Programs

Opening speeches by the organizers: The University of Tokyo and the Chey Institute of Advanced Studies

Demystifying AI: Human Society and Technological Advancement

｜“Human Society and AI”｜

As AI advances at unprecedented speed, a growing asymmetry is emerging in how different sections of society engage with it. AI can be discriminatory, yet also enabling; disruptive, yet full of possibility. To demystify the polarized debate between wonder and fear, the panel critically engages with the genealogy of the ‘civilisational’ ideas and technological determinism prevalent in the AI discourse. Does AI deepen global unevenness, or can it serve as an enabler for those at the lower economic threshold? What is the role of universities in this changing, and challenging, new environment in empowering future generations? Discussions on AI need to be embedded in a more inclusive, and diverse, public discourse, enabling a wider societal engagement with this transformative technology.

Over the past few months, 20 students from universities in South Korea and UTokyo, working in four different groups, have conducted research and engaged in discussions on AI. In this session, each group will present their findings and share insights gained from this international joint project.

Knowledge Beyond Borders: Designing AI for Mental Health and Social Inclusion

｜“AI and Knowledge for Well-being”｜

As AI increasingly mediates how people access information, it is changing the relationship between humans and knowledge. Yet much of today's AI remains centralized and designed for a generic user, leaving little room for diverse cultural perspectives and paying limited attention to individual well-being. Well-being Intelligence approaches AI not only as a tool for replacing or augmenting human cognition, but also as a medium for fostering human connection, resilience, and social inclusion. Crossing borders of knowledge means attending closely to and understanding cultural, social, and psychological differences. In this session, we showcase recent human-AI interaction research on supporting people's well-being, and discuss future directions for incorporating local and indigenous knowledge, supporting mental health in ways that avoid deepening isolation or cognitive overload, and designing AI-mediated communication that helps people understand one another better.

The Flow of Memory: Digital Archives Across Time

｜“AI and Memory” ｜

Digital technologies, including AI, are helping to reshape archives from static “stocks” of information into dynamic infrastructures that connect memory, place, and lived experience across time. By linking testimonies, images, and records of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to geographic space, archives become narrative “flows” through which people engage with history and unfolding crises. Born-digital materials, including social media posts, open new possibilities for real-time archiving of crises, from the Gaza Strip to areas affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The central question to be explored: how can people and institutions—not technology alone—sustain inclusive practices that bridge collective memory with present experience?

Dialogues for Tomorrow