On Wednesday, December 4th, NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, Sloane Lab, and the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia hosted a new discussion in the series “Co-Opting AI.”

This event critically discussed the deep entanglement of AI systems with the perennial dream of data-driven cars and autonomous mobility.

Melissa Cefkin is a Lecturer in General Engineering, specializing in social and behavioral research, humanity-centered design, and advanced technology innovation, particularly AI and automation. As an anthropologist, she collaborates with engineers and scientists on autonomous vehicle development, focusing on the social, ethical, and interactional aspects of vehicle behavior and signaling. Dr. Cefkin also studies labor, organizational dynamics, and enterprise work technologies, applying ethnographic methods to understand work practices and systems. Her career includes leadership roles at Waymo, Nissan-Renault, IBM Research-Almaden, and Sapient. She has been active in academia through teaching, publishing, and mentoring students at San Jose State University and California College of the Arts. A Fulbright grantee, she co-founded the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) and has served on committees for the National Science Foundation and the National Academies of Science.​​

Nathaniel Chodosh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing Sciences at Villanova University. His research focuses on computer vision, and specifically on autonomous driving and LiDAR-based sensing. He is particularly interested in analysis by synthesis, the machine learning approach wherein inferences are made by comparing hypothetical world-states produced by a world-model to actual measurements. His work has been published at venues including CVPR, ICLR, WACV, 3DV, and ACCV. Nathaniel received his PhD from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was advised by Simon Lucey and Deva Ramanan. Prior to that, he received his BSE from the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with Vijay Kumar and Jianbo Shi. Nathaniel has also been lucky enough to collaborate on research with Argo AI (now Latitutde AI) and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

MC Forelle is an Assistant Professor in Engineering & Society at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. Their research explores the intersections of law, technology, and culture, with a focus on materiality, sustainability, and resistance. Currently, they examine software-enhanced automotive technology and its implications on repair, maintenance, and modification, delving into repair labor, aftermarkets, and legal issues affecting these areas. They earned a PhD from USC’s Annenberg School, where their dissertation analyzed how copyright laws challenge car repair communities. Dr. Forelle has held a Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell Tech and holds an MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from NYU and a BS in Film, TV, and Radio from Boston University. Past work includes studies on credit default swaps, interactive media, and broadcast diversity policies. Originally from Venezuela, Dr. Forelle resides in Charlottesville with their family and dog, Dr. Waffles.

Mona Sloane, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Media Studies at the University of Virginia (UVA). As a sociologist, she studies the intersection of technology and society, specifically in the context of AI design, use, and policy. She also convenes the Co-Opting AI series and serves as the editor of the Co-Opting AI book series at the University of California Press as well as the Technology Editor for Public Books. At UVA, Mona runs Sloane Lab which conducts empirical research on the implications of technology for the organization of social life. Its focus lies on AI as a social phenomenon that intersects with wider cultural, economic, material, and political conditions. The lab spearheads social science leadership in applied work on responsible AI, public scholarship, and technology policy. More here: monasloane.org.

The Co-Opting AI event series is convened by Mona Sloane. It is hosted by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, and Sloane Lab.

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