CTMF-GAIL Seminar: AI's impact on marginalized communities Dr Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), and Professor Shannon Vallor, Director of University of Edinburgh's Centre for Technomoral Futures, have both recently published books on the social impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI), their politics, and the social context under which they operate. During this fireside chat, Hanna and Vallor will bring their books together in conversation with one another, with particular attention to how AI impacts the lived realities of marginalised- such as, queer folx, people of colour, and working class - communities. Through this discussion, they will highlight the logics that underpin the exploitative effects of AI and muse on how to resist them.The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception and the opportunity to buy a copy of each of the speakers book and other AI-related books from Lighthouse Bookshop. Biography - Alex Hanna Dr Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies, and the ways in which these data exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality. She also works in the area of social movements, focusing on the dynamics of anti-racist campus protest in the US and Canada. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and a BA in Sociology from Purdue University, and an MS and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Dr Hanna is the co-author of The AI Con (Harper, 2025), a book about AI and the hype around it. With Emily M. Bender, she also runs the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience online on Twitch and her podcast.She has published widely in top-tier venues across the social sciences, including the journals Mobilization, American Behavioral Scientist, and Big Data & Society, and top-tier computer science conferences such as CSCW, FAccT, and NeurIPS. Dr Hanna serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and sits on the advisory board for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. She is also recipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Association's Forward Award, has been included on FastCompany's Queer 50 (2021, 2024) List and Business Insider's AI Power List, and has been featured in the Cal Academy of Sciences New Science exhibit, which highlights queer and trans scientists of color. Image credit: Will Toft Biography - Shannon Vallor Professor Shannon Vallor serves as Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and is Programme Director for EFI’s MSc in Data and AI Ethics. She holds the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence in the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Philosophy. Professor Vallor joined the Futures Institute in 2020 following a career in the United States as a leader in the ethics of emerging technologies, including a post as a visiting AI Ethicist at Google from 2018-2020. She is the author of The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press, 2024) and Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press, 2016). She serves as advisor to government and industry bodies on responsible AI and data ethics. She is also Principal Investigator and Co-Director (with Professor Ewa Luger) of the UKRI research programme BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. [Thumbnail image credit: Comuzi - Better Images of AI - Image by BBC] Jun 20 2025 14.30 - 16.30 CTMF-GAIL Seminar: AI's impact on marginalized communities In this joint seminar between the Centre for Technomoral Futures and the Generative AI Laboratory, Dr Alex Hanna and Professor Shannon Vallor will explore the societal and political dynamics of AI, particularly its effects on marginalized groups and ways to counteract these injustices. Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL Register
CTMF-GAIL Seminar: AI's impact on marginalized communities Dr Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), and Professor Shannon Vallor, Director of University of Edinburgh's Centre for Technomoral Futures, have both recently published books on the social impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI), their politics, and the social context under which they operate. During this fireside chat, Hanna and Vallor will bring their books together in conversation with one another, with particular attention to how AI impacts the lived realities of marginalised- such as, queer folx, people of colour, and working class - communities. Through this discussion, they will highlight the logics that underpin the exploitative effects of AI and muse on how to resist them.The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception and the opportunity to buy a copy of each of the speakers book and other AI-related books from Lighthouse Bookshop. Biography - Alex Hanna Dr Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies, and the ways in which these data exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality. She also works in the area of social movements, focusing on the dynamics of anti-racist campus protest in the US and Canada. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and a BA in Sociology from Purdue University, and an MS and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Dr Hanna is the co-author of The AI Con (Harper, 2025), a book about AI and the hype around it. With Emily M. Bender, she also runs the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience online on Twitch and her podcast.She has published widely in top-tier venues across the social sciences, including the journals Mobilization, American Behavioral Scientist, and Big Data & Society, and top-tier computer science conferences such as CSCW, FAccT, and NeurIPS. Dr Hanna serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and sits on the advisory board for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. She is also recipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Association's Forward Award, has been included on FastCompany's Queer 50 (2021, 2024) List and Business Insider's AI Power List, and has been featured in the Cal Academy of Sciences New Science exhibit, which highlights queer and trans scientists of color. Image credit: Will Toft Biography - Shannon Vallor Professor Shannon Vallor serves as Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and is Programme Director for EFI’s MSc in Data and AI Ethics. She holds the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence in the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Philosophy. Professor Vallor joined the Futures Institute in 2020 following a career in the United States as a leader in the ethics of emerging technologies, including a post as a visiting AI Ethicist at Google from 2018-2020. She is the author of The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press, 2024) and Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press, 2016). She serves as advisor to government and industry bodies on responsible AI and data ethics. She is also Principal Investigator and Co-Director (with Professor Ewa Luger) of the UKRI research programme BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. [Thumbnail image credit: Comuzi - Better Images of AI - Image by BBC] Jun 20 2025 14.30 - 16.30 CTMF-GAIL Seminar: AI's impact on marginalized communities In this joint seminar between the Centre for Technomoral Futures and the Generative AI Laboratory, Dr Alex Hanna and Professor Shannon Vallor will explore the societal and political dynamics of AI, particularly its effects on marginalized groups and ways to counteract these injustices. Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL Register
Jun 20 2025 14.30 - 16.30 CTMF-GAIL Seminar: AI's impact on marginalized communities In this joint seminar between the Centre for Technomoral Futures and the Generative AI Laboratory, Dr Alex Hanna and Professor Shannon Vallor will explore the societal and political dynamics of AI, particularly its effects on marginalized groups and ways to counteract these injustices.
