AI - current challenges and hopes

Can artificial intelligence be trusted?

We are just on the eve of rapid social and economic changes caused by the development of digital technologies. Artificial intelligence is fundamental to these changes, promising to improve our quality of life by helping us drive vehicles or enhancing medical diagnostics, for example. The challenges associated with it transcend far beyond the programming process and the consequences of implementing algorithms in subsequent areas are often unpredictable.

So will the doomsday scenarios predicting the rise of superintelligent machines come true in the near future?
Can we protect ourselves from the threats by directing artificial intelligence towards serving humans?
What does it really mean to responsibly develop reliable artificial intelligence?

During our panel, we will discuss the ethical aspects of the relationship between artificial intelligence and the society as well as the environment. We will present both the positive and negative effects of its application and talk about current developments and future outlooks.

KPRM is the strategic partner of the festival.

Wiesław Bartkowski

Interaction designer and complex system researcher

Head and co-founder of CreativeCoding.pl postgraduate studies crossing the boundaries between art, design, science and technology in an anti-disciplinary way.

The creator of the term and manifesto The Matter of Code, proposing a new look at the code - the source text of a computer program - as a type of material that can be shaped by experience, just like in the case of a sculptor learning to shape wood or stone, or a ceramist forming clay. The Matter of Code is also a physical manifestation of the code overcoming the screen barrier by combining the code with electronics and digital fabrication.

The combination of these three components is not a simple sum. It has emergent properties that make the material unique. Research and teaching staff member of the School of Form and the School of Ideas at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Creator of pioneer curricula that combine computer science with the humanities and a creative use of technology. Passionate about sharing programming skills, he teaches artists and designers how to use “the matter of code” in their works.

In his research work, Mr. Bartkowski focuses on complex systems by creating computer simulations. He analysed large data sets from techno-social systems. In particular, he studied the social impact of technology-mediated relations. He conducted research, among others, within the framework of the “Future and emerging technologies” EU programme on the Quality Collectives: Socially Intelligent Systems for Quality. He created tools used at the UN and West Point. In his first PhD approach under the supervision of Professor Andrzej Nowak, he studied “emotional” artificial neural networks as a tool to optimise approximate solutions to NP-hard problems. His academic activities brought him closer to the world of art and design. Mr. Bartkowski’s scientific visualizations and interactive installations have been presented, among others, at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, the Zachęta – National Galery of Art, the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the Arsenał Gallery, the Artothek in Munich, and the Powszechny and the Nowy Theatres.

He has cooperated with the Florida Atlantic University, the Ammerman Center for Art and Technology in Connecticut, the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Torino, the Columbia University and the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In 2018, Mr. Bartkowski won the DESIGN ALIVE AWARD in the Animator category, among others, for broadening horizons and combining interactive technology with the humanities, art and design.