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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

Popular course starts again
2011-04-13

 

The popular short course in population environment development (PED) nexus, presented by our university, in collaboration with other partners started on 13 April 2011. Here are from left: prof. Lucius Botes, Dean: Humanities; me. Nabila Lejri a participant in the course from Tunisia, and prof. André Pelser, from our Department of Sociology.
Photo: Earl Coetzee

The popular short course in population environment development (PED) nexus, which is presented by our university, in collaboration with other partners started on 13 April 2011.

Various international guests from, amongst others, Vietnam, Tunisia, Gabon and Zimbabwe, attended the welcoming function in the Johannes Stegman Gallery on our Main campus.
 
According to Prof. André Pelser, from our Department of Sociology, the theoretical part will be presented on the campus, whereafter the practical component will be presented at the Golden Gate Highland National Park.
 
"The course investigates how we (mankind) can develop sustainably in an integrated manner in the midst of demographic changes, environmental issues and developmental challenges."
 
He says that the course is geared towards equipping programme leaders and mid-level managers to implement developmental programmes by means of extended networks, as well as to sensitise politicians about population and environmental issues.
 
This training offered in the Free State forms part of a series of training sessions presented internationally.

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