Have machines become too smart? How can a technical device know what our favorite songs are, and what we’re about to write in an email? Have they learned to think like us – or have we learned to communicate with them? The Italian sociologist Elena Esposito, author of Artificial Communication – How Algorithms Produce Social Intelligence, examines our relationship with AI and suggests that we should think of it as communication rather than intelligence. How does AI’s emergence as a part of our everyday lives affect us as humans in our social and communicative lives? How does it affect democracy and how does it affect us as social beings?
Language: English
Lecture, panel discussion, music, and mingling.
Keynote Speaker
Elena Esposito, Professor of Sociology, Bielefeld University, DE, and University of Bologna, IT
Panelists
Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology, Kingston University London, UK
Olle Häggström, Professor of Mathematical Statistics, Chalmers University of Technology
Moderator: Elena Raviola, Torsten and Wanja Söderberg Professor in Design Management at HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg
Music
Palle Dahlstedt, composer, improviser, and Professor of Interaction Design, Chalmers University of Technology and the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg
Welcome!
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About the Wisdom Seminars
The Wisdom Seminars were initiated in 2004 by the late Professor Barbara Czarniawska and the then-dean of the School of Business, Economics and Law, Rolf Wolff. At a time when thought and discourse largely revolved around the knowledge economy and the importance of information, the idea was instead to gather around the concept of wisdom. As Czarniawska wrote, "Wisdom, unlike information and even knowledge, cannot be measured and encapsulated. Wisdom is a process, it is a search for meaning that never ends. Wisdom cannot be achieved, it can only be striven for. And the way to wisdom is through constant questioning and constant reflection."
Sadly, Professor Barbara Czarniawska passed away in April 2024. In her honor, the School of Business, Economics and Law now continues this path of constructive critical reflection, questioning, and open dialogue by reviving the Wisdom Seminars.
The Barbara Czarniawska Wisdom Seminars present prominent international thinkers in conversations about current topics related to the development and organizing of contemporary society, technology, and the economy. Past participants have included Joanne Martin, Bruno Latour, Deirdre McCloskey, and Zygmunt Bauman.
In a dialogue format, a thesis is presented and then discussed from various perspectives. Our hope is to offer a more nuanced view of contemporary societal developments, and that utopian and dystopian ideas can be examined and discussed in a balanced dialogue. Nothing has only good or only bad consequences, highlighting the importance to reflect on the image of our time in all its complexity.
