As artificial intelligence (AI) advances – particularly large language models (LLMs) which are increasingly integrated into social, governmental and economic systems – discriminatory stereotypes and biases persist. These prejudices reflect and reinforce historical and systemic inequalities embedded in massive datasets that models like OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) and Google’s Gemini learn from. York University […]
There is a well-thumbed novel on Pina D’Agostino’s bookshelf that keeps her up at night, but also propels her forward. It is Nobel Prize-winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s futuristic fiction Klara and the Sun, in which an anxious generation of parents buy humanoid robots to act as “artificial friends” for their lonely kids. The more privileged […]
Since Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society launched in spring 2023, the $318.4-million project has already achieved several milestones pushing forward the project – and York University – as a leader in socially responsible emerging technology. It’s been over a year since President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton and Vice-President Research and Innovation Amir Asif announced that […]
York University has long been a leader in health education and research, and recent announcements by the Government of Ontario have enabled the University to further this vision, with a new School of Medicine. In April 2024, at the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, Premier Doug Ford announced that York University’s new School of Medicine will open […]
Picture this: a 911 operator in your city receives a call from a person in mental distress and needs to send help. They could dispatch the police or an integrated unit of both police and mental health professionals. But instead, the operator sends a robot. This scenario may sound like science fiction, but it’s the […]
“Voice-activated personal assistants (VAPAs) use women’s voices as a default setting, and this gendered technology significantly influences the treatment of women tech experts by male audiences online,” says Stephen J. Neville, who conducted the work alongside Alex Borkowski, both of whom are in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture at York and Toronto Metropolitan University. […]