Registration
To register, please fill out this survey or contact Shubhangi Gupta at shubhangi@gatech.edu
Dates
Fri, Nov 10th, 2023, 4:00 PM- 5:30 PM
To request a workshop on another date, please contact Shubhangi Gupta at shubhangi@gatech.edu
Location
In person. Georgia Tech Campus (unless otherwise requested). Exact location will be shared closer to the date of the workshop.
Organizers
Shubhangi Gupta, PhD Candidate, Georgia Institute of Technology
email: shubhangi@gatech.edu
Yanni Loukissas, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
email: yanni.loukissas@lmc.gatech.edu
Acknowledgements
This workshop uses the Map Room technology originally created in 2017 by the Office of Creative Research in partnership with COCA. This technology was later expanded to build a new, research-oriented Map Room on the Georgia Tech campus. Find more details here.
Branding
About the workshop
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly becoming a dominant yet invisible part of civic decision-making. They are being used in public sector systems including child welfare systems, school allocation, policing, disaster relief management, and many more. While these technologies promise to improve objectivity and efficiency in civic decision-making, they have been shown to have inequitable effects on marginalized social groups. In this workshop, we will use participatory mapping to advance our collective understanding of AI systems used in the public sector, specifically policing. To do so, we will examine technologies that aim to predict crime in cities, how they work, and their impacts, both positive and negative. Ultimately, the workshop aims to provide participants with a vocabulary to ask critical questions about predictive technologies that influence civic processes in their cities.
Note: This is not a one-way teaching workshop where the organizers educate the participants. Instead, in this workshop, organizers and participants think together about the workings and impacts of civic AI systems to imagine and shape better civic futures. The participants are encouraged to bring their expertise developed through engaging with their communities and cities to the mapping table.
90 minutes long.
Free of cost.
No technical background is required.
Format and Agenda
Format
In this workshop, 6-12 participants will gather around a mapping table to map the workings and impacts of civic AI systems. A mapping table is a table that is covered with paper and has a map projected on it using a short-throw projector. The map has the ability to show various spatial data layers such as locations of crime reports, demographic data, redlining maps, etc. Find more details here.
Agenda
Introduction: We will start by introducing ourselves and posing questions we have about civic AI systems. We will then discuss the public safety needs of the city and if and how predictive policing can help address concerns (or not).
Working of AI systems: We will then think through the perspective of an AI system and imagine how it works to categorize different spaces in a city. We will think through the spatial impacts of the decisions made in the design of system along various relevant components.
Conclusion: We will imagine what a successful predictive tool would look like and what it needed to make it happen.
Upcoming and Past Workshops
November 6th, 2023: We conducted a workshop with the staff of Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and Neigborhood Nexus .
October 11th, 2023: We conducted a workshop with the Policing Alternatives & Diversion (PAD) Initiative in Atlanta.
September 18th, 2023: We conducted a workshop with undergraduate students, studying Computational Media, at Georgia Institute of Technology.