Synopsis
In some parts of the world, AI has become so ubiquitous that it is often taken for granted. Yet, as we marvel at its astounding capabilities, we risk losing sight of the significant costs that this technology exacts on society. From the growing demands on energy and water, to the human labour exploited for tagging and labelling content, as well as inherent biases in data used to train large language models that distort AI-powered content generation, these are hardly trivialities we can wilfully ignore. The advent of generative AI has also unleashed a torrent of misinformation and disinformation that tests the literacy skills of consumers, with the less literate being especially vulnerable. Even as we grapple with existing societal inequalities, we must now seek to identify and counter emerging inequalities enabled and accelerated by AI. This talk will discuss such inequalities and suggest how Singapore and the region should productively harness AI to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable society.
Speaker
Sun Sun Lim
| Professor Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at the Singapore Management University. She has extensively researched the social impact of technology, focusing on technology domestication by families, future of work and AI ethics. A prolific scholar, she has over 100 academic publications including Digital Parenting Burdens in China: Online Homework, Parent Chats and Punch-in Culture (Emerald, 2024), Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her articles have been published in top journals such as Nature, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and Big Data & Society. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and serves on fourteen journal editorial boards. She also serves on the Media Literacy Council, SkillsFuture Research Advisory Panel and Singapore Environment Council. From 2018-2020, she was Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore, raising issues such as governance of the use of big data, priorities in digital literacy education, and digital rights for children. She is an honoree of the inaugural 2024 Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders Award and the 2020 Singapore 100 Women in Tech list. She is a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society where she is also Vice President of the Women in Tech Chapter and Executive Committee member of the AI Ethics and Governance Special Interest Group. She frequently offers her expert commentary in international outlets including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Guardian, Scientific American, South China Morning Post and writes a monthly technology column in Singapore’s largest circulation broadsheet The Straits Times. She has won eight awards for excellent teaching. |
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