The Algorithmic Age (the Forum)

Looking for love? Ask your computer, since 1 in 5 couples now first meet online. Have we outsourced love to abstract algorithms? And what about elections or our summer getaways? From the targeted marketing of political campaigns to the predictive typing that preempts your Google search, machines may know us better than we know ourselves. We explore how far modern life is mediated by the computation of data, and ask whether we should trust in the algorithm or find ways to outwit it.

Speakers
Abeba Birhane
Postgraduate Researcher in Cognitive Science, University College Dublin

Neil Lawrence
Professor of Machine Learning, University of Sheffield
Director of Machine Learning, Amazon

Martin Robbins
Writer for The Guardian, Vice, and Little Atoms on AI

Chair
Shahidha Bari
Fellow, The Forum
Senior Lecturer in Romanticism, Queen Mary, University of London