We are accepting submissions for the Global AI Cultures workshop to be held on May 11, 2024 at ICLR (International Conference on Learning Representations) in Vienna, Austria. This is a cross-disciplinary, hybrid workshop with experts in AI/ML and social sciences discussing the possibility of globally inclusive AI systems. More details at our workshop website: https://globalaicultures.github.io/.

Call for Submissions

We are looking for submissions that explore the relationship between AI and Global Cultures including but not limited to how AI development can be more globally inclusive, the cultural values and assumptions we center in our development processes and the cultural impact of emerging AI technologies such as generative AI. Submissions can be theoretical, methodological, technical, exploratory, or empirical.

This workshop is meant to be inter-disciplinary so we welcome submissions of social and technical papers from scholars of diverse theoretical backgrounds including but not limited to Machine Learning, Computer Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Human-Computer Interaction, and Media Studies. That said, please make sure your submissions are understandable to a broad, multidisciplinary audience. Accepted submissions will be non-archival and will not be part of published proceedings or considered a refereed publication.

We invite two forms of submissions:

  1. Provocations Track: 1 page detailing a provocation, concept, method, or empirical result that you think is important for the field to consider. These will be presented as short lightning talks in our Shared Concepts session where we will collectively use these provocations to develop our research agenda for the topic of global AI cultures. Thus, through these provocations, you can curate and shape the discussion of this workshop, as well as create opportunities for mutual learning.
  2. Paper Track: 4-6 page papers that are a theoretical, methodological, technical, exploratory, or empirical exploration of the themes of this workshop. These will be presented as short lightning talks during the paper panels in the workshop. You will have a chance to get feedback on these papers through post-panel discussion and Q&A.

Any format is fine. Submissions need not use the ICLR style file. The page limits do not include references and appendixes; however, while there is no length limit for references and appendixes, reviewers are not required to read appendixes.

You can submit for both tracks using OpenReview by February 27, 2024 AoE.

Timeline:

Deadline for submissions: Feb 27, 2024 AoE

Acceptance notification: Mar 3, 2024

Workshop date: May 11, 2024

Workshop Themes:

Themes for submissions can include but are not limited to:

  1. Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations for Cultural Inclusion in AI: What does global inclusion mean in the context of AI and what are the possibilities and challenges of building culturally inclusive AI models?
  2. Scalable Cultural Representation Evaluations: How do we build evaluation and development pipelines that can test cross-cultural performance via cultural metrics such as representation, quality, impact, and inclusion at scale?
  3. Culturally-Rich Training Datasets: What are the features of a culturally representative training datasets and what processes and conditions are needed in order to create or curate such training data?
  4. Methods to study cultural values of generativeAI: How can we recognize and account for the different cultural values that are embedded in our AI pipelines? How do we bring our cultures of development in sync with our cultures of deployment?
  5. User Interactions with AI in Support of Cultural Inclusion: Are there creative strategies that can reparatively promote the inclusion of subjugated cultural values through UI, deployment, or public education/advocacy?
  6. Cultural impacts of Generative AI: How can we understand immediate and longer-term impacts of these technologies on the culture industries? How does AI support or challenge support existing dynamics in the culture industries? Are there existing norms or principles in non-AI systems of content creation and distribution?

We take an expansive definition of culture including but not limited to:

  1. Socio-cultural and geographical context
  2. Pedagogical/disciplinary cultures
  3. Institutional cultures
  4. Creative culture
  5. Religion
  6. Broader tech ecosystem

Reviewing:

Papers will be reviewed by workshop organizers and selected for:

  • Disciplinary depth
  • Novelty of perspectives
  • Ability to foster cross-disciplinary dialog

Presentation Format:

Accepted submissions will be non-archival but will be shared on the workshop website (unless requested otherwise by the authors).

Registration:

All registered participants of ICLR can attend the workshop. If you have concerns about registration cost but would like to attend the workshop, please let us know at: globalaicultures@gmail.com.