University of Washington, Information School Application Deadline: April 1, 2024 The Information School of the University of Washington seeks an Assistant Teaching Professor in Software Development and Design. This position will be expected to (1) be an engaged teacher and mentor, (2) engage in one or more domains of software development described below, and (3) engage diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and justice in the context of teaching technical topics. This position will be expected to design and deliver courses on the development of software-based information technologies, including software engineering, architecture, design, and collaborative programming techniques–especially within the software industry. We encourage applications from a variety of backgrounds and training, including Computer Science and Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering, Information Science, and Health Informatics. Candidates with either academic or industry backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Preference will be given to candidates who apply by April 1, 2024.

University of British Columbia, School of Information Application Deadline: April 15, 2024 The School of Information at the University of British Columbia seeks an innovative scholar and educator, with direct experience contributing to Indigenous information initiatives, to join the faculty. Candidates for this position should have a Ph.D. in Library & Information Studies, Indigenous studies, or a cognate area (e.g., Media Studies, Data Science, Human Geography, Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design). Verifiable experience working on Indigenous-led information projects or programs (e.g., Indigenous data sovereignty; Indigenous/Tribal Librarianship; First Nations, Inuit, or Métis language stewardship; or repatriation initiatives), is required. The position will require subject expertise intertwined with the capacity to enliven this knowledge within classroom contexts. The holder of this position must be able to work with students and faculty from diverse backgrounds, who align with a multiplicity of knowledge traditions, and share an interest in learning about and contributing to Indigenous Information Studies.

Issue #68 The new book by Dennis Yi Tenen is called “Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write”, but it is primarily about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Jennifer Szalai reviewed the book in the New York Times on 7 February 2024¹. She quotes Tenen, who writes: “Intelligence evolves on a spectrum, ranging from ‘partial assistance’ to ‘full automation’... [Tenen offers] the example of an automatic transmission in a car. Driving an automatic in the 1960s must have been mind-blowing for people used to manual transmissions. An automatic worked by automating key decisions, downshifting on hills and sending less power to the wheels in bad weather. It removed the option to stall or grind your gears. It was ‘artificially intelligent,’ even if nobody used those words for it. American drivers now take its magic for granted.” In fact, many common devices use a significant measure of artificial intelligence, including mobile phones, which make decisions about which messages are important. While humans may have provided a list of preferences, the devices then decide what to do depending on factors like the time of day, the signal strength, or the amount of power remaining in the battery. Essentially every form of automation involves devices making decisions, based on manufacturer specifications and human input provided. AI existed before anyone applied the metaphor of artificial intelligence to machine-based actions. “Tenen says we ought to be ‘suspicious of all metaphors ascribing familiar human cognitive aspects to artificial intelligence. The machine thinks, talks, explains, understands, writes, feels, etc., by analogy only.’”¹ AI-generated information can be wrong in ways that only humans will notice. For example, people know that Noam Chomsky’s famous sentence “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” is nonsense, but a contemporary AI may well not because the structure is correct. If a corporate ChatBot provides information, the default is to trust it, but that has a risk: Air Canada recently lost a lawsuit because its ChatBot gave false information.² Tenen does not argue that AI is bad. He merely urges people to remember that an AI only metaphorically has human intelligence. It is at least as imperfect as the humans who fed in the information. 1: Jennifer Szalai, ‘How Robots Learned to Write So Well’, The New York Times, 7 February 2024, sec. Books, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/books/review/literary-theory-for-robots-dennis-yi-tenen.html. 2: Cecco, Leyland. ‘Air Canada Ordered to Pay Customer Who Was Misled by Airline’s Chatbot’. The Guardian, 16 February 2024, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit.

University of California Berkeley, The School of Information Application Deadline: March 15, 2024 The School of Information and its Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity seek a qualified individual for a full-time, year-round position to teach and manage the Citizen Clinic, our flagship public-interest cybersecurity clinic. Through a model similar to university-based law clinics, we train teams of students to help civil society organizations and other underserved institutions build the capabilities they need to proactively defend themselves against malicious governments and organizations, hate groups, and extremists.

The key question facing lawmakers right now – the reason for all the recent Congressional hearings with tech leaders and faculty experts sitting across the room from Senators, talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and what policies are needed to keep society safe – is how to create guardrails for AI without squashing innovation or putting the United States at a strategic disadvantage in the world. The range of roles Williams has played in government service, healthcare, and tech – she has worked everywhere from the U.S. Department of State to Facebook (now Meta), Twitter (now X), Google, and Reddit – has given her unique insight into and perspective on how best to navigate that tension between regulation and innovation. The Challenges for Lawmakers Creating policy is no easy task. Technology evolves much more rapidly than any policy could possibly be adjusted to address each new iteration or breakthrough. “Pace is the biggest enemy,” Williams explained. “We haven’t overcome the policy debt from the last two cycles of technological innovation, especially from a security and data-protection perspective.” Even the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fails to adequately address some of the privacy and security risks around AI, Williams said, and U.S. policy trails behind that. Another challenge is that enforcement of regulations can be ineffective. The rules are too often vague or subject to interpretation, with financial penalties that might cost an organization money but fail to change industry practices. “We’ve been chasing this ideal of making management accountable to address risk,” Williams said, “but the outcome is not making people safer.” News submitted by Jennifer Monahan, Carnegie Mellon University, The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy

