The Technology, Culture and Power Speaker Series is a monthly gathering that explores critical insights on the intersections of technology and society. Our monthly gatherings feature leading experts and scholars examining the interactions of digital technologies, culture, and inequality. Join the TCP mailing list here. 

Open Worlds and the Constitutive Outsides of Artificial Intelligence

Please join us on October 9 for a lecture and Q&A with Lucy Suchman, a Professor Emerita of the Anthropology of Science and Technology at Lancaster University in the UK.  Her current research extends her longstanding critical engagement with the fields of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to the domain of contemporary militarism and U.S. projects in the automation of warfighting. 

Lucy Suchman is Professor Emerita of the Anthropology of Science and Technology at Lancaster University in the UK. She was previously a principal scientist at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where she became widely recognized for her critical engagement with artificial intelligence, as well as her contributions to a deeper understanding of both the essential connections and the profound differences between humans and machines. She is the author of Human-Machine Reconfigurations (2007) and Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication (1987), both published by Cambridge University Press. She was a founding member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and served on its Board of Directors from 1982–1990. In 2010 she received the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Lifetime Research Award, and in 2014 the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Bernal Prize for Distinguished Contributions to the Field.

The series is organized by Stanford's Department of Communication and Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS) and made possible with support from the Humanities Seed Grant from Stanford Public Humanities.

RSVP is not required, but seating is limited and is first come, first served. Please arrive 5 minutes early to avoid disrupting the guest speaker. Request disability accommodations and access information here.