September 16: Ecological Intelligence for AI learning session (Co-creation with the More-than-Human sandbox)
Join us for our 16th learning session on Wednesday, September 16, at 5 pm CET | 4 pm BST | 11 am EDT | 8 am PDT | 8:30 pm IST, exploring how we can reimagine AI through the lens of Ecological Intelligence. We'll do this with Anab Jain, co-founder of the speculative design studio Superflux.
What if AI stopped trying to know everything, and started knowing where to listen?
Register (free) via EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ecological-intelligence-for-ai-learning-session-tickets-1997396306120?aff=oddtdtcreator
In this session, we'll walk through how Superflux's Ecological Intelligence Agency, commissioned by Policy Lab UK and Defra Futures*, reimagined AI as plural and localized rather than centralized and authoritative, unpacking how a system can be designed to flag its own gaps instead of papering over them, trained not only on scientific data but on oral histories and traditional ecological knowledge. Developed to explore future decision-making around freshwater systems post-2043, the project positioned the AI as an advocate for London's River Roding, translating its needs into policy conversations.
* Defra Futures is an internal futures and foresight think tank of the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
From there we'll look at how the idea moved from speculative policy tool to physical object in Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream: handcrafted, copper-leafed sensor objects deployed along riverbanks, listening to birdsong and tracking sky color and tidal shifts, so that the river's own changes become the AI prompt rather than a person typing one in. Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream invited visitors to deepen their sensory attention to the river Thames, in the UK, exploring how artificial intelligence can help deepen our perception and understanding of the living world’s intricate intelligence.
We'll close by turning the lens and asking what this means for practitioners in this space: what would it take to build AI that listens before it answers, and where are the open questions Anab is still sitting with.
Our speaker, Anab Jain, is a British-Indian filmmaker, futurist, and designer who co-founded Superflux in 2009 and pioneered the concepts of "Design for the New Normal" and "More-than-Human-Centred Design". She is currently Professor of Design Investigations at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, a Royal Designer for Industry, a TED Fellow, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts London. Her work has been shown at MoMA New York, the Venice Biennale, and the V&A, and her solo exhibition The Craftocene appeared at the Weltmuseum Wien.