The iSchool at Curtin University organizes the 20th year of Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference on 18-20 November in Perth, Australia! RAILS is the Australasian conference on Research Applications in Information and Library Studies, the main gathering in Australasia for researchers, practitioners and educators in information studies and related disciplines, including librarianship, records and archival science, and social and community informatics. RAILS encourages a culture of informed and innovative research practice and communication to practitioners. RAILS has been held annually since 2004. This year’s conference focuses on the influence and impact of research in fostering tangible and practical solutions to real-world challenges. RAILS 2024 is an in-person conference held over three days. It also incorporates the Australasian Information Educators’ Symposium (AIES) 2024, a Doctoral Consortium and two keynote sessions. One of the keynotes is online, free to RAILS registrants and open to the wider community. Time and Place: November 18-20, 2024 | Perth, Australia

University of Sheffield, The Information School Application Deadline: March 7, 2024 The Information School is seeking to recruit a Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Data Science to enhance and expand their excellent research and teaching in these areas. Successful candidates shall have a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant field, a developing (Lecturer) / established (Senior Lecturer) research profile, a proven teaching ability, a strong commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration. The Information School is particularly keen to attract applications from those who have a good understanding of FATES (fairness, accountability, transparency, ethics, safety and security) principles and responsible data and AI practices in data science research.

University of Arizona, School of Information (iSchool) Application Deadline: March 1, 2024 The School of Information, University of Arizona, is hiring multiple tenure track Assistant or Associate Professors working in the cross-disciplinary realms of Cultural Heritage Informatics. We are especially interested in candidates who are well-versed in qualitative and quantitative methodologies as well as those with interest in academic leadership roles (e.g. program supervision, student advising) who bring a record of working on inter- or trans-disciplinary funded grant teams. We invite applicants from a range of disciplines, including but not limited to library and information science, cultural heritage studies, archival studies, digital humanities, Indigenous studies, geography and development, and more. Our intent is to recruit scholars with research agendas that overlap with existing areas of strength in the iSchool regardless of disciplinary background.

University of Alabama School of Library & Information Studies Application Deadline: March 31, 2024 (open until filled) The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) seeks a student-focused faculty member for a full-time position to begin as early as August 16, 2024 at the rank of tenure-track assistant or tenured associate. This position provides an exciting opportunity for an outstanding scholar with an interest in information discoverability, information retrieval, organization of information, database design, and social aspects of information access.

As part of the Industry Partnership activities within the European / African iSchools Region (https://www.ischools.org/industry-partnerships) we are very pleased to announce the first iSchool Meetup to take place in Berlin on 12 April. The first confirmed speaker is Alexander Buchholz, Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon. Abstract Amazon Music ranks millions of items to personalize its customer experience. In this talk we will provide a perspective on the scientific questions that we encounter for training and evaluating learning-to-rank models. We will touch upon topics like unbiased off-policy learning and evaluation, data collection and model deployment from an industry point of view. We will highlight our latest contributions and discuss the challenges that we face on a daily basis. Short Bio Alexander Buchholz is a senior applied scientist at Amazon Music in Berlin. Prior to joining Amazon Music he was a postdoc at the University of Cambridge, UK. He received his PhD in computational statistics from the University Paris Saclay and studied Economics, Mathematics and Statistics in Berlin, Paris and Cambridge, MA. Signing up for the event is possible here: https://www.meetup.com/data-science-regensburg/events/298753376/ Zoom access details will be offered if you cannot make it to Berlin. The organizers welcome everyone who is interested to participate in the event. The event is free of charge. Time: Friday, April 12, 2024 | 4:00PM - 7:00 PM UTC+2

Nankai University co-organizes an online seminar about AI together with the University of the Philippines Diliman on February 29. The organizers welcome everyone who is interested to participate in the event. Time: Thursday, February 29, 2024 | 7:00PM - 8.30PM UTC+8 Join Zoom Meeting: Meeting No.: 933 7622 7858 Passcode: 33356567

The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information Application Deadline: March 1, 2024 (open until filled) Good Systems, Ethical AI at UT Austin, is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to conduct research on the theme of “Work at the Human-AI Frontier” as it relates to Good Systems core research projects, which investigate the ethical implications of AI technologies in society in the areas of surveillance and privacy, racial equity, smart cities, mis- and dis-information, human-robot interaction, and smart hand tools and the future of work. This is a 12-month position, with the possibility for renewal subject to securing external funding. Review of applications will begin on March 1, and will continue until the position is filled.