Future Possibilities
Asynchronous Session
The Road to Driverless Traffic: Exploring Scenarios for the Future of Urban Mobility and Society View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas Seemann, Melanie Seemann
Autonomous driving has progress significantly in the last years. Recently, Tesla opens its ‘Full Self-Driving’ software to customers in the United States as a subscription service. This is another incremental step towards true driverless traffic. While today’s software does not make vehicles fully autonomous (the driver must keep control of the vehicle at all times) this future prospect is within our grasp. This paper focuses less on the technological components and software of autonomous vehicles. Rather looks at the fundamental implications of driverless traffic: (1) Economics of driverless vehicles: How will driverless vehicles shift the economics of transportation? (2) Business models and the mobility industry: How will business models and the competitive landscape alter? Will new players challenge the incumbents? (3) Customer adaption: How are transportation volumes shifting? What are entry points for driverless traffic? (4) Infrastructure needs: How will our road infrastructure and cities need to adapt to the traffic of the future? (5) Social implications: How will communities be impacted? Who are winners and losers of this development?
Embodiment of Vision: Corporealities and Agency in Artificial Intelligence Generated Art View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session James Hutson
With exponential advances in the past year with artificial intelligence (AI) and AI art generators, “The Death of the Artist” has been at the forefront of scholarship in the artworld. With Jasper Art, Night Café, Midjourney, DALL-E 2 and many other art generator tools, the ability for seemingly anyone to create "art" or designs is at hand. On the other hand, these advances are merely another disruption in the history of art and design, as each technological advancement from printmaking to photography to computer-generated art all disrupted a previous definition of the relationship between human concept and agency and technical abilities. However, unlike these earlier disruptions in the field, AI is poised not to replace artists and designers, but to upend their workflow, training, and processes. The lasting impact of this technological advance need be considered beyond criticism and theory and be at the forefront of conversations on curriculum to address this new digital embodiment of vision.
Embodied Thinking Machines as Translators : Problems and Possibilities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Vampola
The last decade has witnessed the rapid development of machine translation. These striking innovations have been heralded by some as providing new ways for cultures and societies to communicate. Yet, many of these innovations have occurred primarily in an intertextual environment solely determined by humans and programs. The appearance of embodied thinking machines (ETMs) can increase the scope of interaction between linguistically and culturally diverse groups of people as well as machines themselves. This paper considers two aspects of incorporating ETMs within the translation process. The first focuses on training ETMs to be effective translators. Bodily gestures that are sometimes essential for adequate translation need to be learned. A scholar of gestures, Francois Caradec, has noted that there are no universal gestures – they can be culturally specific, and they can change over time. Teaching and learning these corporeal configurations hence are a challenge to advocates of gestural translation. particularly with respect to ETMs. The second focus, centering on the interpretive possibilities of ETMs, takes recent work by N. Katherine Hayles as its starting point. For ETMs to be effective translators, they must also be good interpreters. Extending Hayles’ views to ETMs, machines and humans, which are both capable of processing information, are part of a larger “semiosphere” and “cognisphere”. Hence Hayles opens the prospect that entities such as ETMs can be placed within the domain of agents (which she terms “cognitive assemblages”) that can make and presumably understand meaning, which in turn can lead to translation.
ChatGPT - Don’t Throw Out Content Knowledge with the Bathwater: Why We Shouldn’t Outsource Content Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Han Nee Chong
This paper examines the potential of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to disrupt education by providing easy access to factual knowledge. The central question explored is whether instructional time should be devoted to teaching critical thinking and digital literacy skills over domain-specific content knowledge. A research study was conducted with two groups of undergraduate students in a general education leadership course, where one group was taught content knowledge on a leadership chapter and the other group was taught digital literacy and critical thinking skills. Both groups were asked to write an essay, with the option to use ChatGPT. The results indicated that while 50% of students in the content knowledge group used ChatGPT, their median essay score was a B, compared to 80% of students in the digital literacy group using ChatGPT, with a median essay score of a C. The discussion highlights the cognitive model that suggests domain-specific content knowledge is essential for developing creative and critical thinking skills. The paper concludes with recommendations and implications for teaching and assessment, emphasizing the importance of balancing the teaching of content knowledge and digital literacy skills.
DNA Technology for Criminal Justice in Ukraine: Limits of DNA Databases View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Olena Chaban
Most European countries have national DNA databases holding electronic records of DNA from crime scenes, as well as some categories of individuals. They can be a useful tool for prosecuting offenders, acquitting innocent parties, and identifying miscarriages of justice. Despite the technology being error-prone, it is still considered reliable enough and its evidence is normally admissible. In this paper, we focus on a legal framework implemented by Ukraine to regulate a DNA database. The framework was created last year serving, inter alia, the war-time priorities. We seek to articulate aspects, that, given international practice in this area, deserve closer attention and potential improvement. To this end, we outline Ukrainian legislation in this field and its gaps. We then provide a synopsis of jurisprudence developed by ECtHR and CJEU through the lens of the limits established for DNA databases. Namely, we reiterate the imperative of complying with the principles of data minimisation and proportionality. We list the rights of data subjects that in the light of the judgments of CJEU have to be regulated explicitly and unequivocally. Finally, we note that efficient enforcement mechanisms are vital considering the ‘shared’ nature of genetic data, forensic genetic genealogy, and how much is at stake with a DNA database. We illustrate models that might be worth implementing and following.
