Conference Matters 142

EXPERT PANEL

Will AI negatively affect human interaction? Six experts give their views on the statement, ‘Will AI negatively affect human interaction?’. Is AI teaching individuals how to engage with one another in real life, or did smartphones already set this in motion?

by Suzanna Timmer

Tom Jessen Nominee for Moderator and Event Host of 2023 and podcaster

ces. I’ll get eight questions that I already came up with myself. However, there are always two that I think are interesting, which touch on a part of the subject you hadn’t yet thought about. With that information, you can get back to producing new topics. Various AI tools also let you create very slick presentations. AI solves that tedious mes sing around in PowerPoint or Keynote for you because you can do it very quickly based on a very good prompt. There’s already an AI tool that edits entire podcasts in half a minute with a switch between different images. If you use it properly, AI actually ensures that you have more time for human interaction. Since you can use AI smartly, it gives you more time to contact stakeholders regarding your event and how you’re going to approach mat ters. I think that AI has no negative impact on human interaction at all.”

“No, I don’t think that AI will particularly affect human interaction because there are many more aspects that play a role in this, such as smartphones and social media. With all the new technologies, you have to look at what they can do for you. I think AI is still being vaguely discussed. I’d love to see what you can actually get out of it and what you can and cannot do with it at events. Above all, it’s a very useful addition to the boring, repetitive work that we have to perform. Of course, there’s the risk that if AI continues to develop, it could become a threat, but not to human interaction. Let me use ChatGPT as an example. Of course, it’s a source of information. I do think that the ‘woke’ filter on it could be adjusted a little less sharply because it provides some degree of censorship. Suppose I ask ChatGPT for ten questions about how AI will influence conferen

Dr.ir. Erwin Folmer, HAN University of Applied Sciences, Twente

(As of 1 January 2024, responsible for the new professorship in Applied Data Science and AI) “With the new Applied Data Science and AI professorship, HAN University wants to con tribute to making data science easier so that everyone can work with data. In fact, working with data, applying data analysis and under standing the possibilities of AI should probably

be part of everyone’s basic skills. People will not unlearn live mutual interaction as a result of AI. The smartphone has more of an impact on live interaction than AI, so I see little effect for conferences. At most, it could result in conferences and other live events having to focus more on networking and less on sharing knowledge.”

23