Title: Decolonising AI-driven conversation expertise
Short Bio: Dr Danilo Urzedo is a human geographer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CSIRO. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Sociology. Danilo draws his research on the intersection of political ecology and science and technology studies (STS) to investigate how digital innovations and environmental justice reshape knowledge production and governance systems. He is particularly interested in practice-oriented and decolonial research, questioning and co-designing the multiple ways that technologies and data practices can assist in pluralising situated environmental planning and management, while critically examining the effects of these developments on existing socio-spatial inequalities across varying contexts.
Abstract: Digital advancements are increasingly influencing knowledge production to suggest ways of enhancing the efficiency and precision of conservation practices and policies. From environmental big data to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), a rising number of technological conservation developments are designed and deployed to inform decisions, mobilise participation, and automate labour-intensive tasks. By drawing on Global South perspectives of decoloniality, this talk will present formulations on environmental data justice and how data-driven AI tools shape the legitimacy of conservation expertise. While these conservation technologies seek to facilitate the accessibility and effectiveness of informed decisions, data-driven AI systems can also reinforce or exacerbate power asymmetries and critical injustices. This talk will emphasise the case of chatbot developments and their associated epistemic consequences for conservation decisions across varied contexts and sites.
When: 2 July 2024, 11:00am-12:00pm
Where: IMAS Salamanca Flexspace (Rm 105 Rori) and online (Zoom link: https://utas.zoom.us/j/85722492032)
