PCAL Reading Group

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MEMBERSHIP IS NOW CLOSED

This Fall PCAL will be starting a new college-wide reading and discussion group, coordinated by the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series, to promote cross college discussion of key issues facing the Humanities through shared engagement with a single work.  It is open to all interested PCAL faculty. Our book will be Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem — Machine Learning and Human Values which thoughtfully explores the history and difficulties of training AI “to do what we want or what we expect … given humanity’s biases and blind spots.”  The book is not focused specifically on how to think about AI in the classroom but rather is an exploration of how human learning & machine learning interact in sometimes unpredictable ways.  Dr. Christian is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and gave a riveting talk here at WKU last spring as the Boyd Lubker speaker on “AI and the Challenge of Preserving our Humanity.”

We intend to have two one hour in-person discussion sessions, one in October and one in November, with exact dates to be determined by consensus poll.  Food and drink will be provided at both sessions.

Questions can be sent to me at Anthony.harkins@wku.edu.