Professor Subbarao Kambhampati takes us through a trajectory of the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) since its inception in 1950s. The session showcases a computer scientist's views on the wide-ranging questions on the social implications of AI. The conversation covers themes such as facial recognition systems, social engineering and AI's role in exacerbating biases. Guest Profile: Professor Kambhampati has been a faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Arizona State University since 1991. His research interests include Planning and Decision-making for human-in-the-loop AI systems, Automated Planning (AI) and Social Media Analysis & Information Integration. His work has been widely covered in media and he has delivered distinguished lectures, keynotes and invited talks at various venues all over the world. Professor Kambhampati was the President(2016-18) of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

Massive availability of data and regulating ways of extracting data from end users has been a conundrum for regulators globally. Additionally, data protection laws on the global level often fall flat on grasping local specificities and subjective negotiations with respect to people’s strategy of engaging with data on an everyday basis. Our speakers, Dr. Linnet Taylor and Siddharth Peter de Souza posit a justice-based governance framework to assess international norm- building for data governance besides evaluating the ways in which justice materializes at the ground level of the user. The speakers illustrate the ‘Global Data Justice’ project and also engage with a set of enthralling questions from the live audience. Guest profile:  Linnet Taylor is Associate Professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT), in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on digital data, representation and democracy, with particular attention to transnational governance issues. She leads the ERC Global Data Justice project, which aims to develop a social-justice-informed framework for governance of data technologies on the global level. Siddharth Peter de Souza is a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Global Data Justice project at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). He is interested in the role data plays at the intersection of law and development, and works on how to think of questions of data governance in plural legal contexts.  Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

Does 'smarter' necessarily mean 'safer'? “Smart City” projects around the world do claim so. Smart cities are often characterised by prominent deployment of technological devices and mechanisms of data aggregation. Framing them as essential to having safe living spaces has grave implications on human dignity, privacy and basic liberties. Dr. Maša Galič takes us through her fascinating work on the ‘Stratumseind living lab’, a smart city project in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Her work showcases newer techniques of predictive policing through the use of light and sound in a smart city and encompasses the larger debates around technological solutionism,  privacy in public places and repercussions on autonomy and self-development. Guest profile: Maša Galič is assistant professor in Data Protection and Criminal Procedure  Law at the Criminal law & criminology department of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam; NL). Prior to this, she was a researcher at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (Tilburg University; NL), where she obtained her PhD in 2019 on the topic of privacy and surveillance in smart cities. Maša's current research focuses on the regulation of digital investigation powers for law enforcement purposes, which function at the intersection of criminal procedure law and data protection law. Her other research interests include cybercrime, privacy, surveillance and smart cities.” Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

Midst the rise of misinformation, disinformation and propaganda steering political communication, the present session delves into Dr. Samuel Woolley’s book, 'The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth'. The author discusses the serious harms of technologies such as deep fakes and virtual reality when used subtly to manoeuvre public opinions and users worldviews. The author brings forth fascinating case studies of countries such as India, USA, besides others and also throws light on methodological underpinnings for researchers to view ‘propaganda’ embedded within a context, otherwise often placed in a disconnected experimental lab. Guest Profile: Samuel C. Woolley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and an assistant professor, by courtesy, in the School of Information--both at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement (CME) at UT. Woolley is currently a research associate at the Project for Democracy and the Internet at Stanford University. Woolley’s research is focused on how emergent technologies are used in and around global political communication. His public work on computational propaganda and social media bots has appeared in venues including Wired, the Guardian,TechCrunch, Motherboard, Slate, and The Atlantic. Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

In this panel discussion, members of the Law and Technology Research Group (LTRG) at CSLG, JNU, comprising Dr. Nupur Chowdhury, Dr. P. Puneeth, Manpreet Dhillon, Anuradha Singh, Mandira Narain and Prabhat Mishra, discuss the various facets of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The views offered by the panelists mainly center around the structure of the rules, petitions filed by social media and digital news platforms, and interpretation of the notification from the angle of Right to Privacy. Overarching comments regarding the policy and legal landscape are also presented.          Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain

Various on-demand platforms have gained currency in recent years as part of gig economy. App-based work or gig work is reshaping the relationship between service providers and customers. Gig economy platforms have also been criticized for forcing individuals into precarious work. In this session, we talk about platformization of work and the challenges faced by gig workers in India with Dr. Noopur Raval. A host of interesting questions from the live audience make the session an unmissable one.     Guest Profile: Noopur Raval is a postdoctoral researcher at the AI Now Institute at New York University. She is interested in understanding how emerging technologies reshape life and laboring conditions globally with a special focus on gig economy platforms. She is also interested in  studying and divining equitably AI futures globally. Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

Artificial Intelligence(AI) is very much in the news these days. While some of it is truly amazing, a lot of it is hype! To decode AI, we have a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Luke Stark. The exchange revolves around the history and future of AI, facial recognition technology, questionable emotion recognition claims, and the ethical use and governance of AI. Interspersed with thought-provoking questions from the live audience, the session is a delight to listen for everyone interested to know more about AI.     Guest Profile: Luke Stark is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and  Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. His work  interrogates the historical, social, and ethical impacts of computing  and artificial intelligence technologies, particularly those mediating  social and emotional expression. His scholarship highlights the  asymmetries of power, access and justice that are emerging as these  systems are deployed in the world, and the social and political  challenges that technologists, policymakers, and the wider public face as a result. Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain 

We take up various themes from Dr. Sun-Ha Hong's latest book 'Technologies of Speculation: The limits of knowledge in a data-driven society' for discussion. The topics covered range from the way knowledge is constructed through technologies like AI to self-tracking technologies, privacy, transparency, datafication, and many others. We also incorporate various interesting questions from the live audience. This session is a must-listen for anyone interested in contemporary technologies and their quest for knowledge and prediction.     Guest Profile: Sun-Ha Hong is Assistant Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Before that, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at MIT. His book, Technologies of Speculation: The limits of knowledge in a data-driven society (NYU Press, 2020), asks what counts as knowledge in the age of big data, and how bodies are made into facts through the growing ubiquity of surveillance and tracking technologies. Hosts: Prabhat Mishra & Mandira Narain