ETH Global Lecture Series: Social Artificial Intelligence
16 Oct 2024 - Artificial intelligence (AI) affects not just human-machine interactions but also human-human interactions in the presence of machines. Nicholas A. Christakis explores "hybrid systems" of humans and AI, showing how AI can enhance or harm group performance, cooperation, and communication. His research focuses on "dumb AI" to supplement human interaction, highlighting AI's potential as a “social catalyst” for a better future.
The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) transcends the simple case of human-machine interactions and extends to human-human interactions in the presence of machines. Here, Nicholas A. Christakis explores such “hybrid systems” of humans and AI. He shows how the careful yet simple programming of AI agents can enhance the performance of human groups, making people within such groups better able to cooperate, coordinate, innovate, and communicate, ultimately contributing to their superior performance. On the other hand, both simple and complex forms of AI (such as large language models) can also do the opposite, harming groups of people and our society as a whole. His experiments show how AI agents can affect social processes and human performance in settings as diverse as people working together online or coordinating their movement on roadways. His group's work, in short, does not involve the development of super-smart AI to replace human cognition, but rather “dumb AI” to supplement human interaction. These findings reveal what the disruptive introduction of AI into our lives means for the future of human social behavior. And they suggest ways to design AI—as a type of “social catalyst”—so as to make sure it supports a utopian rather than dystopian future.
Social Artificial Intelligence with Nicholas A. Christakis, sociologist and physician
Wednesday, 16 October 2024
15.00 - 16.00 CET
HG F30 Audimax, door opens at 14.30
This lecture is in English. A reception will take place after the lecture
Registration is required external page here
Speakers
- external page Nicholas A. Christakis, sociologist and physician
- Effy Vayena, bioethicist at ETH Zurich
- Chris Luebkeman, leader of the Strategic Foresight Hub in the Office of the President at ETH Zurich (moderation)
Programme
- Welcome/Introduction by Chris Luebkeman
- Presentation by Nicholas A. Christakis
- Panel discussion with Nicholas A. Christakis, Effy Vayena and Chris Luebkamen (moderation)
- Q&A with the audience
Nicholas A. Christakis
Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a social scientist and physician at Yale University who conducts research in the fields of network science, biosocial science, and various other fields. His current work focuses on how human biology and health affect, and are affected by, social interactions and social networks. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, appointed in the Departments of Sociology; Statistics and Data Science; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Medicine; and the School of Management.
Dr. Christakis received his BS from Yale in 1984, his MD from Harvard Medical School and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1989, and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006; the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017; and the National Academy of Sciences in 2024.
One line of work in his lab focuses on how health and health behavior in one person can influence analogous outcomes in a person’s social network, via social contagion. This work involves the application of statistical and mathematical models to understand the dynamics of diverse phenomena in longitudinally evolving networks. This work also uses large-scale experiments to examine the spread of knowledge and behaviors (ranging from altruism to breastfeeding, etc.), including in field trials in the developing world directed at improving public health (e.g., in Honduras and India). A second line of work examines the genetic and evolutionary determinants of social network structure, showing that social interactions have been shaped by our genome and shape it, with related projects that have mapped networks of populations in Tanzania and Sudan who live as all humans did 10,000 years ago. This work also involves exploring the spread of the microbiome in human populations and the role of chemosignaling in social interactions. A third line of work has used artificial intelligence (AI) agents (“bots") to affect social processes in “hybrid systems” of humans and machines.
Dr. Christakis is the author of over 220 articles and several books. His influential 2009 book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, documented how social networks affect our lives and was translated into twenty foreign languages. His 2019 book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, was a New York Times bestseller and was translated into over ten foreign languages.
In 2009, Christakis was named by Time magazine to their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009 and in 2010, he was listed by Foreign Policy magazine in their annual list of Top 100 Global Thinkers.
Effy Vayena
Effy Vayena is Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation and Governance at ETH Zurich and professor of Bioethics. Her work focuses on how emerging technologies in biomedicine and data analytics including AI affect our society and what ethical safeguards we should put in place to avoid negative consequences. To address these questions, she uses different research methodologies. She founded and directs the Health Ethics and policy Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab including philosophers, social scientists, lawyers, biologists and engineers.
Vayena has been appointed Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she was previously a Fellow. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and co-edited several books. Vayena is also an elected member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. She currently co-chairs the WHO’s expert advisory group on Artificial Intelligence health ethics and governance. Vayena frequently advises private and public organizations on matters of digitization and ethics.
Chris Luebkeman
Chris Leubkeman is Head of the Strategic Foresight Hub in the Office of the President at ETH Zurich. In all of his collaborations, he intertwines practical optimism, insatiable curiosity, and a profound commitment to the planet. Chris' career to date has spanned various professions and locations. His path led him to Vanderbilt, Cornell and ETH Zurich, among others. Prior to his role as Head of Foresight at ETH Zurich, he worked at the global engineering consultancy Arup in London, where he led the research and development group and later founded the foresight, innovation and incubation teams.