Prof. Martin Hilbert (UC Davis): The next phase of the digital age: the benefits of automated knowledge and the dangers of digital mind extensions

In the scope of SynoSys we cordially invite you to the following talk:

The next phase of the digital age: the benefits of automated knowledge and the dangers of digital mind extensions

The 70 year long A.I. winter has erupted into spring when, in early 2023, ChatGPT became the fastest diffusing invention in history. Transformer deep learning models are taking our digital reality by storm, adding potent ingredients into an innovation cauldron being spiced with blockchain and 3D metaverse ingredients. The digital communication and data paradigm has certainly advanced into the age of knowledge and algorithms. A review of these recent trends forces us to also review the limitations of this paradigm. Misinformation and fake news, addiction and mental health problems, political polarization and commercial manipulation are among the consequences of a growing imbalance of control between the artificial and the human. In the end, these technologies are extensions of the human mind. Maintaining control over global information and knowledge structures will also require the human mind to evolve to a new level. We discuss the implications.

Martin Hilbert is Professor at the University of California, Davis, where he chairs the campus wide emphasis in Computational Social Sciences. He studies the societal implications of digitalization in complex social systems. Being a native Franconian, he holds doctorates in Economic and Social Sciences (2006; F.A.U.), and in Communication (2012; USC). His work is recognized in academia for the first study that assessed how much information there is in the world; in public policy for having designed the first digital action plan with the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations; and in the popular media for having alerted about the intervention of Cambridge Analytica in the campaign of Donald Trump a year before the scandal broke. Before he joined academia he served as Economic Affairs Officer of the United Nations Secretariat for 15 years, where he created the Information Society Program for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prof. Hilbert provided technical assistance in the field of digital development to more than 20 countries and dozens of publicly traded companies as digital strategist. His work has been published in the most recognized academic journals, such as Science, Psychological Bulletin, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and World Development, and regularly appears in popular magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, NPR, BBC, Die Welt, among others. More: www.martinhilbert.net & https://www.youtube.com/@Prof.MartinHilbert