Global

“AI AS A FRIEND” film screening during the Global Science Film Festival (GSFF)

The 6th Global Science Film Festival (GSFF), themed "The Shortest Distance between Science and Society is Cinema," will be held in Switzerland from November 7 to 10, 2024. As a special global partner, the Swissnex network will participate in a screening to international audiences in China, India, Japan, and Korea.

Founded by the Swiss Science Film Academy, the GSFF brings together scientists and filmmakers who share one passion: “scientific communication through film”. This year, Swissnex in China will once again participate in the simultaneous screening of one documentary film. Titled “AI AS A FRIEND: Does a Chatbot Relationship really work?” from SRF ‘Einstein’, the film perfectly falls into the topic of Tech&Ethics that we explored earlier this year in China with Swiss researchers.

The film explores the relationship between human and AI, it documents the experiment conducted by the SRF’s science program “Einstein”, where the selected participants and presenter Kathrin Honegger let an AI chatbot avatar into their lives for three weeks. Is AI any good yet as a flatmate, relationship partner or best friend? Will it always be a relationship between master and servant, as with digital assistants? Or will AI chatbots invade our routines and turn the conversations into something that feels pretty natural? And what if an AI suddenly challenges or deceives us? Could that even happen?

AI AS A FRIEND

DOES A CHATBOT RELATIONSHIP REALLY WORK?

GENRE: Documentary
YEAR: 2024
LANGUAGES: German
COUNTRIES: Switzerland
LENGTH: 38 min

Screenshot

Following the film screening, which will simultaneously take place in China, India, Japan, and Korea, a podium discussion will be organized with experts from the respective locations to explore the different questions that the film raised. In China, Linda Sheng, Head of International Business from the leading technology company MiniMax – focused on developing large-scale artificial intelligence models aimed at fostering social connections and facilitating interaction – will join us on-site and dive deep into this topic together with the panelists from the other locations.

 

Program

The event will take place in-person

16:00-16:25: Registration

16:25-16:30 Welcome Speech

  • Philippe Roesle, CEO, Consul,  Swissnex in China

16:30-17:11 Film Screening “AI AS A FRIEND”

17:11-18:00 Podium Discussion

  • Switzerland – Zurich
    • Moderator: Sahar El Khoury, PhD, Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Director Core AI & Data Platforms Strategy, Public Speaking Coach
    • Kathrin Hönegger (Einstein Co-Host)
    • Andrea Fischli (Einstein/Science Editor)
    • Christian Bachmann (Einstein Producer)
  • China – Shanghai
    • Linda Sheng, Head of International Business at MiniMax
  • India – New Delhi
    • Irma Ghufan, Independent Filmmaker and Artist
  • India – Bangalore
    • Ranjith Jaganathan, Interdisciplinary Cognitive Scientist and Adjunct Faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
  • Korea – Seoul
    • Dr. Dasom Lee, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
  • Japan – Tokyo
    • Goki Kusunoki, CEO & Founder of Samansa Inc.
  • Japan – Osaka
    • Hidenobu Sumioka, Leader of Presence Media Research Group in Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International)
    • Masahiro Shiomi, Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader of the Agent Interaction Design Laboratory at the Interaction Science Laboratories at ATR

18:00-18:30 Interaction with Guest Speaker

  • Linda Sheng, Head of International Business, MiniMax

18:30-19:30 Networking

 

Speakers

  •

    China - Shanghai

    Linda Sheng

    Head of International Business at MiniMax

    Linda currently serves as the Head of International Business at MiniMax. MiniMax is a leading global AI multimodal large model company, with its business applications reaching over 50 million C-end and B-end users. Prior to joining MiniMax, Linda focused on growth equity investments and mergers and acquisitions in the Asian region at Warburg Pincus in the United States. Linda started her career as an investor at Softbank Vision Fund in Silicon Valley and as a consultant at McKinsey.

  •

    India - New Delhi

    Irma Ghufan

    Independent Filmmaker and Artist

    Iram Ghufran is an independent filmmaker and artist based in New Delhi. Her practice spans moving image, sound and text where she deploys speculative modes in narrative creation in order to critically engage with the nature of truth and the construction of reality. Her film, A Terrible Beauty, was in competition at the Visions du Réel in Nyon earlier this year.

  •

    India - Bangalore

    Ranjith Jaganathan

    Interdisciplinary Cognitive Scientist and Adjunct Faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)

    Ranjith Jaganathan is an interdisciplinary cognitive scientist and adjunct faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore, India. His research spans multiple fields, including computational modelling, machine learning, visual perception, and cognitive neuroscience. He has explored various topics such as visual scene and emotional scene perception, visual word recognition, and psycholinguistics. Ranjith has also been involved in research on dementia, using machine learning and brain imaging techniques to identify early biomarkers for better diagnosis.

    In addition to his research, he has held academic positions at prestigious institutions such as IIT Kanpur, NIMHANS (Bengaluru), and New York University Abu Dhabi. He has taught courses on cognitive science, including neuromatch summer courses, and is engaged in the emerging field of AI ethics.

  •

    Korea - Seoul

    Dr. Dasom Lee

    Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

    Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Her research interests focus on AI regulations and responsible innovation.

  •

    Japan - Tokyo

    Goki Kusunoki

    CEO & Founder of Samansa Inc.

    CEO & Founder of Samansa Inc. who offers a dating app service called LOVERSE where humans can interact with AI bots. Their webpage is only in Japanese, but I link here an article from the Japan Times in case you wish to read more.

  •

    Japan - Osaka

    Hidenobu Sumioka

    Leader of Presence Media Research Group in Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International)

    Hidenobu Sumioka is the leader of Presence Media Research Group in Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International), Kyoto, Japan. He was also a senior assistant at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory directed by Prof. Rolf Pfeifer at the University of Zurich between 2010 and 2011. He received his Ph.D. degree in engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 2008. His research interests include human-robot touch interaction, social robots for elderly care, and investigation of the impact of a social robot on our body and mind.

  •

    Japan - Osaka

    Masahiro Shiomi

    Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader of the Agent Interaction Design Laboratory at the Interaction Science Laboratories at ATR

    Masahiro Shiomi is a senior research scientist and a group leader of the Agent Interaction Design Laboratory at the Interaction Science Laboratories at ATR, Kyoto, Japan. He is also a visiting professor at Kobe University. He received his M. Eng, and Ph. D. degrees in engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 2004, and 2007, respectively. His research interests include human-robot interaction, social touch interaction, robotics for childcare, and multiple social robots.