Professor Sharon Strover of The University of Texas at Austin talks with Austin Forum executive director Jay Boisseau about AI's implications for humans--what are the risks (both accidental and intentional), why is it hard to address some of them, and what UT's Good Systems program is doing to help! Sharon and Jay cover a wide range of related topics as they discuss the risks and benefits of AI for humans and the need to learn how to co-exist in ways that benefit all.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a science and a set of computational technologies that are inspired by — but typically operate quite differently from — the ways people use their nervous systems and bodies to sense, learn, reason, and take action.”

“For the moment, I see [AI-generated images] very similar to sketching,” says Andrew Kudless, founder of Matsys. Kudless’ AI “sketch” perhaps recalls a veiled version of Marlon Blackwell’s Keenan TowerHouse (Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2000). As Kudless reminds us, “Design is about so much more than sketching; it’s more than coming up with an idea.” AI-generated images are not particularly useful as resolved design concepts. Instead, as collections, they start to elucidate a feeling, a vibe, a possibility. - image by Andrew Kudless

“The others are coming. They are coming to get us, take over our country, colonize us, and replace us. They’re an existential threat.” These types of racist logics are a regular trope around the world. Some governments incorporate this type of messaging into disinformation campaigns, which have ripple effects of unintentional misinformation on social media.

At times UT-Austin's Good Systems Symposium felt a bit like listening to a Drake album, with conversations heavily focused on trust issues, broken promises, and community engagement (maybe not so Drake on that last one). Artificial intelli­gence experts took turns calling out the human side of a technology that, on its surface, appears to be very much not human. The emphasis on the natural world extended all the way to the decor – a string-of-pearls plant centered and two Swiss cheese plants framed the panelists.

Sharon Strover is a professor of communications in the Moody College of Communication and chair of Good Systems at The University of Texas at Austin. We sat down with Strover in advance of the 2023 Good Systems Symposium, taking place April, 3 - 4, on UT Austin’s campus.

One in eight Texans experiences food insecurity, according to the non-profit agency Feeding America. That means 1.4 million Texas households are food insecure, with limited or inconsistent access to nutritious food for an active, healthy life. The USDA’s most recent survey on the issue reported that Texas is among the top nine U.S. states with a higher prevalence of food insecurity than the national average.

A Q&A with Maria De-Arteaga, Assistant Professor at the McCombs School of Business Information, Risk, and Operations Management Department and member of the Good Systems project, Designing Responsible AI Technologies to Curb Disinformation. Maria is a speaker in a roundtable at the 2023 Good Systems Symposium focused on how to use AI to advance racial justice and combat disinformation.

For almost a year, the founder and CEO of Documenting Austin’s Streets and Homeless (DASH) has spent almost the entirety of every week using his grassroots organization to help with outreach and clean-up efforts that he says are sorely lacking in the capital city.

Dr. Matt Lease, professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, provides a better understanding of AI and Chat GPT.