AlgoSoc

On November 29, 2024, AlgoSoc scientific director Prof. Natali Helberger will deliver a keynote at the Digital Legal Talks 2024 conference. This conference is the fifth edition of the annual conference hosted by the Digital Legal Lab, taking place on November 28-29, 2024, in Utrecht. This fully in-person event brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore the intersection of law and digital technologies. The conference aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, addressing critical issues such as responsible data sharing, AI regulation, the digitalization of justice systems, and the role of digital platforms in enforcing public interests. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research, share insights, and discuss the implications of technological advancements on legal practice and policy. The first day of the conference will feature presentations from accepted paper submissions, while the second day will host plenary sessions with invited speakers, providing a comprehensive overview of current trends and future directions in the field. For more information: https://lnkd.in/eeYbYycg #AlgoSoc #Law #DigitalTechnology #Conference #DataSharing #AIRegulation #DigitalPlatforms

AlgoSoc researchers Isabella Banks and Natali Helberger attended the Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid’s Digital Rule of Law Conference yesterday, which brought together nearly 1,000 justice sector professionals to discuss the implications of digitalization. Natali spoke on the opening panel alongside Kees Verhoeven (Bureau Digitale Zaken), Sandra van Heukelom-Verhage (Pels Rijcken) and Adwin Rotscheid (Directie Rechtsbestel JenV) about the impact of digital transformation on the rule of law. In the afternoon, Isabella facilitated a workshop that brought together insights from research and practice about how human oversight can most effectively be operationalized in the justice context. An inspiring day filled with valuable discussions and new insights! Check out the photos below for a glimpse of this important event. 📸 #AlgoSoc #DigitalRuleOfLaw #LegalTech #ResearchImpact

On Friday, November 15, 2024, SPUI25 will host a talk with Prof. Claes de Vreese titled 'Artificial Elections? The Role of AI in the 2024 Election Year'. Rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed the political landscape. Many have feared that AI threatens democracy itself. In this event we want to look back at elections of this year: has AI really been the destructive force that so many feared it to be? And what about the future? Prof. Claes de Vreese will share his insights on how AI influenced this year’s elections. Following his talk, a panel of leading experts in AI and politics—including Aqsa Farooq (Communication Scientist) and Natalia Stanusch (Researcher at AI Forensics)—will take the stage to reflect on what we have learnt about the role of AI in democracy and consider the road ahead in the age of AI.  For more information and registration please visit: https://lnkd.in/eMwwGZhY

🎓#MeetOurResearchers🎓 The project of AlgoSoc PhD student Annemijn Kwikkers focuses on the transformation of democratic values in the algorithmic society and aims to explore issues that are challenging to capture empirically yet deserve attention. For instance, empirical research has shown that social media platforms prioritize user engagement over democratic journalistic values, such as media pluralism and fact verification. Additionally, only a small percentage of users actively participate in political debate online, fake news travels faster and further within online networks than verified information, and these platforms contribute to polarization. While these findings are both interesting and valuable, in this project, Annemijn seeks to reflect on the deeper meaning of these trends. More specifically, she aims to assess how the growing role of social media in public deliberation, along with the rise of digital journalism, might impact democratic legitimacy and authority. Annemijn feels privileged to be part of such an engaging research community and to be at the forefront of investigating thought-provoking questions and contemporary phenomena. She looks forward to contributing to the AlgoSoc research goals in the years ahead. Want to learn more? Check out the full description of Annemijn’s research project on our website: https://lnkd.in/eFzMDW4R Annemijn is conducting her research in the Philosophy Department at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, supervised by Beate Roessler and Eva Groen-Reijman. #AlgoSoc #MeetOurResearchers #AlgorithmicSociety #DemocraticValues #DigitalJournalism #Polarization #FakeNews #MediaPluralism #PublicDeliberation

With the increasing prevalence of algorithmic processes in both private and public spheres, we need to better understand how algorithms influence decisions that affect us.   The recent opinion of Advocate General (AG) de la Tour in the case of CK v Dun & Bradstreet Austria brings some much-awaited clarity into the debate about whether the General Data Protection Regulation (#GDPR) contains a right to explanation for automated decisions. In relation to a dispute concerning an automated credit assessment, the AG provides insight into how we should understand the data subject’s right to access ‘meaningful information about the logic involved’ in automated data processing (Article 15(1)(h) GDPR). Although the opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice, it makes clear that data subjects should have the right to receive intelligible and contextualized information about the algorithmic processing affecting them, so that they could effectively exercise their other data subject rights.   Read more about the requirements that AG de la Tour has proposed to the form and substance of algorithmic explanations from the blog post written by AlgoSoc researcher Kätliin Kelder. https://lnkd.in/ekWh8Emr #AlgoSoc #Blog #GDPR #AutomatedDataProcessing #PublicValues #AlgorithmicSociety #DataRights #PrivacyLaw

