The AI for Society panel series reimagines the responsible use of AI beyond risk and restraint, focusing instead on how technology can cultivate collective potential and societal well-being.
Each panel will deepen perspectives on building and governing AI that enables communities to thrive.
This final panel shifts from specific domains to a broader question of purpose: What does it take to build AI systems that embody, or amplify, our societal commitments to agency, care, justice, and solidarity? What would it mean to build hopeful AI systems? Moving beyond optimization and efficiency, it asks how AI might be designed to reflect and reinforce deeper social commitments such as agency, care, justice and solidarity. Panelists will explore how these values can be embedded not just in technical systems, but in the institutions, norms, and governance structures that shape them. In doing so, the conversation brings the series full circle, challenging us to imagine AI not only as a tool to manage risk, but as a force that can actively support human and societal flourishing.
Moderator
Cameron Kormylo: Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations at the Mendoza College of Business
Panelists
Nuno Moniz: Associate research professor, Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society; Associate Director of the Data, Inference, Analytics, and Learning (DIAL) Lab
Suzanne Shanahan: The Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director, Institute for Social Concerns; professor of sociology
Josefina Echavarría Álvarez: Professor of the practice and the director, Peace Accords Matrix (PAM), Legacy Project at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs
Tom Stapleford: Associate professor, concurrent associate professor, Department of History; Faculty member, Program in History & Philosophy of Science