Please join us for “AI at the Edgelands: Data Analytics in States of In/Security,” with keynote by Dr. Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University) followed by a moderated discussion with panelists from with Graciela Zamudio of Alma Migrante, Paul Khalid Alexander of Pillars of the Community, and Tina Givens of Rideshare Drivers United, discussing how data analytics and surveillance technologies already affect life in the San Diego and Tijuana region. Suchman is a leading expert on the automation of war, having testified at the United Nations, as well as a SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award winner, former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science, and a member of the Advisory Board of AI Now.

Keynote abstract: Growing US investments in data analytics are sustained by ongoing declarations of insecurity, framed as terror abroad and illegal immigration at home. These algorithmic systems, often mystified as "AI," detect correlations within very large datasets and promise to identify persons and activities that pose a threat to the US homeland. The promotion of data analytics is accompanied by widespread calls for data accountability, typically framed within the rubric of AI ethics. This talk takes the case of threat identification as emblematic, and proposes that we go beyond ethical principles to examine the technopolitics of data analysis and to reveal a wider terrain of rights and harm.