Our Shared Future (re)shaped by AI

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping education, politics, media, business and the future of work at extraordinary speed. As tech companies race to build massive AI data centers, citizens and governments scramble to respond to fundamental questions about ethics, power, privacy, creativity and democracy.

Will AI create prosperity and innovation or deepen inequality and social isolation? What impact will it have on the workforce? Can government regulation keep pace with technological change? And how do we preserve human judgment, trust and connection in a world increasingly mediated by machines?

Join American Public Square and Johnson County Library for a timely conversation exploring the ethical, political, economic, and human consequences of the AI revolution and what it could mean for the future of American life. Presenters Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, and she recently released her fourth book, Imagination: A Manifesto.

Ruha is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award, the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton, and in 2024 she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship.

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson is Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Technology & AI at the University of Kansas and Chief Research Informatics Officer at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He provides strategic leadership for digital research infrastructure, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, and data science, helping accelerate scientific discovery and improve research effectiveness across the institution.

Dr. Thompson co-founded the Enhanced AI Center for Human Focused Research with CIO Chris Harper to help encourage research into how artificial intelligence can be used to improve human well-being. He advocates for a principled approach to AI use and development that is centered on how it benefits people and helped author the guiding principles used by the University of Kansas.

Dr. Thompson’s research interests span artificial intelligence, biomedical informatics, knowledge representation, and the application of data science to improve human health. He works in two main areas. His work in machine learning focuses on developing innovative methods for combining data from different sources to build an improved understanding of disease progression and recovery.

His work in informatics concentrates on translating emerging technologies into practical research capabilities that enable data-driven discovery, strengthen collaboration, and drive innovation in biomedical and clinical research.