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Eberly College of Science

'Importance of Human Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence': A free public lecture on Feb. 19

11:00 AM / February 19, 2022

S. Shyam Sundar, director of the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence and James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects at Penn State, will present a free public lecture titled "Importance of Human Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19. The lecture is part of the 2022 Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures in the Eberly College of Science and will be held live via Zoom video webinar.

This year’s series consists of six weekly lectures with the theme of “The AI Revolution: Using Artificial Intelligence for Socially Responsible Science.” Admission is free and no registration is required. Previous lectures can be viewed at the Ashtekar Frontiers of Science website.

In this talk, Sundar will discuss how intelligent machines pose a threat to human agency, by using media-related examples such as fake news and personalized entertainment. Sundar will explore strategies for reconciling the tension between machine and human agency by theorizing about social and psychological aspects of human-AI interaction.

About the Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science was founded by Abhay Ashtekar in 1995, soon after he arrived at Penn State as director of a new research center that subsequently evolved to become the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. It owes its success to the tireless efforts and meticulous planning by Barbara Kennedy, who presided over the series during its first 25 years, making it one of the most successful science outreach events in central Pennsylvania.

For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Communications at sci-comm@psu.edu.