Dr. Jaime Banks – Tuesday, October 29th, 2024

Talk Description

Although chatbots have existed since at least the 1960s (i.e., Weizenbaum’s ELIZA), the recent mainstreaming of text- and image-generative AI has fostered a surge in applications that facilitate human interaction with social AI. Among these are AI companions like Replika and Paradot, as well as interactions with ChatGPT. Scholars tend to examine these machines through the lenses of human-computer interaction or parasocial interaction, but I argue that these perspectives are not entirely suitable. Rather, we should adopt the lens of human-machine communication that considers how humans and machines co-create meaning, each according to its respective faculties. Drawing on a collection of recent studies on mind perception, moral judgments, and technical breakdown, I offer two claims and a Big Question about the processes and effects of humans’ engagement with social AI.

Bio 

Jaime Banks (Ph.D., Colorado State University) is the Katchmar-Wilhelm Endowed Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and PI of the iSchool’s LinkLab. Her research is driven by questions of human-technology relations, particularly those involving artificial intelligence, social robots, and video game avatars. She focuses on relational construals of the mind and morality, and her current work explores the experiences and effects of AI companionship.

Dr. Joe Walther – Thursday, October 10th, 2024 and Friday, October 11th, 2024

Bio 

Joseph B. Walther holds the Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a Distinguished Professor of Communication. He is also a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. A Fulbright Scholar, an ICA Fellow, and an NCA Distinguished Scholar, his research focuses on the impact of interpersonal and intergroup dynamics on the attitudes and behaviors people develop through mediated interactions, including personal relationships, groups, inter-ethnic conflict, and online hate. He received ICA’s Chaffee Award for Career Productivity and has twice been awarded the NCA’s Woolbert Award for articles that changed thinking in the communication discipline.

Dr. Marleah Dean Kruzel – Thursday, September 26th, 2024

Talk Description 

Approximately 10% of all cases of cancer in the United States are hereditary. Genetic testing for cancer predisposition is utilized to identify individuals at significantly increased risk of developing hereditary cancer and to guide prevention and treatment strategies to reduce cancer incidence and mortality.

Previvors are individuals who have an increased lifetime risk of hereditary cancer due to a pathogenic genetic variant but who have not been diagnosed with cancer. An inherent aspect of living with a pathogenic variant increasing cancer risk is uncertainty. Previvors unable to manage this uncertainty are at risk for negative outcomes such as heightened psychological distress over time and impeded health decision-making.

Drawing on my decade of research in cancer communication and personal experiences with inherited cancer, I will present two projects in this talk that focus on how previvors manage cancer-related uncertainty, make health and fertility decisions, and communicate inherited cancer risk information to their family members and clinicians. Implications will highlight how psychosocial interventions and communication tools can facilitate informed decision-making, ultimately enhancing emotional well-being and long-term outcomes.

Bio 

Marleah Dean Kruzel (PhD, Texas A&M University) is an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida and a Collaborator Member in the Health Outcomes & Behavior Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research interests are cancer communication and the communication of genetic risk information. She is an expert on the health experiences and decisions of previvors. Her research has been published in numerous journals, including Genetics in Medicine, Health Communication, Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Journal of Genetic Counseling. Dr. Dean Kruzel’s research has been and is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. As a BRCA2-positive previvor herself, she is dedicated to patient engagement and science communication.