AI, Robotics Expert Kate Darling to Deliver CommEX24 Keynote

We’ve all wondered: What will our relationship be with robots and artificial intelligence in the future? Where does the true potential of AI and robotics lie, and will these technologies supplement human ability — or replace it?

Of course, no one has all of the answers, but Kate Darling is one of the most reliable sources on all of these topics. Darling — a leading expert in technology, ethics, and policy — will delve into these timely issues and more during the opening keynote at the 2024 Internet2 Community Exchange, March 4-7 in Chicago.

Offering new insights from her groundbreaking social robotics and AI investigations, Darling will explore topics such as human responses, ethical quandaries, and legal challenges surrounding these quickly evolving fields. She will prompt — and answer — thought-provoking questions to examine society’s future relationship with robots and AI.

Kate Darling: Interdisciplinary Expert and Author

As head of The AI Institute’s study of AI ethics and societal impact, Darling leads a team of researchers who explore key societal questions related to the development of intelligent machines. Previously, she was a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. She continues to call the university her academic home. 

Darling is a former fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Yale Information Society Project. She is an affiliate at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, a technoprogressive nonprofit think tank. 

She is also the author of the 2021 book The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals About Our Future with Robots and a contributing writer to Robohub and IEEE Spectrum. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Guardian, BBC, NPR, The Boston Globe, Forbes, WIRED magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, and more.