'Craptions', Assistive Technologies, and the Real Meaning of Accessible Technology with Meryl Alper
In this episode, we chat to Meryl Alper, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. We discuss histories of technological invention by disabled communities, the backlash against poor algorithmically transcribed captions or ‘craptions’, what it actually means for a place or a technology to be accessible to disabled communities with additional socio-economic constraints, and the kinds of assistive augmented communication devices (AAC), like the one used by Stephen ...
5 Apr 202237min
Facebook ‘Friendship’ and Predicting the Future with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
In this episode, we chat with Professor Wendy Chun, who is Simon Fraser University's Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media. As both an expert in Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, her extraordinary analysis of contemporary digital media bridges the humanities and STEM sciences to think through some of the most pressing technical and conceptual issues in technology today. Wendy discusses her most recent book, Discriminating Data, where she explains what is actually happe...
8 Mars 202229min
Gender, Security, and Technology with Leonie Tanczer
In this episode, we chat to Dr Leonie Tanczer, a Lecturer in International Security and Emerging Technologies at UCL and Principle Investigator on the Gender and IoT project. Leonie discusses why online safety and security are not the same when it comes to protection online; how to identify bad actors while protecting people’s privacy; how we can use ‘threat modelling’ to account for and envision harmful unintended uses of technologies, and how to tackle bad behaviour online that is not...
1 Feb 202227min
Indigenous Work in AI with Jason Edward Lewis
In this episode we chat to Professor Jason Edward Lewis, the University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary at Concordia University in Montreal. Jason is Cherokee, Hawaiian and Samoan and an expert in indigenous design in AI. He’s the founder of Obx Labs for Experimental Media and the co-director of a number of research groups such as Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, Skins Workshops on Aboriginal Storytelling and Video Game Design, and the Initiative...
18 Jan 202248min
Afrofeminist Approaches to AI Governance and Policy with Neema Iyer
In this episode, we chat to Neema Iyer, a technologist, artist and founder of Pollicy, a civic technology organisation based in Kampala, Uganda. We discuss feminism and building AI for the world's fastest growing population, what feminism means in African contexts, and the challenges of working with different governments and regional bodies like the African Union.
4 Jan 202223min
Repurposing an ATM, Joy and Decolonial Politics in Puerto Rico with Frances Negron-Mutaner
In this episode, we talk to Frances Negron-Mutaner, an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and scholar and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York City. We discuss her Valor y Cambio or Value and Change project that brought a disused ATM to the streets of Puerto Rico filled with special banknotes. On the banknotes were the faces of Black educators, abolitionists and visionaries of a Caribbean Confederacy - people who are meaningful and inspirational to Pu...
21 Dec 202139min
The Myth of Autonomy with Maya Indira Ganesh
In this episode, we chat to Maya Indira Ganesh,the course lead for the University of Cambridge Master of Studies programme in AI Ethics and Society. She transitioned to academia after working as a feminist researcher with international NGOs and cultural organisations on gender justice, technology, and freedom of expression. We discuss the human labour that is obscured when we say a machine is autonomous, the YouTube phenomenon of ‘Unboxing’ Apple products, and why AV ethics isn’t just about t...
7 Dec 202133min
Slowing Down and Teaching AI Ethics with Jess Smith
In this episode, we chat to Jess Smith, a PhD student at the University of Colorado in Information Science and co-host of the Radical AI podcast who specialises in the intersections of artificial intelligence, machine learning and ethics. We discuss the tensions between Silicon Valley’s move fast and break stuff mantra and the slower pace of ethics work. She also tells us how we can be mindful users of technology and how we can develop computer science programs that foster a new generation of...
23 Nov 202128min
