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Is AI the future of research?

02 November 2023 | Story NITHA RAMNATH | Photo SUPPLIED

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to invite you to an online public lecture that will be presented by Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor of Gender and Africa Studies at the UFS. Prof Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria (UP), will respond.

Lecture description: Is AI the future of research? Experiences of co-authoring a book with machine-generated summaries.

The world is undergoing tectonic technological shifts that hold grave challenges to societies, universities, and researchers. For any researcher, the persistent challenge is to negotiate a plethora of different sources on the subject, which could be overwhelming. AI could be one means to facilitate the process of research. This, however, raises ethical questions as to the originality of research, issues of plagiarism, and the question of the individual researcher’s own intuition as opposed to software-generated prompts. Prof Solomon shares his experiences working on a machine-generated book.

Date: Monday, 27 November 2023

Time: 14:00-15:30

WATCH: www.ufs.ac.za/Webinar

For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za.

Speaker:

Prof Solomon is a Professor in the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the UFS. His research interests revolve around political Islam and issues of terrorism. His most recent books include African Security in the Anthropocene (with Jude Cocodia, Springer, 2023), The Future of War in Africa (with Eeben Barlow, Amazon Kindle, 2023), Intersectionality and LGBTQI Rights: A Comparative Analysis of Iran, Turkey and Egypt (with Simone Bekker, Nova Publishers, 2023), Directions in International Terrorism: Theories, Trends and Trajectories (Palgrave, 2021), Terrorism in Africa: New Trends and Frontiers (with Glen Segell and Sergey Kostelyanets, Institute for African Studies, Moscow, 2021), and Arab MENA Countries: Vulnerabilities and Constraints Against Democracy on the Eve of the Global COVID-19 Crisis (with Arno Tausch, Springer 2021).

Respondent:

Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at UP, the AI ethics lead at the Centre for AI Research (CAIR), and the chair of the Southern African Conference on AI Research (SACAIR). She is a philosopher of science and technology, an AI ethics policy adviser, a machine ethics researcher, and is an associate editor of the Science and Engineering Ethics journal. Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem led the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group that prepared the draft of the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, currently assists with implementing the recommendation, and is the current rapporteur for the UNESCO Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem has recently been appointed to the AI Advisory Body reporting to the Secretary General of the UN.

News Archive

Meet our new #KovsieCyberSta’s

2017-05-23

Description:KovsieCyberSta’s Tags: KovsieCyberSta’s

Amu Mathebula and Thuli Molebalwa are the new
ambassadors of the UFS digital platforms, and are
known as #KovsieCyberSta’s.
Photo: Johan Roux

Our new #KovsieCyberSta's have been announced, and we are delighted to introduce them to the Kovsie community.

Amu Mathebula and Thuli Molebalwa have been chosen by our students as the new #KovsieCyberSta’s, the official brand ambassadors for the University of the Free State’s (UFS) digital platforms.

The energetic duo had their first shoot on Saturday 13 May at the Open Day on the Bloemfontein Campus, and their video is available on the UFS Facebook page.

More about our ambassadors

Amu, a third-year Communication Science student from Krugersdorp in Gauteng, is an extroverted production manager at KovsieTV. “I am an extroverted soul who loves being an MC, is a lover of food, and any place that has water,” she said.

Thuli, a second-year Governance and Political Transformation student and former RC Academic at House Villa Bravado, loves meaningful conversations and is always game for sports. He also serves on the South College Council.

We look forward to journey with them and would also like to wish them the best of luck for their term as UFS brand ambassadors.

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