The Science of the Predicted Human

With Sune Lehmann, I am arranging the talk series The Science of the Predicted Human. We invite world-leading scholars to Copenhagen to present their work on algorithms, technology and human behavior. The series is a collaboration between the Technical University of Denmark, the Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science and the Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence and is arranged with generous support by the Villum Foundation and the Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence.

• February 9, 2023: César Hidalgo (University of Toulouse / University of Manchester / Harvard University),
  
• April 17, 2023: Shannon Vallor (University of Edinburgh),
  
• April 19, 2023: Joshua Blumenstock (University of California, Berkeley),
  
• May 4, 2023: Johan Ugander (Stanford University),
  
• May 8, 2023: Dean Eckles (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
  
• May 24, 2023: Rediet Abebe (University of California, Berkeley),
  
• June 6, 2023: Gillian Hadfield (University of Toronto),
  
• August 21, 2023: David Lazer (Northeastern University, Harvard University),
  
• August 22, 2023: Jon Kleinberg (Cornell University),
  
• November 9, 2024: Phillip Lorenz-Spreen (Max Planck Institute for Human Development).
  
• March 19, 2024: Joanna Bryson (The Hertie School of Governance).
  

The Predicted Human

Being human in 2023 implies being the target of a vast number of predictive infrastructures. In healthcare, algorithms predict not only potential pharmacological cures to disease but also their possible future incidence of those diseases. In governance, citizens are exposed to algorithms that predict - not only their day-to-day behaviors to craft better policy - but also to algorithms that attempt to predict, shape and manipulate their political attitudes and behaviors. In education, children’s emotional and intellectual development is increasingly the product of at-home and at-school interventions shaped around personalized algorithms. And humans worldwide are increasingly subject to advertising and marketing algorithms whose goal is to target them with specific products and ideas they will find palatable. Algorithms are everywhere - as are their intended as well as unintended consequences. The series is arranged with generous support by the Villum Foundation and the Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence.