We are exposed to an unprecedented amount of information through the internet and social media, but current research indicates that actual reading (the conversion of data to knowledge) is declining. As we grapple with the ethics of AI and algorithmic decision-making, research shows that activities that have traditionally informed basic literacy and civic fluency are under threat.
Tracie D. Hall, winner of the prestigious Medal for Free Speech and Expression from the Roosevelt Institute, draws on her longstanding work on book censorship and the criminalisation of reading across leading democracies, to take a sobering look at what the rise of machine-learning could mean for civic literacy in order to refresh and recast her ‘fight of the century’ for the right to read freely.
Thursday 5 September, 6:45pm – 7:45pm.
Elisabeth Murdoch Building, University of Melbourne Parkville campus
See here for further information and free registration.
This event is part of the series Civic Stories in an Age of Polarisation: The New Humanity Makers presented by the Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative. View the full program here.
[posted on behalf of the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne]