The AI Revolution: Navigating the Webs of Interdependence

Abstract
Industries, governments, and institutions are starting to explore and use the possibilities offered by AI-powered technologies, now considered as one of the drivers of the next industrial revolution. Along with that, there is increasing concern about economic, social, cultural and environmental challenges that this transformation might pose to our societies. But is our current approach in navigating the AI revolution sufficient to address those challenges?

In this seminar, Ehsan will argue that it is crucial to consider the backdrop to the AI revolution in our world today, including its linkages with climate change, resource depletion, marginalised communities and the Global North–South divide. Navigating this complex and interdependent landscape requires that we transcend traditional mechanistic and fragmented science, to better understand the nature of changes and to devise solutions to manage them in collaboration. This seminar will explore the ways in which AI revolution and its underlying socio-technical imaginaries, could be subject to a set of systemic interventions.


Biography
Dr Ehsan Nabavi is a Research Fellow in the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Innovation Institute (3Ai) at ANU. Prior to completing his PhD in Sociology at ANU, he trained as a Civil Engineer (BEng., Master). He was also a Visiting Research Fellow with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2016-17. Dr Nabavi’s interest is in transdisciplinary research particularly around the future of public policy and sustainability.

Dr. Nabavi was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Water and Development, School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at University of Bonn. He is the recipient of many grants and scholarships, including an EU Jean Monnet Project on ‘Water-policy Innovation Hub’.