Bonn Sustainable AI Conference 2023

Sustainable AI Across Borders, May 30^th to June 1^st 2023, Germany

This is the second Sustainable AI conference organized by the Bonn Sustainable AI lab at Bonn University’s Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE). The focus of the first conference in June 2021 was to create a community of researchers in the space of Sustainable AI and to raise awareness on the topic. The second conference focused on cross cultural perspectives to address the variety and scope of ethical issues on a global scale. An inspiration for this theme is to acknowledge the reality that certain countries play an integral role in the early production phase and the waste management but may never experience the benefits of AI.

Videos

Pictures

Recap

From 30th May to 1st June 2023, the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab organized its second conference dedicated to the topic of Sustainable AI with the theme Sustainable AI Across Borders. The conference brought a truly global perspective on AI with 94 speakers from 27 different countries, almost half of the speakers being female. The conference kicked off with a welcome from the lab’s director, Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe, and continued with welcomes from Rector Magnificus Michael Hoch, deputy Mayor Dr Ursula Sautter, and Member of the European Parliament Alexandra Geese. Over the three days, the four incredible keynote speakers opened our eyes to a variety of topics including: the need to resist thinking of AI as a magic wand, the understanding that environmental justice issues of AI reach far beyond just carbon emissions, the danger of AI exacerbating (post-)colonial dependencies, and an exploration of what virtues we, as a society, need to cultivate to get out of the current ‘mess’ surrounding AI design, development, use and hype in general.

There were too many highlights of the conference to put in one short reflection but important to note was the gender and AI panel in which Prof. Hanna Meißner from the German Association for Gender Studies, the founder of Women in AI and Robotics Sheila Beladinejad, and research fellow Modestha Mensah explored the impact AI is having on conceptions of ‘beauty’ across the globe. Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe sat on stage with Jan Kleijssen, former director of the Council of Europe, to discuss what the Council of Europe is doing to address AI’s risks to human rights violations and how this differs from the European Union’s approach (i.e. the AI Act).

Of equal importance was the panel of artists discussing the need for art-science collaborations to explore new ways of framing the problem and/or understanding AI’s impact on the world.

Beyond these major events, which took place in the main lecture hall, three additional parallel tracks featured 71 talks during the three conference days. Their grouping in topical sessions facilitated orientation. The variety of sessions reflects the variety of the conference: More theoretical sessions on conceptual foundations were featured as well as more action-oriented discussions about governance or corporate social responsibility. Somewhere in between were sessions about social justice, decolonialism, narratives, and many more.

The conference was about creating a community of researchers exploring the topic of Sustainable AI from a variety of perspectives and we did just that. People connected with one another both during sessions and afterwards, stimulating conversations were had throughout all three days both on- and off-stage. After a year of working towards this conference the team is excited for a break but looks forward to welcoming the community back to Bonn for the next conference in 2025!

Click here to visit the IWE's website with lots of pictures from the conference.

On our YouTube channel you'll find new videos of the conference every Monday.

Videos of the conference

new videos are available every Monday until 6 November 2023
Click here to open our YouTube conference playlist.

Opening Remarks by

- Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe, Director Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE), University of Bonn

- Prof. Dr Dr Michael Hoch, Rector University of Bonn

- Dr Ursula Sautter, Deputy Mayor of Bonn

Keynote Lecture
"A decolonial framework for thinking about sustainable AI"
by Prof. Dr Caesar Atuire (University of Ghana, Ghana)

Artist presentations by Irakli Sabekia and Špela Petrič

Opening Remarks by Alexandra Geese,
Member of the European Parliament

Panel Discussion: German UNESCO Commission "Research cooperation on ethical AI between Germany and African countries – An instrument to decolonise AI and to strengthen digital sovereignty?"
Speakers:
- Dr Maximilian Müngersdorff, German UNESCO Commission, Germany
- Dr Joyce NakatumbaNabende, Makerere AI Lab, Uganda
- Dr Caitlin Corrigan, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Session topic: "Gender and AI".
Talk by Camilla Quaresmini, META Politecnico Milano, Italy
Title: "Inclusive Models of Gender for Sustainable AI"

Session topic: "Gender and AI".
Talk by Aparna Chakravorty / Monisha Bhattacharya, Accenture India, India
Title: "Enroute to gender parity: a review and augmentation of industry solutions in AI"

Keynote Lecture
"Green Capitalism is not the only answer: why AI magic will not solve the Climate Emergency and what to do about it"
by Prof. Dr Benedetta Brevini (University of Sydney/London School of Economics and Political Science, Australia/United Kingdom)

Panel Discussion: Artificial Intelligence and Gender
Chair: Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe
Speakers:
- Prof. Dr Hanna Meißner (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany)
- Modestha Mensah (University of Ghana, Ghana)
- Sheila Beladinejad (Women in AI & Robotics, Germany)

Session topic: "Sustainability of AI".
Talk by Duuk Baten, SURF, the Dutch National Research and Education Network (NREN), The Netherlands
Title: "Insights into sustainably managing compute-infrastructures: Can the use of old hardware promote sustainable AI development and deployment?"

Session topic: "Sustainability of AI".

Talk by Markus Rothkötter, University Magdeburg, Germany

Title: "How to design efficient decisionmaking algorithms to enhance sustainable AI?"

Panel Discussion: Data Pollution and Power Group
Title: "Facing the data pollution of our time with a Unified Movement"
Chair: Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe
Speakers:
- Federica Lucivero
- Gry Hasselbalch
- Şebnem Yardimci Geyikçi

Panel Discussion: ArtScience Residency

Title: "When Art meets Science: Fostering new forms of Collaboration"

Chair: Charlotte Bander

Speakers:

- Špela Petrič, Deutsche Telekom ArtScience Residency, Slovenia

- Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe, University of Bonn, Germany

- Nathalie Hoyos, Office for Art, Curator Art Collection Deutsche Telekom, Germany

- Irakli Sabekia, Deutsche Telekom ArtScience Residency, The Netherlands

Keynote Lecture
"AI and the Tragedy of the Commons: a decolonial perspective"
by Ulises Mejias, SUNY Oswego College, United States

Session topic: "AI and Gender".

Talk by Corinna Bath, University of Augsburg, Germany & Jannis Steinke, TU Braunschweig, Germany

Title: "Shaping AI for a feminist World"

Session topic: "AI and Gender".

Talk by Modestha Mensah, IWE/University of Ghana, Germany/Ghana

Title: "Sustainable AI meets African Feminism"

available from 26 September 2023

Session topic: "AI and Gender".

Talk by Abigail Oppong, Ghana NLP, Ghana

Title: "Towards Building a Gender-Inclusive Khaya AI for English ← or → Twi Text Translator"

Fireside Chat: "Next Steps for AI Governance in Europe"

with:

- Jan Kleijssen, Council of Europe, Germany

- Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe, University of Bonn, Germany

Session topic: "More-than-human-centred AI".

Talk by Tomasz Hollanek, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Title: "Strategies for more-than-human-centred AI design"

Session topic: "More-than-human-centred AI".

Talk by Kerry Mclnerney,Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Title: "Reimagining Sustainable AI through Asian American In/Humanisms"

Session topic: "More-than-human-centred AI".

Talk by Apolline Taillandier, Cambridge University/University Bonn, United Kingdom/Germany

Title: "More than human AI Justice: Conceptual Resources from Feminism"

available from 30 October 2023

Keynote Lecture
"Bootstrapping sustainable AI: how to reclaim technology for humane futures"
by Prof. Dr Shannon Vallor, University of Edinburgh, Scotland