Panel: Coexisting with AI: Embedding Ethics in Education and Practice Why is it important for artificial intelligence systems to prioritize ethics?

• Part of the 2023 Texas Science Festival, this panel discussion featured Erika Bierschbach (Austin Energy), Mose Buchele (KUT News), Dev Niyogi (UT Austin), and Alison Silverstein (Independent Consultant). • As blackouts associated with 2021’s Winter Storm Uri proved, Texas and its grid face pressures unlike anywhere else in the country. Come learn about how the energy system in Texas works and explore how the climate crisis is changing (and may keep changing) power generation, transmission and consumption in our Texas homes, schools and offices. This event is a co-production with KUT News and its award-winning podcast “The Disconnect” and Planet Texas 2050. Part of the 2023 Texas Science Festival, this panel discussion featured Erika Bierschbach (Austin Energy), Mose Buchele (KUT News), Dev Niyogi (UT Austin), and Alison Silverstein (Independent Consultant).

This roundtable discussion, the first event in our Spring 2023 Cultures of Environmental Justice colloquium and co-sponsored by Planet Texas 2050, will feature local activists and organizations discussing the ongoing justice implications of Winter Storm Uri.

Artificial intelligence tools are increasingly being used by artists, architects, and designers in creative work. And, these days, it’s not uncommon to see NFTs and AI-generated art making media headlines.

Dr. Lipton’s research spans core machine learning methods and theory, their applications in healthcare and natural language processing, and critical concerns, both about the mode of inquiry itself, and the impact of the technology it produces on social systems.

While the recent boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has given rise to the technology’s use and popularity across many domains, the same boom has exposed vulnerabilities of the technology to many threats that could cause the next “AI winter." AI is no stranger to “winters," or drops in funding and interest in the technology and its applications. Many in the field consider the early 1970’s as the first AI winter with another proceeding in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Event description and co-sponsor information are forthcoming.

For our November event, we’ve partnered with Good Systems – a UT Austin research grand challenge focused on defining, evaluating, and building ethical human + AI systems to benefit society – to host Dr. Elliott Hauser as our speaker.

There are approximately 2 gigawatts (GW) of cryptocurrency load capacity within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). As of mid-2022, ERCOT had 33 GW of cryptocurrency mining in its interconnection queue. The potential increase in power demand was so high that ERCOT established a new interim process and a special task force for determining new rules for interconnecting large loads, such as cryptocurrency mining operations.

As part of this project, local nonprofits Arts New Orleans and the Water Leaders Institute partnered to design a cohort-based professional development program to equip local artists and neighborhood residents with knowledge about critical civic issues to prepare them to co-create public art projects.