CS Special Seminar: Noura Howell "Leveraging the power of emotion, embodiment, and imagination as under-utilised resources for more ethical, inclusive data and AI"

Leveraging the power of emotion, embodiment, and imagination as under-utilised resources for more ethical, inclusive data and AI

Noura Howell
Georgia Tech
Google Scholar

Abstract: Society needs more ethical, inclusive data and AI. To address deep challenges of bias and harm with data and AI, we should bring a range of capabilities to bear on these issues. My research leverages emotion, embodiment, and imagination as powerful capabilities that we can use to support more ethical, inclusive data and AI: (1) As AI impacts more aspects of everyday life, diverse people should be included in considering what AI should or should not do in the future. Toward this, my research invites participants to imagine future directions of AI. Participants learn about how AI works, imagine alternative future directions for AI innovation, and critically consider AI ethics. (2) Alongside including more people, we can also include more of each person's sense-making capabilities--embodiment and emotion--in engaging with data through tangible, embodied interactions. Unique interactions with warmth, plants, and tangibles can support meaning-making with data on challenging topics around ethics and inclusion. Overall, this talk argues for the importance of emotion, embodiment, and imagination as under-utilised resources for more ethical, inclusive data and AI. 

Bio: Howell is a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher and trained software developer who builds and evaluates interactive computing technologies. Howell's research includes participatory imagining of AI futures and building prototypes for embodied, emotional sense-making with data. These prototypes work as probes to investigate complex sociocultural and ethical aspects of technology. Through this, Howell's research shows the important roles that emotion, embodiment, and imagination play in meaning-making and innovation with data and AI. Overall, Howell's work offers tactics to help technology developers make data and AI more ethical, inclusive, and supportive of rich sense-making. Howell is currently a fourth year tenure-track assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in the department of Digital Media, with a courtesy appointment in Interactive Computing. Prior to doing a PhD in Information Systems at UC Berkeley, Howell worked as a software developer for Intel Labs and a small music data startup The Echo Nest that was later bought by Spotify.