What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI?

University of Connecticut Humanities Institute

Ever wonder why AI conversations feel like people are talking past each other? That's because they are. Join scholars from around the world as they tackle the most important terms in AI—and discover they don't mean the same thing to everyone. From Storrs, Connecticut to Rabat, Morocco, from computer labs to philosophy seminars, we're eavesdropping on the conversations that reveal how different fields understand artificial intelligence. Spoiler alert: the differences matter more than you think. Made possible by funding from CHCI and the Mellon Foundation.

  1. May 19

    Care

    Can AI help us solve the crisis of care? Can a chatbot care about a person? What are the limits of technology to find solutions to problems related to care? As part of UConn's Human-Centered AI Initiative, we've brought together a roundtable of scholars from Connecticut to Morocco define “care” within their discipline and discuss what care means when over 30% of AI users turn to their chatbots for therapy or companionship. UConn Humanities Institute and professor of English, Director Anna Mae Duane leads a conversation about AI and care, featuring Ihsane Hmamouchi, MD PhD, professor of Clinial Epidemiology, Université Internationale de Rabat and Michael Lynch, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut. Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    31 min

  2. May 5

    The Oracle of Chatbot with Michael Lynch

    Michael Lynch (UConn) delivers his talk, “AI, Rights, and Epistemic Agency” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. In this episode, Michael Lynch presents the philosophical tensions between what has been understood as human rights and agency and how artificial intelligence complicates that relationship. Humans possess an unbelievably powerful capacity to make life plans, engage in projects, and make decisions that serve as the foundation for human rights and agency. For Lynch, the question of how the social integration of these chatbots will impact humans’ epistemic agency is the most pressing when it comes to the rapid expansion of AI usage in the contemporary moment. This epistemic agency is our capacity to know about the world, and that capacity becomes infinitely more complex with chatbots when they move out of the realm of tool used to extend that epistemic agency. As generative AI and chatbots continue to become more widely used, a delicate balance will have to be struck between the desire to know more and the subsequent tradeoff of losing understanding. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Pg71vDhPajU Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    20 min

  3. Apr 30

    The Revolution Will Be Digitized with John Murphy

    John Murphy (UConn) delivers his talk, “The Coming AI Rights Revolution” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. In this episode, John Murphy explores the possibilities of what it will mean for humans to be able to merge the analog and digital world in the age of artificial intelligence. He structures his analysis around the “three pillars of civilization” or human rights, property rights, and labor rights, to reflect on how the current analog world is struggling to keep up with the digital world in ways that will directly impact what it means and will mean to be a human. For Murphy, the growth in AI has forced us to push the limits of what it means to be a human and what the legal rights of humanity, property, and labor will look like in an increasingly digital world. Moreover, the question of who will control these technologies and what kind of guardrails will be put in place to regulate them in the future looms as a pressing challenge within the legal realm. However, this caution can be met with a glimmer of hope that current students themselves already understand the consequences of too large an investment in AI. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cy4ruy3mO5Q Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    18 min

  4. Apr 27

    Human Rights in an Open-Source World with Avijit Ghosh

    Avijit Ghosh delivers his talk, “Our Rights in an AI Infused Society,” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. In this episode, Avijit Ghosh examines how artificial intelligence has transformed human rights to the point where it’s increasingly being used to allocate goods and resources, such as deciding who gets matched to certain jobs. AI has fundamentally changed social and economic relationships between people and companies with governmental regulation slow to respond. These rapid technological changes have also resulted in complications regarding data access wherein people’s intellectual property rights are left vulnerable to a company’s unregulated licensing practices. In other words, the absence of regulation in AI has allowed companies to make their own rules when it comes to licensing, often to the detriment of people and rife with bias. For Ghosh, technological development can be done properly if the sole focus is not chasing profit. The future of data access and the role of the human within represents a delicate balance that will continue to be reconfigured as technological progress abounds. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dfZ2iUTdsH0 Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    32 min

