Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
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

Roosmaryn and Veritas – 2013 Kovsie Sêr winners
2013-08-05

 

The two winning residences will represent the university at the national Sêr finals at the North-West University on 31 August 2013.
Photo: Johan Roux
05 August 2013

  Video clip (YouTube)
Photo Gallery

Roosmaryn and Veritas will be the proud UFS representatives at the national Sêr competition, taking place at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University on Saturday 31 August 2013.

These two residences emerged as the victors of the McDonald’s Bloemfontein Kovsie Kleinsêr competition on Saturday evening 3 Augusts. They will now proceed to compete for the national title against residence teams from the universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Johannesburg and North-West.

Roosmaryn and Veritas had to battle it out against eleven other UFS residence teams before walking away with the coveted first prize. In the male division, Vishuis and Kagiso locked horns with Veritas in a titanic struggle to attained second and third place respectively. The two city residences, Sonnedou and Marjolein, achieved second and third position in the division for the ladies’ residences.

This year’s Kovsie Kleinsêr competition, which is a highlight on the Bloemfontein calendar, was characterised by fierce competition, top-class entertainment and loads of singing talent. Spectators could follow the action from three venues on the Bloemfontein Campus, with participants performing in the Scaena, Odeion and Kovsie Church.

The McDonald’s clown, Ronald McDonald, added boisterous fun to the proceedings in the Kovsie Church. The clown, the participants’ costumes and their vocal abilities were some of the hot topics discussed on the social network Twitter, where the competition ‘trended’ for some time.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept