(un)Stable Diffusions

Rens Dimmendaal & Johann Siemens / Better Images of AI / Decision Tree reversed / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0

A two-day international symposium on AI’s publics, publicities, and publicizations at Milieux Institute, Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

May 23 to May 24, 9am to 5pm

Online and in person at Milieux Institute
EV Building, 1515 Saint-Catherine St W
Montreal Quebec

Register here free to attend in person and online.


About (un)Stable Diffusions

21st-century AI is very much in its formative stage: It is still unsettled, and is continually being both stabilised and contested by diverse sets of actors: from technologists, startup founders and global companies to policy makers, journalists, and civil society. For some, AI is being positioned as a fix to our social problems, which in turn will change how we live, communicate, work and travel. Others raise substantive concerns that these developments might reinforce inequality, exacerbate the opacity of decision-making processes, and ultimately question human autonomy. We are thus living in a time when the infrastructures and institutions of our everyday lives are being (re)built at the hands of techniques which already elude popular and professional understanding; but while the controversies about the specific pathways to be taken are still visible, we can already perceive elements of closure and institutionalization.

Our symposium invites contributions from an international audience to interrogate the shaping of AI. Building on an international collaboration between research teams from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Canada, we invite presentations that pursue critical engagements with AI’s  media representations, policy framings, and scientific debates. Crucially, we also invite epistemic reflections in how we are all Shaping AI, including practice-based research or research-creation. 

Local organizers include Meaghan Wester, Sophie Toupin, Jonathan Roberge, Robert Marinov, Fenwick McKelvey, Maurice Jones, and Guillaume Dandurand

Special Issue

(un)Stable Diffusions: General-purpose artificial intelligence’s publicities, publics, and publicizations

Edited by Fenwick McKelvey, Joanna Redden, Jonathan Roberge, and Luke Stark (names in alphabetical order)

To be published in the open access Journal of Digital Social Research. Submission form coming soon.

Learn more about the call for proposals

Find out about Keynotes, Location & More at the Website