Tech & Society

What do social relationships and urban transportation have in common? They can both be represented by networks, mathematical tools representing systems where individuals, e.g. people or stations, are connected in pairs. For instance, two people are connected when they share some type of relationship; or two stations are connected by a train. While these systems relate to very different domains, the existence of a common mathematical formalism allows to develop tools and theories that allow their diverse investigation. We will see how we can use these common mathematical ideas to learn hidden patterns, e.g. groups of people behaving similarly in forming social relationships, or to optimize traffic in urban transportation.

Is an artificial intelligence (AI) more objective when picking job candidates than a human recruiter? The evergrowing AI-based hiring industry certainly claims so. AI is increasingly used for tasks such as contacting applicants, filtering CVs, or conducting job interviews. After all, computers aren’t prejudiced… or are they? The field of AI ethics analyses how systems can reproduce social issues through unreliable, biased, or intransparent automated decisions. This talk takes a look at how AI might transform the way we apply for jobs and the ethical problems this raises.

Generative Artificial Intelligence, such as OpenAI's Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT), is rapidly changing academic research and teaching. Not only can students now easily produce academic texts, numerical calculations, or code with a few simple prompts, but senior researchers are also beginning to apply generative AI to their knowledge practices. But what exactly are they doing with generative AI? In our talk, we will share insights from a recent survey of more than 500 participants at the University of Tübingen. After presenting some of the statistical results, we will delve into the qualitative responses from the survey, in which students and researchers reflect on what they see as the potential and risks associated with GenAI. We will use quotes from the respondents to show (some of) the most significant implications of Generative AI for academic life.