Summary
Aspen Digital is embarking on a new project that builds upon our longstanding work on artificial intelligence. The new Virtually Human project seeks to inform and inspire the ways we design, develop, deploy, and monitor the positive impacts and challenges of continuous and ubiquitous digital connection on individuals and society.
We recognize this as a vital issue that has implications that range from individual well-being and mental health—to the future of social connection—to reshaping both business and societal institutions. It represents a vexing set of issues that requires collaboration among health and medicine professionals, technologists, civic organizations, academics, community advocates, and policy makers, alike. Our goal is to elevate the discussion and to consider new innovative frames of thinking to influence appropriate interventions (e.g. technical, legal, and or normative). The global pandemic and the civil unrest has only heightened the stakes for getting this right.
Our goal is to build on existing work in this space, identify gaps, and to drive towards constructive outcomes.
For questions about the Virtually Human project, please contact Kristine Gloria
| MODERATOR |
Dr. Kristine Gloria joined the Aspen Digital team in 2016. Currently, Kristine leads the development of the Emerging Technologies Initiative, which includes the Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence and the Virtually Human Project. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Kristine served as a visiting researcher for the Internet Policy Research Initiative housed within the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) at MIT in Cambridge, MA. Kristine also held a position as a Privacy Research Fellow with the Startup Policy Lab (SPL) and a fellowship with the Center for Society, Technology and Policy at UC-Berkeley. Her work focused on privacy-by-design and municipal drone policymaking with the city of San Francisco. Kristine holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she explored practices of information sharing online, commenting on potential implications for both privacy policies and future technology design. She also holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism and a M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. |
| PARTICIPANTS |
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Juan Albertorio CDC |
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David Ball SecondMuse |
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Jeff Collins TikTok |
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Kevin Connors Susan Crown Exchange |
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Vilas Dhar Patrick J. McGovern Foundation |
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Steve Downs Building H |
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Esther Dyson Wellville |
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Michael Fitzpatrick |
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Sandro Galea Dean for the School of Public Health at Boston University |
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John C. Havens IEEE |
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Cyrus Hodes Future Society |
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Mira Lane Microsoft |
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Jamie Lockwood |
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David Ryan Polgar All Tech is Human |
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Toby Redshaw Verizon |
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Tobias Rees Berggruen Institute |
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Tony Salvador SecondMuse |
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Jonathan Stray Partnership on AI |
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Dali Szostak Jigsaw |
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Carrie Ting |
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Sherry Turkle MIT |
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Sarah Watson Mozilla Foundation |
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Songyee Yoon NCSoft/Stanford HAI |
| KEY QUESTIONS |
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