radical interest and progressive politics, such as feminism, pacifism, Black politics, LGBTQIA+ politics, environmental justice and anarchism.
Ticket Information
The £5 charge for this event is a deposit that will be refunded if you attend. Tickets are free for journalists and members of the press. Contact info@futurespodcast.net for more information.