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02 November 2023 | Story NITHA RAMNATH | Photo SUPPLIED
Is AI the future of research? Experiences of co-authoring a book with machine-generated summaries

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

Asive humbled by new responsibility
2017-09-27

Description: TEDxUFS   Tags: TEDxUFS

Asive Dlanjwa, President of the Student Representative
Council (SRC) on the Bloemfontein Campus, and Pura
Mgolombane, Dean of Student Affairs, during the
announcement of the 2017/2018 SRC.
Photo: Johan Roux

Nothing humbles him more than the fact that thousands of students had chosen to put their weight, hopes, and dreams behind him. The emotions Asive Dlanjwa felt when he was announced as the new President of the Student Representative Council (SRC) on the Bloemfontein Campus reveals something about his character.

He clearly understands the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders. Asive, who loves the church and cycling, says he felt a variety of emotions when he was announced as president on 31 August 2017 at the Thakaneng Bridge.

“It was an exciting feeling, but more than anything, it was such a humbling feeling; humbled not only by the excitement of the students when I was announced, but also by the fact that thousands of students had chosen to put their weight, hopes, and dreams behind me!”

Two main objectives

Asive and his SRC have two main objectives – to improve access to the university and advance the integration of our off-campus students into the greater campus community. The Bachelor of Commerce student from Umtata says there are several issues and initiatives his SRC will be tackling – all of them flowing from these objectives.

Including off-campus students

Asive says the SRC will seek to improve access to the university and its various offerings, and to also provide the necessary support to ensure their success. “Also within this objective would be to decisively deal with all forms of exclusion, from academic to financial to social and cultural exclusions perpetuated by systems and policies.”

With regards to off-campus students, he says university life previously revolved around residence life. He means the remains of that are still evident, to the detriment of the greater student community who are off-campus students.

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