  5. Mar 30

    Protecting Workers in the AI Age with Meriem Regragui

    Meriem Regragui (Université Internationale de Rabat) delivers her talk, “How Will AI Transform Labour Rights?” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. In this episode, Meriem Regragui outlines the increasingly complicated relationship between AI and labor rights, particularly around how laws should be enacted to protect workers and their rights to dignity, privacy, and fair treatment. This issue is not only local, but also international in a way that forces a reconfiguration of employability, social protection, and redistribution. The revaluing of labor has thus become foundational to understanding the role of AI within broader conversations of labor rights. For Regragui, one of the most pressing issues for the future will be to clarify from a legal perspective what an equitable right to work will look like in the AI era. The human being must ultimately be at the center of these discussions.   Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9uI7J22iySU Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    21 min

  6. Mar 16

    Creating Content with the LLM Brain with Hakim Hafidi

    Hakim Hafidi (Université Internationale de Rabat) delivers his talk, “AI Literacy in the Age of Synthetic Content” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Hakim Hafidi analyzes the growing capabilities of autonomous agents within the realm of content creation and dissemination online and how to understand human interactions with this content. The expansion of this “synthetic content” has complicated larger questions about how human users can decipher what’s “real” or the “truth” and how that influences their engagement with generated content. Hafidi refers to these AI-agents as “LLM brains” that possess the capability to reason, generate, collaborate, and share information at rates much faster and more prolific than a human can. However, this boom in synthetic content is not without a litany of problems including the ability to differentiate the real from the fake, the importance of reality-based community connections, and the intent of the companies behind AI content. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9uI7J22iySU Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    19 min

  7. Mar 12

    Big Human and the Sociotechnical Turn in AI with Ting-an Lin

    Ting-an Lin (UConn) delivers her talk, “Rethinking ‘AI Literacy’: Towards a Sociotechnical Conception” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Ting-an Lin outlines how she defines AI literacy through a socio-technical perspective which prioritizes a people-focused vision of AI as opposed to a tech-focused one. The socio-technical perspective emphasizes the material context in which AI exists and operates. In other words, an AI literacy that only prioritizes those in “Big Tech” will lose sight of the material conditions in which natural resources, human labor, and data are extracted. For Lin, understanding those conditions is intertwined with breaking down the global divide over AI and expanding the ability of the technology outside of the elite and powerful. The dangers of technological determinism cannot be understated, especially amid the AI boom. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kqiUm5_45y0 Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    16 min

  8. Mar 9

    AI and the New Luddism with Arash Zaghi

    Arash Zaghi (UConn) delivers his talk, “The New Luddism: AI Fearmongering as a Modern Mechanism of Oppression” at the What Are We Talking About When We Talk About AI? Symposium. October 9, 2025 at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Arash Zaghi examines how fearmongering from elite institutions has become weaponized against disadvantaged populations who could benefit from generative AI. While Zaghi cautions us that artificial intelligence itself is not absolved of any biases, he stresses the importance of being able to use this tech for the right now and beyond. Anxiety over artificial intelligence leads to lower usage and lower rates of adoption, ultimately leading to a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. According to Zaghi, technopanic is a form of gatekeeping, operating as a functional form of oppression to curb access for less powerful groups. Prefer to watch? Check out this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xfYHuSRAaxs Learn more about “Reading Between the Lines,” the collaboration between UConn and UIR that produced this podcast.

    15 min
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About

Ever wonder why AI conversations feel like people are talking past each other? That's because they are. Join scholars from around the world as they tackle the most important terms in AI—and discover they don't mean the same thing to everyone. From Storrs, Connecticut to Rabat, Morocco, from computer labs to philosophy seminars, we're eavesdropping on the conversations that reveal how different fields understand artificial intelligence. Spoiler alert: the differences matter more than you think. Made possible by funding from CHCI and the Mellon Foundation.

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