For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
In the second seminar "Prediction and Causality" of the seminar series "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on AI & Culture: Art and Science In Conversation", Melvin Wevers (Assistant Professor of Digital History) and Sara Magliacane (Assistant Professor of Informatics) will reflect on the role that prediction and causality play in their fields.
Event details of Prediction and Causality (hybrid)
Date
28 March 2023
Time
15:00 -17:00
Organised by
Pei-Sze Chow
Claudio Celis Bueno

Register via the link below. Registration is on a first come, first served basis. 

Historians have a complicated relationship with causality and the idea that history is governed by laws as thus predictable is met with skepticism. In a short overview of the historiography on causality and prediction, Wevers will argue how insights from these debates offer future methodological directions in digital history for working with causality and prediction. Magliacane will discuss how in some cases we can learn causal relations from data, including learning a notion of causal variables from high-dimensional data like sequences of images, and how causality helps improve robustness in machine learning approaches.

Via this interdisciplinary encounter we will show where our fields (unknowingly) overlap and we also hope to highlight disagreements, fueling debate with the participants.

The seminar series will culminate in a roundtable discussion in June 2023 where we will ‘hack’ current imaginations/misconceptions, as well as methodologies of researching and applying AI in cultural contexts. More details to follow. 

About the speakers

Melvin Wevers is Assistant Professor in Digital History at the University of Amsterdam. 

Sara Magliacane is Assistant Professor of Informatics at the University of Amsterdam. 

Location

The seminars will be hybrid (in-person and Zoom).

Sweelinck Room
Institute for Advanced Study
Oude Turfmarkt 147
1012 GC Amsterdam

About Interdisciplinary Perspectives on AI & Culture: Art and Science In Conversation

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on AI & Culture: Art and Science In Conversation is an interdisciplinary seminar series focused on bringing humanities scholars and computer scientists to the table to exchange critical perspectives on the intersections between AI and culture. 

Across four sessions, the series aims to identify gaps in how different disciplines conceptualise AI in culture and culture in AI. We aim to find a common language as a first step towards establishing interdisciplinary collaboration.

The speakers represent diverse sections in UvA, including history, philosophy, film and media studies, cultural studies, complex systems, multimedia analytics, and machine learning.

The sessions will cover the following topics:

  • Session 1: ‘Iconic images’ (February 21), Nanne Van Noord and Claudio Celis Bueno.
  • Session 2: ‘Prediction and causality’ (March 28), Melvin Wevers and Sara Magliacane.
  • Session 3: ‘Bias and metrics’ (April 18), Dieuwertje Luitse and Fernando P. Santos.
  • Session 4: ‘Creativity and AI in Cinema’ (May 23), Pei-Sze Chow and Carlo Bretti.

The seminar series will culminate in a roundtable discussion in June 2023 where we will ‘hack’ current imaginations/misconceptions, as well as methodologies of researching and applying AI in cultural contexts.