This event will focus on the collaborative efforts between designers, technologists, policymakers, and citizens to craft guidelines and principles for AI systems' ethical "constitution," deployment, and use.
The panel's discussion will explore how AI can be designed taking a human-centric approach, ensuring inclusivity, fairness, and transparency. Our speakers will explore the impact of AI on society, discussing real-world applications and the importance of public engagement in shaping ethical AI policies and practices. Join us to contribute to a collective vision for responsibly navigating the future of artificial intelligence.
Speakers
Claudia McKoy
UpSurgence, Founder & Principal
Claudia McKoy is the founder and Principal of UpSurgence, a strategic engagement firm. She is an expert in using codesign methodologies to close connectivity gaps between diverse stakeholders, enabling them to work collaboratively to achieve complex community goals.
Throughout 2021, Claudia designed and carried out engagement strategies and co-design sessions involving hundreds of community stakeholders for the City of Mississauga as a part of its Black Community Engagement (BCE) campaign. The report included recommendations that promoted the full inclusion of Black communities into the City’s social, political and economic landscapes. The report also included five key recommendations to transform reactionary and adversarial relationships between Peel’s Black communities and law enforcement into proactive collaborations.
From 2022 to 2023, Claudia facilitated Toronto Police Services’ Race-Based Data Collection and Use of Force Town Halls. Recently, she led The Peel Regional Police (PRP) initiative to promote civic engagement and reduction of crime in the Village of Malton. Currently, she is working with PRP to establish a statement of principle on adopting AI and new disruptive technologies in law enforcement alongside a strategic plan to identify, reduce and eliminate disparities along socio-ethnic lines within policing.
Claudia McKoy sits on the Economic Developers Council of Ontario’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. She is a board member of Radius Child & Youth Services. Recently, she was elected to the CGLI executive board led by the Hon. Art Eggleton.
Blair Attard-Frost
PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto
Blair Attard-Frost researches, teaches, and creates stories about the governance of AI. As a PhD Candidate and SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar at the University of Toronto, Blair investigates how and why people design AI policies.
Blair teaches courses on AI ethics & policy, advises organizations, and advocates for community-led AI governance. Their storytelling projects explore potential futures for AI governance through the lenses of speculative fiction, glitch aesthetics, and transgender politics.
Kem-Laurin Lubin
PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo
Kem-Laurin Lubin is a PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo, where she researches traditional rhetoric, computational methods, and AI identity research.
Specializing in Computational Rhetoric, she explores the link between AI and Identity Characterization. Her notable publications include User Experience in the Age of Sustainability and her presentation paper, Interacting with eXtended Reality and Artificial Intelligence Series: “Conversations Towards Practiced AI – HCI Heuristics.” Leveraging Humanities and design expertise, Kem-Laurin aims to develop ethically grounded AI systems, advocating for a digital space that amplifies humanity's finest qualities via understanding machine rhetoric and its impact on digital identity creation.
Event Moderator
Michael Dila
Oslo for AI Project, Leader
Michael Anton Dila is a designer of conversation, the originator of System 3 and the leader of the Oslo for AI project.
Michael has spent his career working at the crux of change: building and equipping teams to do their most ambitious work; working to democratize the knowledge and practice of design; leading innovation work in companies, organizations and institutions; nurturing community and instigating challenging conversations. Michael has always had a passion for starting things. Whether it's companies or communities, he has spent much of the last 25 years breaking new ground. As a design and innovation leader he was devoted to making both more rigorous and more accessible. He is a founding member of Overlap, a peer network of innovators who share knowledge and practice to advance the state of the art of design. Since spending five years helping to build an elite innovation unit in the U.S. Department of Defense, he has been focused on working with leaders and teams in domains characterized by both high technical and ethical complexity, such as AI, defense innovation and inclusive entrepreneurship.