Bard College is going to have a half-million dollars of skin in the game for research into the degree of freedom cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technologies should have, a subject looking increasing like a hot topic in this year’s presidential election. Beginning this fall, the college’s Wihanble S’a Center, designated on August 28 as a Humanities Research Center on AI by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will according to a college press release embark on groundbreaking research aimed at developing ethical AI frameworks deeply rooted in indigenous methodologies.
“This award is a tremendous honor and a recognition of the importance of American Indian perspectives in the rapidly evolving fields of AI,” said Dr. Suzanne Kite, director of Bard’s Wihanble S’a Center. “Our goal is to develop ethical methodologies for systems grounded in indigenous knowledge, offering new guidelines and models through collaboration between Indigenous scholars and AI researchers, challenging the predominantly Western approach to AI. ‘Wihanble S’a’ means ‘dreamer’ in Lakota, and we are dreaming of an abundant future.”
As the current presidential campaign is unfolding, the Republicans are increasingly lambasting Democratic proposals for rules to limit free use of AI through the establishment of societal boundaries. As few boundaries as possible, they are saying. Let the free market function without intrusive governmental overreach.
Many Democrats are focused on the social consequences of the use of untrammeled AI. Unchecked, it is abetting drug dealing, pornography and all forms of violence, they say. Caution is the watchword when it comes to relaxing existing boundaries. Better safe than sorry.
It is now 106 years since Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous dictum that free speech didn’t extend to falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater. In each generation, new technological advances have brought the need for new interpretations of First-Amendment rights.
Four other institutions have received National Endowment for the Humanities grants to coordinate research on the societal, ethical, and legal ramifications of AI technology. The five humanities-led research centers will receive $2.72 million in all to serve as hubs for interdisciplinary collaborative research, said the granting federal agency.
The other four grant-receiving educational institutions are The University of California at Davis, North Carolina State University, The University of Oklahoma at Norman, and The University of Richmond in Virginia. All the new hubs will explore issues related to the effects of AI on various aspects of American culture.
Dr. Kite is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer whose groundbreaking scholarship and practice investigates contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. At Bard, she is a distinguished artist in residence and assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies. She is also a research associate and residency coordinator for the Abundant Intelligences (Indigenous AI) project.
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