Within the SocKETs co-creation experimentation, TECNALIA examines the current use and potential of AI technology and automation systems within industry. Their second workshop was an opportunity to move from theoretical ideas to tangible and implementable solutions.
TECNALIA had initially identified four challenges that can block the development of AI in the Basque Country industry landscape: socio-ethical dilemmas produced by AI; Trust in AI; Deskilling and reskilling associated with AI; AI adoption and digital transformation.
Their first workshop, which took place in November, has been the occasion to introduce these challenges to participants and help to reflect on them whilst envisioning possible ideas that could address them. For more information, please consult our related blog post.
Building on this, the SocKETs Spanish lab hosted their second workshop, whose objectives were to transform these ideas into concrete plans that can be put into action at the end of the co-creation journey.
The workshop started with the presentation of two inspiring initiatives in societal engagement around science, technology and innovation in the Basque Country:
- Medialab Tabakalera connects art, science, technology and society by involving various actors from these fields with citizens in collaborative projects related to emergent technologies.
- Elhuyar is a Basque-country based organisation with the mission to promote the Basque language in modern society but also in science and technology. This talk was performed in liaison with Skura and Talaios that were also part of the KIBOT project.
Participants were then invited to dive into the interactive part of the workshop, and examine the challenges initially identified by the SocKETs lab and the ideas developed by participants in the first workshop. They were asked to redefine these ideas and integrate them into an operative framework, in order to turn them into tangible plans that can be implemented:
- How can we ensure to have enough qualified professionals with competencies on AI?
Idea: “Future professionals in the field of AI”: Involving students, trainers, teachers, institutions and relevant actors of education in activities aiming to raise awareness about the potential future skills and requirements that AI can create. - How can we foster the digital transformation of organisation, including the adoption of AI technologies?
Idea: “Pilot test of transition plan towards digital transformation of companies”: Raising awareness and offering relevant training for such companies to take on the challenge of digital transformation. Also, putting several activities in place to involve citizens in the diffusion of projects results - How can we guarantee to address the ethical and social character of the dilemmas created by AI?
Idea: “Artistic action/performance”: use an artistic approach to counterargue the predominant narrative of AI and develop public awareness of data used by such technologies.
After this second workshop, the TECNALIA team is preparing the ground for the third workshop which aims to directly engage with citizens with the prior work developed in this SocKETs Lab.
Want to be involved in SocKETs?
If you want to join this societal engagement movement in Spain, reach Raúl, our Spanish SocKETs lab leader!