🗳 Has AI-driven disinformation shaped this year’s elections? Join us on November 25th at 13:00 CET, for the next installment of our AI and elections discussion series, organised in collaboration with the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). During this insightful online session we will examine the role of Generative AI-enabled disinformation in shaping this year's election landscape. Our expert speakers: 🔹 Mark Scott | Senior resident fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) within the Atlantic Council 🔸 Josephine Lukito | Asistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and Media 🔹 Mato Brautovic | Professor and Head of the Department of Mass Communication at University of Dubrovnik, Croatia 🔸 Taberez A. Neyazi | Associate Professor of New Media and Political Communication + Director of Digital Campaign Asia project in the Department of Communications and New Media at National University of Singapore Hosted by Claes de Vreese, Sophie Morosoli & Aqsa Farooq. 🖍 Register here: https://lnkd.in/ex_sRzAD

The Amsterdam Center for Health Communication is hosting a symposium on the latest insights in predicting and communicating health risks, drawing on perspectives from both science and practice. The keynote lecture will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Danielle Timmermans (Amsterdam UMC), a leading expert in health risk communication. The event will run from 12:00 to 17:00, and participation is free. With attendees from both academic and professional backgrounds, the main language of the symposium will be Dutch. The symposium will be led by AlgoSoc postdoctoral researcher Leonie Westerbeek. For more information and registration: https://lnkd.in/gWtZDvNB

We had such an inspiring Autumn School on impact with our AlgoSoc young scholar team! Topics we tackled: what can impact entail for a researcher and for whom do we strive for impact? How do you engage with stakeholders? What is an impact plan approach, and how can design thinking help you to make impact? (spoiler: mistakes are allowed) A big thanks to Joris de Vries, Nathalie van Doorn, en Jolien van de Sande for organizing, and, of course, an even bigger thank you to the amazing speakers: Anke Stekelenburg, Corien Prins, Karin van Es, Antoinette de Bont. We learned a lot.

🚨 Call for Papers! 🚨 The European Journal on Artificial Intelligence (https://lnkd.in/gTkmYyAt) is launching a special issue on the History of AI in Europe! 🧠 Contribute to documenting Europe's rich AI legacy! Share insights on historical factors, pioneering research, and Europe's global impact on AI development. 📝 More information on the special issue 👇 Contact the editors Ulises Cortés Cristian Barrue 📅 Submission Deadline: February 28, 2025 ➡️ Submit Here: https://lnkd.in/gA92RHaX #AI #Research #CallForPapers #ArtificialIntelligence #EurAI

🎓 #MeetOurResearchers 🎓 How do you feel about the increased use of #algorithms by public institutions such as municipalities, tax offices, or the police? Although there are benefits, algorithms have also caused issues regarding #discrimination or #bias when it comes to the allocation of subsidies, or use of risk assessment tools, based for example on characteristics such as sex or ethnicity. One major problem associated with algorithms and #AI is the notion that these systems work as “black boxes.” In other words, it is often difficult to understand and to see how these algorithms work, which #data they use, and how they make decisions. Therefore, it is important to have good laws in place that protect citizens from discrimination, regulate which algorithms can be used in the public sector and which might pose too many risks. At the same time, citizens should be part of the discussions on where and when we want to have algorithms making decisions for us, and where we, as a society, would prefer to have humans making these choices.   Sabrina Kutscher aims to look at which laws are already in place to protect citizens from the risks posed by algorithm use, and to see how we, as a society, can deliberate on the law-making process, including necessary rights and safeguards to be implemented. However, fragmentation of law alongside technical jargon can sometimes be a hurdle to involve different stakeholders with varying degrees of expertise, which is why finding a common vocabulary that everyone can use will be an important aspect of her project. Overall, her PhD will combine legal research of laws and regulations with theoretical frameworks and empirical research (interviews with individuals who use/are affected by algorithms) to understand how we can create a platform that promotes engagement of various groups and people on regulating AI. Want to learn more? Check the full description of Sabrina's research project on our website: https://lnkd.in/eePard4A Sabrina is conducting her research at Tilburg University. Her PhD project is supervised by Johan Wolswinkel, Albert Meijer, Roel Dobbe and Shirley Kempeneer.   #AlgoSoc #MeetOurResearchers #AlgorithmicGovernance #Regulation #AI #PublicDeliberation #Technology #Law