Terms of (Dis)Service: The Stakes of Human-Chatbot Relationships
Valerie Black
The death by suicide of a disabled Black teen named Sewell Setzer III and his family’s lawsuit against chatbot company Character.AI have opened up renewed debate and uncertainty about AI safety. Our society is still in the midst of determining: In what ways are and should AI companies be responsible for the wellbeing of their users — particularly as chatbots increasingly blur the line between entertainment and care?
Drawing on multi-year ethnographic research conducted at both a Silicon Valley mental health chatbot startup and a suicide prevention hotline, this talk examines what users’ experiences reveal about the ethical complexities of seeking crisis support from AI. As AI introduces a new, ambiguous category of relationships that we must all learn to collectively navigate, how do we prevent disability from becoming grounds for victim-blaming users who experience harm, rather than a catalyst for better AI design and oversight?
This lecture will be held both online & in person. You are welcome to join us either in South Hall or via Zoom.
Speaker
Valerie Black
Dr. Valerie Black is an anthropologist and disability studies scholar whose work examines the social and ethical dimensions of human-AI relationships. Her ethnographic research investigates AI applications in mental health care emerging from the startup sector in both the US and Japan. Currently, she is a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF’s Decision Lab, where she serves as a disability justice–centered ethnographer and technology ethicist on multiple NIH-funded projects.
Contact
If you have questions about this event, please contact Peter Marchetti.
Accessibility
If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting, CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about mobility access in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Heather Rapp with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7–10 days in advance of the event.
