Keynote
The AI Paradox: A Guide for Responsible Humans
Wednesday July 8, 2026 | 9:00-10:00 CEST
Albert II Auditorium
Description
AI is reshaping societies, economies, and institutions. Yet the more AI advances, the more contradictions it reveals: we seek fairness but encode bias; we demand transparency while concentrating power; we pursue intelligence while narrowing what counts as knowledge. In this talk, based on her book The AI Paradox (Princeton University Press, 2026), Virginia Dignum unpacks the fundamental tensions that define AI today: between agreement and ambiguity, bias reduction and justice, regulation and innovation, power and accountability, solutionism and systemic change. Drawing on over two decades of research in responsible AI and direct experience in international AI governance, she argues that AI is not an unstoppable force but an artefact of human choices. The real challenge is not building smarter machines but becoming more responsible humans. The talk offers a framework for navigating AI’s paradoxes through governance, participation, and critical engagement.
Keynote speaker
Virginia Dignum
Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University
Virginia Dignum is Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Sweden, where she leads the AI Policy Lab. She is a leading voice in global AI policy, chairing the ACM Technology Policy Council, and advising the Wallenberg Foundations in Sweden. She is a member of expert groups at UNESCO, OECD, and was part of the EU’s High-Level Expert Group on AI, the UN’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI, and the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence. She also founded ALLAI, the Dutch AI Alliance. As part of her work for UNESCO’s AI Ethics Experts Without Borders, she is advising governments around the world on the development and operationalisation of their national AI strategies. Her latest book is “The AI Paradox” published by Princeton University Press in February 2026.