Location: Registration required. Please message [email protected] with your name, e-mail, faculty or student status, and a brief indication of how your work relates to AI & Human Rights.

Presenters/facilitators:

Rada Mihalcea (Janice M. Jenkins Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor and Director, Artificial Intelligence Lab)

Zhijing Jin (Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute)

Human rights are under pressure worldwide, and AI is increasingly part of both the problem and the solution. AI systems can help uncover abuses, expand access to services, support crisis response, and detect harmful patterns at scale. But they can also amplify surveillance, bias, disinformation, and exclusion. To develop solutions that are genuinely helpful and safe, we need collaboration among AI researchers, human rights practitioners, domain experts, and impacted communities.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the points of interaction between AI and human rights challenges, and discuss how existing obstacles in human right solutions can inform new research directions in artificial intelligence. U(M) researchers will briefly present on current topics in AI and in human rights, followed by table discussions with domain experts in both human right related issues and AI. You are encouraged to bring your own topics, problems, and innovations to share with the group.

Discussion topics brought up in this workshop will be used as the basis for a whitepaper on the intersection of AI & Human Rights.

Program
1:00-1:30 pm
Introduction (goals and directions) and Keynote Talk

1:30-1:50 pm
Human Rights Talk

1:50-1:55 pm
Q & A

1:55-2:15 pm
AI Talk

2:15-2:20 pm
Q & A

2:20-2:25 pm
TBA

2:25-2:40 pm
Break

2:40-2:55 pm
Introduction to the Roundtable discussion format

2:55-4:50 pm
Roundtables with 1 lead and 1 note-taker (7 tables)

2:55-3:10 pm: (15 min) Brief introductions (“I am X, from Dept Y, I’m interested in the aspects of Z on Climate and/or AI”)
3:10-3:15 pm: (5 min) Individual thinking and notes on stickies for (i) Challenges that (could) intersect with AI
3:15-3:40 pm: (25 min) Group discussions
3:40-4:00 pm: (20 min) Report back
4:00-4:05 pm: (5 min) (ii) Potential Solutions, e.g., conversation and user interviews to set up the -solution, new task formulation for research, dataset building, and study design
4:05-4:30 pm: (25 min) Group discussions
4:30-4:50 pm: (20 min) Report back
With this roundtable conversations, we aim to:

(1) identify list of challenges and potential paths to solutions

(2) facilitate new collaborations

(3) work together on a white paper identifying a roadmap for this space (pending interest)

4:50-5:00 pm
Wrap-up

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at [email protected]. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.