Wednesday, 30th October 2024 @ 12:30pm (GMT)
Abstract: Machine learning tools have transformed our ability to do science. We get more, faster. However, some suggest that this progress comes at a high cost: an additional layer of intellectual distance between the individual researcher and his outputs. Others dismiss such concerns as old-fashioned unease with new technology — the same reaction Galileo experienced in connection with his telescopes. In this talk, I shall explore the scientist’s evolving relationship with the ideas of intellectual ownership, identity, and copying throughout modern history. By disentangling the practical and cultural significance of these concepts, I will consider how we might better understand our relationship with AI technology.
About the presenter: Dr Alexy Karenowska is a magnetician with a research group based in Oxford’s Department of Physics and a Fellow of Magdalen College. She completed her undergraduate degree in Engineering Science in 2007 and her DPhil in Physics in 2011. Alongside her research in magnetics, Alexy works on a range of projects at the interface between cultural heritage and the physical sciences. Much of her research in this area is aimed at understanding the significance of the act of copying and humanity's often complex relationships with the copies it creates.