The digital transformation of our world and the use of innovative digital technologies, including AI, reshape economic, social, political, and cultural interactions in most areas of life. While digital technologies may offer possibilities for development and action, they also raise concerns about integrity, privacy, and democratic values. Also: the benefits and risks of digital technology are not evenly distributed; digital exclusion disproportionately affects groups who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and politically marginalised.

A conference and an exhibition providing critical lenses

All these challenges require a critical lens on the framing of smart technologies as inherent solutions to flawed humans. On 15 May, you are invited to a conference that marks the culmination of the Pufendorf Theme DigiJustice - an initiative that explores technological, political, legal and ethical assumptions. The Theme has critically explored the deterministic narratives of technological development, the Western-centric presumptions of “digital-first” solutions and the ways in which technologies themselves generate new forms of vulnerability.

The conference brings together researchers from near and afar to engage in conversations and creative friction on different facets of digital inclusion, opening space for reconsidering dominant perspectives and imagining alternative futures.

Registration is open! 

Please register for this event - in part or the whole day - no later than 9 May: DigiJustice: Human Rights in the Age of AI

Programme 

09:00 - 09:10: Welcome and Opening Remarks Pufendorf Theme presentation - Miranda Kajtazi

09:10 - 09:30: DigiJustice: Beyond Digital Inclusion - a conversation between Lena Halldenius and Osama Mansour  

09:30 - 10.00: Human Rights, Robot Wrongs - Keynote speaker Susie Alegre

10:00 - 10.15: Break

10:15 - 10:45: The Politics of AI in Policymaking and Public Administration - Jakob Stenseke and Pufendorf IAS’ Fellow Victoria Adelmant and Sue Anne Teo

10:45- 13:00: "What is lost//What is found" (more information below): Exhibition Viewing and an informal light lunch (12.00-13.00 in the Sculpture Hall) (Moa Petersén, Mia Liinason, Karen Louise Grova Søilen)

13:00 - 13:30: AI-driven tech presents and futures from a critical perspective - Pat Treusch and Pufendorf IAS' Fellow Cathy Urquhart and Susanne Frennert

13:30 - 13:45: Break

13:45 - 14:15: AI, participation and democracy - Michael Strange and Pufendorf IAS’ Fellow Becky Faith and Petra Gyöngyi 

14:15 - 14:45: Q&A

14:45 - 15:00: Concluding Remarks - Miranda Kajtazi

15:00 - 16:00: Reception with snacks and bubbles

Exhibition: What is Lost? // What is Found?

The exhibition What is Lost? // What is Found? uses playful and speculative approaches to invite deeper reflections on the future of being human in the Age of AI. 

By assembling objects and concepts that usually appear distinct from one another, the artworks spark imaginaries that connect the everyday with the existential, and history with future. While the benefits of AI easily are taken for granted, this exhibition invites explorations of how AI (re)shapes human existence, values, and rights, organized around several composite artworks made up of images, texts, sound, video, and readymade objects.

Evolving from the interdisciplinary conversations held in the 2024/2025 Pufendorf Theme DigiJustice, the exhibition allows spectators to experience the resonances that emerge when putting things in affective proximity to one another, encouraging a curious and critical approach to exploring the challenges of AI for the human condition, social justice, and human rights.

DigiJustice: Rethinking Digital Inequalities and Human Rights in the Age of AI

Read more about the Pufendorf IAS' Theme 
DigiJustice: Rethinking Digital Inequalities and Human Rights in the Age of AI | The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies