UPDATE (March 22): Go here to read an interview with Teresa Heffernan about this workshop on April 9, 2024.

With aspects of human, social life like intelligence and ethical responsibility so often now attributed to the machinic artifacts of the AI industry, the (seeming) absence of living human beings from the scene of technology warrants increasing scrutiny. This is the theme of an upcoming workshop, “‘Intelligence’ in the Absence of Life,” which will be held at The Jackman Humanities Institute (University of Toronto) on Tuesday, April 09, 2024.

The workshop is organized and moderated by Teresa Heffernan (Professor, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax) and includes a dynamic line-up of speakers:

Paris Marx (Technology Journalist, Author, Podcaster, Critic)

Elke Schwartz (Reader, Political Theory, Queen Mary University, London)

Lucy Suchman (Professor Emerita, Lancaster University, UK)

Ron Deibert (Professor, Political Science, Founder/Director Citizen Lab, University of Toronto)

The workshop is free to attend but registration is required.

For further information and to register, go here: https://www.humanities.utoronto.ca/events/intelligence-absence-life