Generative AI, Free Speech, & Public Discourse
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A symposium exploring technological and philosophical questions about generative AI’s effect on public discourse.
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While the technology underlying generative AI has been decades in the making, to the public, the introduction of ChatGPT, Dall-E, and similar tools feels like a seismic shift in the relationship between humans and technology, especially technology used for expressive purposes. The emergence of generative AI models has been accompanied by predictions of dire harms, including a fresh deluge of disinformation, threats to free elections, and other attacks aimed at destabilizing democracies.
This symposium will bring together leading scholars and practitioners in computer science, law, communications, and policy to debate some of the biggest questions machine-learning tools raise for the future of public discourse, free expression, and democracy.
The symposium, which is co-sponsored by Columbia Engineering and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, will take place in person at The Forum at Columbia University and online.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20
THE FORUM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
601 W 125TH ST, NEW YORK, NY 10027
SCHEDULE
Welcome and keynotes 11:00AM – 12:15PM ET
Welcome
Shih-Fu Chang, Columbia Engineering
Jameel Jaffer, Knight Institute
Keynote 1A: Opening Up the Language Model Black Box
Tatsunori B. Hashimoto, Stanford University
Keynote 1B: Challenges for Conversational AI in the Era of LLM
Dilek Hakkani-Tür, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Lunch Break: 12:15PM – 1:00PM ET
1:00PM – 2:15PM ET
Panel 1: Empirical and Technological Questions: Current Landscape, Challenges, and Opportunities
Panelists
Alex Jaimes, Dataminr
Kathy McKeown, Columbia Engineering
Smaranda Muresan, Barnard College
Arvind Narayanan, Princeton University
Carl Vondrick, Columbia Engineering
Moderator
Shih-Fu Chang, Columbia Engineering
Break 2:15PM – 2:30PM ET
2:30PM – 3:00PM ET
Seed Funding Presentations
Introductory Remarks
Alberto Ibargüen, President, Knight Foundation (2003-2023); Board Member, Knight Institute (2016-)
Katy Glenn Bass, Knight Institute
Samar Kaukab, Columbia Engineering
Presentations
Xia Zhou, Columbia Engineering, Mobile X Laboratory
Kathy McKeown, Columbia Engineering, Mobile X Laboratory
Lena Song, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, SSRC Digital Platforms Initiative
Carl Vondrick, Columbia Engineering
3:00PM – 3:30PM ET
Keynote 2: AI and Trust
Keynote speaker
Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School
Break 3:30PM – 3:45PM ET
3:45PM – 5:00PM ET
Panel 2: Legal and Philosophical Questions: Information Integrity, Trustworthiness, and the First Amendment
Panelists
Mike Ananny, University of Southern California
Nadine Farid Johnson, Knight Institute
Camille François, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs
James Grimmelmann, Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School
Moderator
Katy Glenn Bass, Knight Institute
5:00PM – 5:15PM ET
Closing Remarks
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The Knight First Amendment Institute defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education. Our aim is to promote a system of free expression that is open and inclusive, that broadens and elevates public discourse, and that fosters creativity, accountability, and effective self-government.