Conference «Machines that Fail Us»

"Machines That Fail Us" brings together actors from academia, journalism, civil society, and the tech industry to discuss the impacts of AI failures, hallucinations, and errors. This event will gather critical voices of some of the most committed individuals working towards a better future with artificial intelligence. We invite you all to join us, registration is required.

AI technologies and algorithms are progressively employed across diverse sectors, spanning from educational institutions and healthcare professionals to employers and government agencies, for evaluating and deciding upon different facets of our lives. Yet, it begs the fundamental question: Do these systems truly exhibit impartiality and fairness when analysing individuals and their behaviour? Our stance is that they do not. Ironically, despite their professed aim of enhancing objectivity and effectiveness, these technologies contain inherent biases and inaccuracies, particularly in terms of human profiling. During the three years of "The Human Error Project", we examined how journalists, civil society organizations and tech entrepreneurs in Europe deal with AI errors and how they negotiate and coexist with the impact of AI on human rights. During this we will present our research results and work together with the audience on two workshops questioning how to build more sustainable AI futures.

The presentations between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. will also be available as a livestream. 

Event schedule

• 10:00: Welcome coffee
   
• 10:30 – 11:00: Introduction by The Human Error Project team
   
• 11:00 – 12:00: Parallel workshops
  • A: "AI regulation vs. innovation: the right question?"
  • B: "Can AI futures be sustainable?"
     
• 12:00 - 12:30: Workshops results discussion
   
• 12:30 – 2:00: Lunch break
   
• 2:00 – 3:30: Keynote speech by Prof. Stefania Milan, Professor of Critical Data Studies at the University of Amsterdam
   
• 3:30 - 3:45: Coffee break
   
• 3:45 – 5:15: Expert panel with journalist Luca Zorloni (Wired), Ilia Siatitsa (Privacy International), and entrepreneur Lorna Goulden (Twinds Foundation)
   
• 5:15 – 6:00 – Networking and apéro

The "Machines That Fail Us" event is funded by the Agora Scheme of the Swiss National Sciences Foundation (SNSF). The event is free, but we have limited capacity. Therefore we recommend to register soon: