Quantum Physicist Basarab Nicolescu in his Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity (2002) urges us to celebrate the transgression of disciplinary boundaries to engage with complex ways of knowing and tackle the unprecedented challenges of our troubled world. Today, we are confronted with the conundrum of advances in Artificial Intelligence increasingly being embedded into societal interaction, with the emerging ethical, political, and regulatory implications. How can researchers across disciplines from machine learning, human-centered design, linguistics, law, and sociology collaborate at the intersections of AI and society?
This is part of the challenge we have undertaken in our research group across a range of inter-related projects, working closely with academic research and societal partners in Finland. In my talk, I will highlight the risks and opportunities for undertaking transdisciplinary research, while sharing ongoing research in 2-3 projects related to designing trustworthy AI services in the public sector, examining critical discourses of AI in the EU, and piloting AI regulatory sandboxes for experimentation, inclusion, co-learning, and responsible innovation. How does this allow us to develop new methods, theories, and applications to critically examine conceptual domains such as trust, cooperation, and agency in emerging human-machine systems?
This was the subject of an invited talk titled “Transdisciplinary approaches towards Inclusive, Trustworthy & Responsible AI” at the Pioneer Center for AI hosted by Prof. Serge Belongie at the University of Copenhagen.
Photos from my research visit and talk: (courtesy of Serge Belongie & Arnav Arora)
Presentation Slides:
Nitin Sawhney 