TechEx Session 2 – Friday 16 April 2021

Ghost in the Machine

The promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence in GLAMR industries.

 

#1 – Taming the TIGER – How the State Library is using ML/AI to rediscover its digital collections

The State Library of NSW has almost 4 million digital files in its collection and this number grows every day. With such an immense archive it’s impossible to catalogue everything, meaning that much of the rich detail in our collections remains hidden to our users. To help tackle this problem, the Library adopted a TIGER. Learn more about SLNSW’s bespoke application of AI/ML technology and how we’re describing, categorising and making millions of files more discoverable, many for the very first time.

Speaker: Jenna Bain, State Library New South Wales

As the State Library of NSW’s Digital Projects Leader, Jenna works on a variety of projects that aim to improve the overall digital landscape of the State Library and beyond. Interested in the intersection of user experience and digital experimentation, many of the projects Jenna manages examine the use of emerging technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to deliver new and more meaningful engagement with cultural collections. With a passion for digital humanities and open-data, Jenna hopes to make a positive contribution to the preservation and discovery of Australian cultural heritage by exploring connections between community and GLAMR institutions through technology.

#2 – Remake AI for a better world

Artificial Intelligence is already changing our lives. Where are analytics-driven automation, augmentation and decisions transforming GLAMR work practices – and how? What impact is this going to have on social and cultural engagement? Now is the time to participate to determine how AI will or won’t make the world a better place. Four provocations explore why our hearts, minds and hands need to be engaged in this process: Why us? Why you? Why? Why AI4LAM? We all have a stake in this.

Speaker: Ingrid Mason

Ingrid Mason is a strategist, technologist and data specialist. Ingrid leads change associated with digital transformation and manages online and software development projects for academic researchers and cultural sector practitioners. She is also a self-professed metadata nerd and digital curator that has found a workplace that satisfies her interests in culture and society, humanities research, informatics, software and the web

#3 – We are the ghost in the machine: thinking about how we take AI-enabled cyber-physical systems to scale safely, responsibly and sustainably

As AI-enabled cyber-physical systems go to scale and connect with other human, ecological and social systems, we need to be critical about the choices we make in how these assemblages are constructed, for whom, how they change, and what they leave behind. The choices we make now have echoes for decades to come. WE are the ghost in the machine.

Speaker: Kathy Reid

Kathy Reid works at the intersection of open source, emerging technologies and technical communities. She has held several technical leadership positions. She was previously Digital Platforms Manager at Deakin University, Director of Developer Relations at Mycroft.AI, President of Linux Australia, and is currently a voice open source specialist at Mozilla, helping bring voice technology to languages all around the world. In 2019, she was one of 16 professionals from across the world chosen to help shape a new branch of engineering at the Australian National University’s 3A Institute, where she completed a Master of Applied Cybernetics and is now a PhD candidate.

 

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