Overhyping AI: Assessing the Damage

Tech evangelists fondly hail the benefits of AI—its ability to make our working and private lives more efficient and rewarding, and to unlock new waves of prosperity. Smitten by such narratives, European companies and governments have embraced AI in their organizations while politicians and policymakers hatch ambitious plans to boost and diffuse the technology across society.

AI in hospitals

In her part of the lecture, Roanne van Voorst will discuss AI’s impact on everyday practices in healthcare, drawing on ethnographic research conducted in eight hospitals around the world.

In hospitals, AI is not only transforming healthcare. It is also shaping the skills and experiences of doctors and nurses—from their ability to intuitively sense when a patient is unwell to their sense of time and ethics.

Despite the promises of improved efficiency and effectiveness, the reality often falls far short. So why does the implementation of AI continue unabated, even in the face of underwhelming results? The answer, Van Voorst argues, has to do with human creativity, our stubborn tendency to ask the wrong questions, and a pinch of magic.

The Perils of Europe's AI Power Quest

Daniel Mügge then turns to AI policymaking in Brussels—the heart of European tech policy. Although Europe clearly trails the United States and China in developing AI, the European Commission is determined to carve out space for European AI. Without it, Brussels fears, Europe will be dangerously dependent on the technology of others and lose out in global economic competition.

But on closer inspection, the claim that European strength hinges on becoming an AI power is misleading at best. Potentially, it is outright dangerous, ignoring the collateral damage that unbridled AI-roll out can do to European societies while further entrenching a form of digitization that prioritizes tech-generated profits over genuine human flourishing.

Aftertalk

After each presenting for about 25 minutes, Roanne and Daniel will engage in conversation.

Drinks

Afterwards, we welcome you all for drinks & snacks in CREA Music Hall from 17:00 to 18:00.

About the speakers

Roanne van Voorst is a futures anthropologist and the principal investigator of an ERC-funded project on human-nonhuman collaboration in healthcare, as well as the principal investigator of a project on intergenerational health among refugees in the context of digitization. She is an assistant professor in the anthropology department and Editor-in-Chief of Futures Reframed.

Daniel Mügge is professor of political arithmetic in the political science department and principal investigator of the NWO-funded RegulAite Vici project on EU AI regulation and geo-economics.