Shoshana Zuboff, author, Harvard professor and social psychologist to present Tanner Lecture on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values

Oct. 13, 2021 – The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah will host Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” for the Obert C. Tanner Lecture on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values, Thursday, Oct. 28 at noon. Her lecture will explore the Digital Revolution entwined with the evolution of capitalism. The online event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

“Shoshana Zuboff’s scholarship is an important call to action that makes clear the consequences of an uncritical approach to information technology development for human relationships, human rights and the human experience,” said Erika George, director of the Tanner Humanities Center. “Her career is a testament to the power of sustained research and careful observation to illuminate the big picture issues shaping our society.”

Zuboff is the author of three books, each of which signaled the start of a new epoch in technological society. In the late 1980s she foresaw how computers would revolutionize the modern workplace. Writing before the invention of the iPod or Uber, she predicted the rise of digitally mediated products and services tailored to the individual. She also warned of the individual and societal risks.

Now her masterwork, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” synthesizes years of research to reveal a world in which technology users are neither customers, employees, nor products. Instead, she argues they are the raw material for new procedures of manufacturing and sales that define an entirely new economic order – a surveillance economy. She invites alternative approaches.

This event is sponsored by O.C Tanner and the University of Utah College of Humanities.

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About Tanner Lectures on Human Values

The Tanner Lectures on Human Values is a multi-university lecture series in the humanities, established in 1976 by the American philanthropist and scholar Obert Clark Tanner. The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is to advance and reflect upon the scholarly and scientific learning relating to human values. This lecture series on artificial intelligence will also take place at University of California Berkeley, University of Cambridge, University of Michigan, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Yale University during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.

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About Tanner Humanities Center

Since 1988, the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah has promoted humanities inquiry and exchange by supporting innovative scholarly projects and creating opportunities for interaction among scholars, students, and lifelong learners. They offer programs in three major areas, public outreach, educational enrichment, and academic research. The activities reflect a vision of the humanities as not only relevant, stimulating, and cutting-edge, but also essential for developing critical thinking, tolerance, and respect on campus and in the community.