• AI is everywhere—but is it working as promised? Emory’s AI.Humanity Conference will explore the gap between expectation and reality in the age of AI. This one-day event brings together leading voices from across the nation to examine how AI is affecting art, jobs, health care, the environment, and public trust.

  Join us for networking and critical conversations that explore how AI is transforming society and what we can do to preserve human agency and truth.

  Panels include:

  • AI in Art, Media and the Humanities: Creativity Without Hype
  • AI and the Future of Work: Busting the Automation Myth
  • Medicine at the Crossroads of AI: Hope, Hype, and Reality
  • AI, Energy, and the Hidden Cost of Data Centers
  • AI, Big Tech, and the Erosion of Social Trust

  Sponsored by Emory's AI.Humanity initiative and the Center for AI Learning.

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Agenda

8:30 AM     Registration & Coffee
9:00 AM     Welcome Remarks
9:15 AM      Opening Keynote
10:30 AM    Panel 1: AI in Art, Media & the Humanities: Creativity Without Hype
11:30 AM     Panel 2: AI and the Future of Work: Busting the Automation Myth
12:45 PM    Lunch & Networking
1:30 PM       Panel 3: Medicine at the Crossroads of AI: Hope, Hype, and Reality
2:30 PM      Panel 4: AI, Energy, and the Hidden Cost of Data Centers
3:30 PM      Break
3:45 PM      Panel 5: AI, Big Tech, and the Erosion of Social Trust
5:15 PM       Closing

Keynote: AI Reality Check: From Hype to Hope 

(Zeynep Tufekci, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University)

Dissecting the gap between AI’s promises and its actual performance by a top scholar and captain of industry. 

Panel 1: AI in Art, Media & the Humanities: Creativity Without Hype

(Panelists: David Schweidel, Emory University; C. Scott Votaw, Georgia Film Academy; Mark Riedl, Georgia Institute of Technology; Tim Greer, Amazon; Dana Haugaard, Emory University; and Jasmin M. Goodman, Trilith Institute)

This discussion brings together critics and practitioners to unpack how AI is reshaping creative work and cultural production. While industry hype portrays generative AI as revolutionary for art and storytelling, panelists will highlight the hidden costs: reliance on massive data extraction, exploitation of human labor, and erosion of cultural value. From the humanities perspective, AI-generated texts and images are often convincing imitations that lack understanding. In film and entertainment, AI threatens to replace actors and writers with simulations, raising profound questions about authenticity, livelihoods, and meaning. The panel will explore how we might harness AI to augment rather than displace human creativity. 

Panel 2: AI and the Future of Work: Busting the Automation Myth

(Panelists: Rajiv Garg, Emory University; Tom Smith, Emory University; Steven Ferguson, Georgia AIM (Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing), Georgia Tech; Mason Ailstock, Rowen Foundation; and Donnie Beamer, City of Atlanta.)

For decades, the dominant narrative has been that automation through AI will inevitably displace vast numbers of workers. This panel challenges that assumption. Economists and labor experts argue that much of today’s AI is “so-so automation”: tools that cut costs without delivering real productivity or quality-of-life gains. Instead of designing systems that complement and empower workers, corporations often prioritize efficiency and surveillance, to the detriment of employees. Panelists will examine AI’s impact on wages, worker autonomy, and organizing power, while also discussing policy interventions and design alternatives that could ensure AI strengthens the dignity of work. 

Panel 3: Medicine at the Crossroads of AI: Hope, Hype, and Reality

(Panelists: Satish E. Viswanath, Emory University; Ulas Bagci, Northwestern University; Morris Panner, Intelerad; and Piotr Slomka, Cedars Sinai)

Few areas of AI have generated more excitement and disappointment than healthcare. This panel revisits high-profile failures like IBM Watson while also highlighting genuine areas of progress. Clinicians and researchers will debate where AI can realistically assist doctors, such as pattern recognition in imaging or streamlining administrative burdens, versus where hype has overpromised. Issues of bias, reproducibility, and patient trust will be central, as panelists assess how flawed algorithms can reinforce inequities in care. The session will advocate for an “augmented intelligence” model: using AI to support human expertise rather than replace it, ensuring patient well-being and ethical standards remain paramount. 

Panel 4: AI, Energy, and the Hidden Cost of Data Centers 

(Panelists: Xiao Huang, Emory University; Kristin Phillips, Emory University; Amy Sharma, Science for Georgia; Micajah Dudley, Box; and John Avery, Georgia Tech)

Power bills are up. Data centers are where all the action/capex is. Behind the promises of AI lies a massive environmental footprint. Training large language models and running global data centers consume staggering amounts of electricity and water, often hidden from public view. This panel will bring together experts on energy systems, sustainability, and AI to expose the tradeoffs that rarely make headlines. Panelists will discuss the true carbon and water costs of generative AI, the strain on power grids, and whether efficiency gains can offset the exponential growth of demand. They will also ask whether society should treat AI development like other resource-intensive industries…with regulation, reporting requirements, and accountability for externalities.

Panel 5: AI, Big Tech, and the Erosion of Social Trust

(Panelists: Alex Tolbert, Emory University; David Danks, University of Virginia; Aaron Roth, University of Pennsylvania; Chandler Squires, Carnegie Mellon University; Michael Hudgens, UNC-Chapel Hill; Konstantin Genin, University of Utah)

One of the deepest challenges posed by AI is not technical but social: how platforms powered by algorithms shape community life, civic trust, and democracy itself. Building on Robert Putnam’s insights about declining social capital, this panel will explore whether AI-driven personalization, recommendation engines, and generative tools are further fragmenting public trust. How do large platforms like Google, Meta, X/Twitter, and TikTok use AI in ways that deepen echo chambers, spread misinformation, or commodify attention? What alternatives could support healthier democratic discourse? Panelists will grapple with whether big tech’s AI deployments are compatible with vibrant civic life, and how regulation, public-interest technology, and civil society can counterbalance concentrated corporate power.