Lecture series: ‘Ethics and Criticism of Artificial Intelligence in Teaching, Study and Research’
20. Jan
The AI Literacy Hub at Leuphana AI Campus invites all interested parties to the launch of its lecture series. The lectures will focus on AI and datafication at universities. Ethics ambassador Oskar Kirsch will speak on 20 January 2027 on the topic ‘Beyond Ethics’, discussing AI as a regime of extraction. A discussion session is planned to follow.
What is the talk about?
The label ‘AI ethics’ is an umbrella term for initiatives that all too often aim to change the attitudes and individual practices of individual users, thereby systematically diffusing responsibility. It is essential to approach the critique of artificial intelligence and a comprehensively datafied and algorithmised university differently: the argument here is for a shift from governance initiatives aimed at individual ethical conduct towards a critique of the structural modes of operation of algorithmic systems. The introductory lecture aims to kick-start this by focusing on the regimes of extraction that make possible what we currently understand as AI.
What is the lecture series ‘Ethics and Critique of Artificial Intelligence’?
The public lecture series ‘Ethics and Critique of Artificial Intelligence in Teaching, Student Studies and Research’ is organised by the AI Literacy Hub. It forms part of the Leuphana AI Campus, funded by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education Teaching. The Hub invites all interested parties to join Ethics Ambassador Oskar Kirsch in examining the impacts and conditions of AI and datafication on universities. The series begins in the 2026/27 winter term with an event in January.
What is the academic context?
The lecture series seeks to counter the tendency for the debate on AI to narrow down to individual products, biases and technical processes. Instead, it focuses on the political, economic and epistemological conditions that give rise to AI as a socio-technical system. Taking these into account is essential for adopting a critical perspective on AI. The series challenges the view of AI as, ultimately, a simple ‘answer machine’ and highlights the potential for AI to systematically permeate educational and research processes. Against this backdrop, experts from the fields of AI and higher education will each examine a specific area of university life where the introduction of AI systems would pose particular challenges.