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SUMMARY:CIS - "Get to know your neighbors" Seminar series - Prof. Bryan Fo
 rd
DTSTART:20230612T151500
DTEND:20230612T161500
DTSTAMP:20260917T070553Z
UID:4ac0cf23f5e32cd238b25fd0add7fb77730935ee081ff1c5a404535b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Bryan Ford\nTitle: "In Defense of a Human Reality"\n\nAb
 stract: \n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur perception of global reality now relies primari
 ly on digital channels: what’s on the web and the popular platforms\; wh
 at we’re fed by search and recommender systems\, and increasingly by AI.
   But as content production is increasingly automated\, with natural adva
 ntages toward fakery\, can we predict any outcome from the resulting colle
 ctive information feedback loops – in which AIs serve as author and cura
 tor\, attacker and defender\, leaving humans on the sidelines?  Will the 
 result serve the interests of humans\, or represent any ground-truth reali
 ty meaningful to humans?\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nThis talk will motivate the need
  for processes\, and policies\, ensuring that at least some of our informa
 tion ecosystem remains produced by\, representative of\, and accountable t
 o\, real humans.  As a foundation\, we introduce a proof of personhood pr
 ocess to distinguish human participants from fake accounts while protectin
 g privacy.  To ensure that votes\, deliberations\, or crowdsourced projec
 ts reflect the genuine free will of real humans\, we augment proof of pers
 onhood with coercion-resistant E-voting techniques.  Finally\, we outline
  potential future steps\, such as influence and value metrics well-founded
  in the perceptions of real humans\, and “certified human” verificatio
 n for creative or educational activities.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAttendance is wel
 come either in-person or by zoom\, but only in-person attendees will be ab
 le to participate in a demo of some of the technology presented.\n\nBio: 
 \nProf. Bryan Ford leads the Decentralized/Distributed Systems (DEDIS) res
 earch laboratory at EPFL.  Ford's research focuses on decentralized syste
 ms\, security and privacy\, digital democracy\, and blockchain technology.
   Since earning his Ph.D. at MIT\, Ford has held faculty positions at Yal
 e University and EPFL. His awards include the Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award
 \, the NSF CAREER award\, and the AXA Research Chair.  Inventions he is k
 nown for include parsing expression grammars\, delegative or liquid democr
 acy\, and scalable sharded blockchains.  He has advised numerous companie
 s and governments\, including serving on the US DARPA Information Science 
 and Technology (ISAT) Study Group and on the Swiss Federal E-voting Expert
 s Dialog.\n\nThe CIS seminar will take place In hybrid mode: Room INF 328 
 and by Zoom : https://epfl.zoom.us/j/66102116047\nAttendance is welcome e
 ither in-person or by zoom\, but only in-person attendees will be able to 
 participate in a demo of some of the technology presented.\n\nPlease conne
 ct to your zoom account using your "@epfl.ch" address\, as this live event
  is only open to the EPFL community\n\nNB: Video recordings of the seminar
 s will be made available on our website and published on our social medi
 a pages
LOCATION:INF 328 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==INF%20328 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/66102116047
STATUS:CANCELLED
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