AI and Robotics Expert Kate Darling to Deliver Keynote at 2024 Internet2 Community Exchange

Darling Explores Questions About the True Potential of AI and the Future of Human-Robot Interaction

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 16, 2024 – Kate Darling — a leading expert in technology, ethics, and policy — will deliver the opening keynote at the 2024 Internet2 Community Exchange, March 4-7 in Chicago.

Offering new insights from her groundbreaking investigations in social robotics and artificial intelligence, Darling will delve into the human responses, ethical quandaries, and legal challenges surrounding these quickly evolving fields. She will prompt — and answer — thought-provoking questions to examine what society’s relationship with robots and AI could look like in the future. The keynote, “The Future of Human-Robot Interaction,” will take place at 8:30 a.m. CT Tuesday, March 5, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk.

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.

Strategic Conversations at the Forefront of Innovation

The 2024 Internet2 Community Exchange will convene CIOs and other research and higher education leaders from institutions around the world. Attendees will discuss key topics that include emerging technologies like generative AI, cloud services and solutions, identity and access management, and the impacts of advanced networking in research and education. Together, they will gauge progress toward collective goals, share best practices, explore critical issues, and determine new community priorities.

The annual Internet2 Community Exchange is made possible through generous support from the event sponsors. The growing list of sponsors for this year’s event currently includes platinum sponsor Cisco; gold sponsors Oracle and ServiceNow; silver sponsors Carahsoft, Ciena, Clearspan, Nokia, and Radware; bronze sponsor Four Points Technology; and supporting sponsors from the InCommon Catalyst Program.

Registration is now open. To learn more and secure your spot, visit the 2024 Internet2 Community Exchange website.

About Internet2

Internet2^® is a nonprofit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 333 U.S. universities, 58 government agencies, 46 regional and state education networks and through them supports more than 80,000 community anchor institutions, over 1,000 InCommon participants, 57 leading corporations working with our community, and 70 national research and education network operators that represent more than 100 countries.

Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its members and helps support their educational, research, and community service missions. Internet2’s core infrastructure components include the nation’s largest and fastest research and education network that was built to deliver advanced, customized services that are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and identity framework. For more information, visit https://internet2.edu.

Media Contact:

Amber Rasche
Internet2 Communications
arasche@internet2.edu