Dr. Lior Zalmanson, Tel Aviv University (IL)
Abstract: The talk will be focused on how does the tech industry frame AI as a means to “solve” access to sounds and images by Blind, Deaf and disabled people. How welcomed, effective and versatile are AI interpretations? What purposes (other than access) are served by their deployment and public promotion? Do they deepen and excite public engagement with the project of digital accessibility as justice, or do they offer permission to disengage? Dr. Zalmanson will discuss two recent works “Excess Ability” and “image may contain” that were part of an exhibition named “The Question of Intelligence: AI and the future of Humanity” in the New School, NYC. The works challenge Silicon valley’s “solution-ism” approach regarding the topic of website accessibility. In his practice, Lior hacks or reverse-engineers the machine learning algorithms, intended to make the web more accessible, to expose how they might, in reality, create adverse effects.
Short CV: Dr. Lior Zalmanson is a senior lecturer at the Technology and Information Management Program, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University His research interests include social media, online engagement, commitment, internet business models, creative experimentation, sharing economy, and algorithmic management. His research has won awards and grants from Fulbright Foundation, Dan David Prize, Google, Marketing Science Institute, Social Informatics SIG, among others. His studies were covered in The Times, Independent, PBS, Fast Company including numerous mentions in the Israeli media. In 2016 he was appointed as a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum Media Lab. In 2017, Lior was a visiting assistant professor at NYU Stern, where he taught the “Information Technology for Business and Society” course. Lior is also the founder of the Print Screen Festival, Israel’s digital culture festival, which connects internet researchers, activists, and artists. Furthermore, in his parallel life, he is a grant and award-winning digital artist playwright and screenwriter. His recent film (about drone operators) received its debut at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.