We Demand Human Centered AI

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Artificial Intelligence, a staple of speculative fiction, is here, and we're all playing catch up. Most of us have a gestalt conception, a feeling of what we don't want from AI. But beyond that, we demand stories that better define the right place for AI in our society, be it governance, economy, ecology, or the arts. We demand human centered A.I.

Hilary Mason is the co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door, a game technology studio creating a platform for fans of books, movies, and TV shows to play together in their favorite fictional worlds. Prior to Hidden Door, Hilary was General Manager of the Machine Learning business unit at Cloudera. She previously founded Fast Forward Labs, an applied machine learning research and consulting startup which Cloudera acquired in 2017. Additionally, she was Data Scientist in Residence at Accel Partners, co-founded HackNY, and was Chief Scientist at bitly. Hilary has received numerous awards, is a regular keynote speaker, and has advised startups, corporations, and governments.

Matthew Kressel is a multiple Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominated author and coder. His many works of short fiction have appeared in Analog, Asimov's, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Tor.com/Reactor, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many other publications and anthologies, including multiple Year's Bests. Eighteen of his stories are included in his debut collection, Histories Within Us, now out from Senses Five Press. His far-future novel Space Trucker Jess is coming in 2025 from Fairwood Press. And his Mars-based novella The Rainseekers is forthcoming from Tordotcom in early 2026. Alongside Ellen Datlow, he runs the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in Manhattan. And he is the creator of the Moksha submissions system, used by many of the largest fiction publishers today.

Holden Lee is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins focusing on mathematical foundations of AI, as well as a speculative fiction writer working on a novel about a half-mermaid's search for belonging. He co-organized the 2024 Workshop on Creativity & Generative AI in Vancouver to foster dialogue between machine learning researchers and creative professionals.