Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 29 May
16:00 - 17:30
Speaker: Hannah Betts (recently at VUW School of Science in Society, soon to start a job with the Talos Network)
This presentation will present recent research into New Zealand’s news media coverage of AI, completed as part of a Masters by thesis at Victoria University. The research analysed which risks and benefits are being discussed, and the level of explanation provided when referencing AI risks. This was followed by interviews with journalists to understand why this type of reporting was observed, and identify barriers they experienced when reporting on AI.
Hannah will discuss features of news reporting on AI including potential blind-spots that were noted, such as low frequency of reference to bias, misalignment in AI systems, and use of AI to assist cyberattacks, in contrast to high academic and/or public attention towards these risks. Additionally, Hannah will present a taxonomy of AI Benefits, created in this research through inductive analysis, and providing a new tool for considering relevant trade-offs posed by the dual-use nature of AI.
Hannah also interviewed many journalists, to learn about their experiences reporting on AI. Hannah will summarise these interactions, and reflect on how their approaches impact New Zealand’s news audiences, as well as other journalists and those looking to support journalists to report on AI news.
These seminars consider AI’s social impacts in a range of areas, and discuss how AI can best be overseen to maximise positive impacts and minimise negative ones.
They are open to anyone who is interested in attending. Presenters don’t presuppose any technical background. If they present AI systems, they do it ‘from scratch’, in ways that should be accessible to everyone.
Discussing AI’s social impacts is a very interdisciplinary task, and speakers and participants come from many different backgrounds, in academia, government, industry and NGOs.
The series organiser is Ali Knott (ali.knott@vuw.ac.nz): please email Ali if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.