White Robots, Blue Brains, and Other Myths: AI, Reimagined

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• 🎤 Tania Duarte — Founder of We and AI 🎤 Alex Mentzel — PhD in German and Digital Humanities 🎤 Chanelle Mwale — Singer, Songwriter, Poet, and co-founder of The Ubuntu Network | Moderated by Hannah Claus
• Friday 06 June 2025, 17:00-19:00
• Robinson College Umney Theatre.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ulla Petti.

View event and register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/white-robots-blue-brains-and-other-myths-ai-reimagined-tickets-1380778458539?aff=oddtdtcreator

Description:

Join us for White Robots, Blue Brains, and Other Myths: AI, Reimagined, an evening of art, conversation, and critical reflection on how we picture artificial intelligence — and why it matters.

Hosted by the Centre for Human Inspired AI (CHIA), this special event features a curated exhibition of 10 international artworks from the Better Images of AI initiative, created to challenge stereotypical visuals of AI — no more white plastic robots or glowing blue brains!

Alongside the exhibition, we invite you to a dynamic panel discussion exploring:

✨ How society perceives AI — and how those perceptions shape our hopes, fears, and policies

✨ What role artists and alternative images play in reframing public understanding of AI

✨ The impact of AI on artistic labour, and what happens when artists’ work is scraped, stolen, or repurposed by generative systems

Panelists:

🎤 Tania Duarte — Founder of We and AI

🎤 Alex Mentzel — PhD in German and Digital Humanities

🎤 Chanelle Mwale — Singer, Songwriter, Poet, and co-founder of The Ubuntu Network

Moderated by Hannah Claus, PhD student at the Language Technology Lab, focusing on large language models for low-resource languages.

Event Details:

🗓 Date: Friday, June 6, 2025

⏰ Time: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

📍 Location: Robinson College, Umney Theater, Cambridge

🎟 Admission: Free, but registration required

Agenda:

🕔 5:00 PM — Arrival

🕠 5:30 PM — Welcome speech + background on CHIA and Better Images of AI

🕠 5:35 PM — Panel discussion + Audience Q&A

• Tania Duarte, Founder of We and AI

• Alex Mentzel, PhD in Digital Humanities

• Chanelle Mwale, Singer, Songwriter, Poet, and co-founder of The Ubuntu Network

🕡 6:30 PM — Drinks + time to explore the art exhibition

🕖 7:00 PM — Closing remarks

This event brings together people from across disciplines — technical, artistic, academic, and industry — to reflect on how we can reimagine AI beyond its dominant myths and metaphors. Whether you work with AI, research it, critique it, or create alongside it, we invite you to join the conversation.

👉 Reserve your spot now — space is limited!

Speaker Bios:

Tania Duarte is the Founder of We and AI, a UK non-profit focusing on facilitating critical thinking and more inclusive decision making about AI through AI literacy. Their programmes include the Better Images of AI collaboration with BBC R&D and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. She is on the Founding Editorial Board for the Springer AI and Ethics Journal and has edited a collection for the Springer AI and Ethics Journal on the “Ethical implications of AI Hype” and is a Lead for TLA Tech for Disability. Tania coordinates the definitions groups for the IEEE P7015 Data and AI Literacy, Skills, and Readiness working group and is a Lead for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Responsible AI Network. Tania was on the Public Engagement and Ecosystem Strategy Advisory Board of The Alan Turing Institute, and an advisor to algorithmic bias testing platform Etiq AI. Prior to this, Tania spent 30 years in consultancy, business and marketing management roles in various industries, latterly in tech and startups. She was a CMO at TPX Impact where she ran awards for disruptive innovation, and head of marketing and communications at FutureLearn, and has an MBA and a Diploma in Digital Business Leadership. Tania was one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ 2021 and one of Computer Weekly Computer Weekly’s Women in UK Tech Rising Stars 2024.

Chanelle Mwale is a singer, songwriter, poet, and co-founder of The Ubuntu Network. Chanelle’s passion for creativity and people has been prevalent throughout their previous working career – when volunteering in Kenya in 2019 Chanelle wrote handwashing songs for students, organized a choir, and wrote a song for World Mental Health day and taught it to their community in Voi. Ultimately, it’s their love of music that led them to creating Slay-on-a-Sunday and co-founding the Ubuntu Network which gave them the events experience that landed them their current role of Events and Front-of-House Co-Ordinator for Innovate Cambridge. They are early in their career and are currently working on an EP and planning the Ubuntu Network’s next annual ‘Creatives For’ fundraising event with the aims of raising money for a LGBTQIA + homelessness charity due to happen in August.

Alex Mentzel is a PhD researcher in German and Digital Humanities as a Gates Scholar, studying the intersection of generative AI, digital cultures, and public perception. His work examines how AI technologies shape — and are shaped by — cultural narratives, visual language, and spatial principles and architectures. Prior to Cambridge, Alex co-founded Averto, a conflict-mapping platform that integrated user-generated data to enhance safety in high-risk regions, securing partnerships with NGOs and government agencies. He also brings experience in the creative industries, having co-developed the Faust Shop performance series that blends generative AI and immersive theatre to challenge AI stereotypes and foster critical engagement. His research and practice bridge technology and society, focusing on how we build (and break) trust in AI through images, stories, and participatory design.

Hannah Claus is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge’s Language Technology Lab, researching low-resource large language models, cultural adaptation, and the social impact of AI. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar and part of the ELLIS PhD Programme, she is co-supervised at the University of Copenhagen. Previously, she earned an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Queen Mary University of London as a Google DeepMind Scholar. Her work spans AI ethics, accessibility, explainability, and robotics, with research experience at the Ada Lovelace Institute and the German Aerospace Center. Passionate about diversity in AI, she actively supports initiatives that empower women and underrepresented groups in tech.

This talk is part of the chia series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Robinson College Umney Theatre
• chia

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