Artificial intelligence and the limits of the humanities

April 24 at 14:30-16:30 

May 15 at 14:30-16:30 

The complexity of cultures in the modern world is now beyond human comprehension. Cognitive sciences cast doubts on the traditional explanations based on mental models. The core subjects in humanities may lose their importance, but new, interdisciplinary branches of humanities emerge. Humanities have to adapt to the digital age. Instant access to information will be replaced by instant access to knowledge. Artificial intelligence is going to change humanities in a radical way, from art to history, political sciences and philosophy. Understanding the cognitive limitations of humans and the opportunities opened by the development of artificial intelligence and interdisciplinary research necessary to address global challenges is the key to the revitalization of humanities.

1. Algorithmic Reason and the new Government of Self and Other

March 6 at 14:30-16:30 

My first talk will introduce my recent book ‘Algorithmic Reason and the new Government of Self and Other’, which is open access and can be downloaded from https://global.oup.com/academic/product/algorithmic-reason-9780192859624. The book analyses how algorithms, big data and AI have come to infuse social and political practices, from security and surveillance to humanitarianism. It exposes the challenges that algorithmic operations pose to social scientific concepts and methods. For instance, it shows how potentially dangerous others are not produced algorithmically as direct enemies, criminals, or abnormals but as anomalies.

2. Archival Research with AI 

March 13 At 14:30-16:30

My second talk will present how we can research the digital human in archives with new digital methodologies. Archives have long been a key concern of academic debates about truth, memory, recording and power and are important sites for social sciences and humanities research. This has been the case for traditional archives, but these debates have accelerated with the digital transformation of archives. This talk investigates how new digital archives continue existing archival practices while at the same time discontinuing them. It presents novel methodologies and tools for changing memory and power relations in digital archives through new ways of reassembling marginalised, non-canonical entities in digital archives.

The talk will focus on the AI methodologies we can use to reassemble digital archives and in particular on my experiences within the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI; https://www.ehri-project.eu/). For the talk, I am very happy that I will be joined by Edyta Gawron (Jagiellonian University and Chair EHRI Scientific Advisory Board) and Maria Dermentzi (King’s College London and EHRI AI researcher).

November 22, 2023    at 14:30-16:00 

November 29, 2023    at 14:30-16:45

Normative Meanings of 'Science' and 'Religion' with an Implication for AI

Abstract: "In the lectures by Dr. Andrejč will discuss first, the interplay between the descriptive and prescriptive meanings of 'science', drawing on the discussions in philosophy of science. In this, he will present the idea of the role of AI in science which is based on Bas van Fraassen's vision of science as an approach to inquiry adopting the 'empirical stance'. Next, he will examine the interplay between the descriptive and prescriptive meanings of 'religion', engaging especially with the recent discussions within philosophy of religion but involving also selected positions in religious studies. Finally, and based on the first two discussions, an approach to the relationship between science and religion will be discussed which comes out of a Wittgensteinian critique of a position that is unpopular today, called NOMA (Nonoverlapping Magisteria) - an approach proposed and defended by the evolutionary scientist Stephen Jay Gould in the late 1990. Dr. Andrejč will argue that there are recoverable elements of NOMA and explain how a renewed, Wittgensteinian NOMA would work when we use it to analyse contemporary pantheism.

December 13, 2023    at 17:30   

December 20, 2023    at 16:30   

Understanding the role of Knowledge and Data in Scientific Modeling - the Case of AI.

18 January, 2024   at 14:00

25 January, 2024   at 14:00

AI and Cinema. Visions of Transhumanity in Science and Fiction