On 14th October Annette Zimmermann from UW–Madison will give a talk about:
- Why having AI at our fingertips is not the same as having it in our hands—and how to move past corporate “participation-washing.”
- What practical tools from my “AI Democratization Playbook” enable non-expert citizens and creative communities to shape technological progress.
- How we can collectively imagine a tech-enabled future that serves human flourishing and the common good rather than elite wealth concentration.
- Why museums, universities, and other parts of civil society can work effectively together to chart a better future trajectory for AI beyond speculative hype vs doomsday discourse.
Followed by a Q&A moderated by Anders Härm.
Annette Zimmermann’s research interests cover a range of topics within the philosophy of AI and machine learning, political philosophy, moral philosophy, social and moral epistemology, philosophy of law and philosophy of science. At UW–Madison, Professor Zimmermann serves as a RISE-AI Thought Leader, is a member of the University’s interdisciplinary cluster in the ethics of computing, data, and information, and an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Statistics. Zimmermann also serves on the Steering Committee of the UW Center for Humanistic Inquiry into Uncertainty and AI. Before joining UW–Madison’s Department of Philosophy, Professor Zimmermann was a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. In addition, Professor Zimmermann was a permanent Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy at the University of York in the United Kingdom, and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, with a joint appointment at the Center for Human Values and the Center for Information Technology Policy. Zimmermann holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford.
Professor Zimmermann is the author of the book Democratizing AI (2026). Zimmermann’s research has been published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy and in Philosophy and Public Affairs, and their public writing has appeared in the New Statesman and in the Boston Review. Professor Zimmermann frequently advises policy-makers and technologists working on contemporary ethical and political issues surrounding AI and other forms of technology, including UNESCO, the OECD, the Australian Human Rights Commissioner, the German Aerospace Center, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the UK Parliament, and the UK government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Zimmermann has been named on the ‘100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics’ List and has received the American Philosophical Association’s Public Philosophy Award.