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On Nov. 20, 2023, digital democracy advocate Ramesh Srinivasan and digital humanities scholar Todd Presner joined Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in a conversation about the rise of generative AI, focusing on the ethical implications of its aggregation of data at an unprecedented scale. The panel addressed issues ranging from algorithmic bias to the question of whether computers can produce original artistic expression, as well as the conditions under which AI technologies can augment human connection, knowledge, and creativity.

View the full program recording

The Paul G. Haaga Jr. Program on American Entrepreneurship was created in honor of former Huntington Trustee Paul G. Haaga Jr. by his wife, Heather Sturt Haaga. The program focuses on an issue close to Paul’s heart, specifically the history and culture of American business, leadership, and innovation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Ramesh Srinivasan speaks about the intersection of technology, innovation, politics, business, and society. He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2005 in the Information Studies and Design Media Arts departments. Srinivasan is the founder of the University of California Digital Cultures Lab, which examines the means by which new media technologies impact businesses, economics, cultures, politics, labor, and the environment through collaborations with global partners. He is on the board of directors for Digital Democracy, which works with land protectors in the Amazon and all around the world. He also advises One Project, New Public, numerous members of the U.S. Congress, and global leaders.

Todd Presner chairs UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, and he holds the Michael and Irene Ross Chair in the UCLA Division of the Humanities. Presner serves as special adviser in the Office of Research and Creative Activities (2018–present). Previously, he was the chair of UCLA’s Digital Humanities Program (2011–21) and also associate dean of Digital Innovation (2018–21). His forthcoming book, Ethics of the Algorithm (Princeton University Press, 2024), addresses the possibility of using computational methods in ethical and humanizing ways.

MORE RESOURCES

• Office of the President at The Huntington: https://huntington.org/office-president
• UCLA School of Education and Information Studies – Ramesh Srinivasan: https://seis.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/ramesh-srinivasan
• UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies – Todd Presner: https://elts.ucla.edu/person/todd-presner/

On Nov. 20, 2023, digital democracy advocate Ramesh Srinivasan and digital humanities scholar Todd Presner joined Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in a conversation about the rise of generative AI, focusing on the ethical implications of its aggregation of data at an unprecedented scale. The panel addressed issues ranging from algorithmic bias to the question of whether computers can produce original artistic expression, as well as the conditions under which AI technologies can augment human connection, knowledge, and creativity.

View the program highlights

The Paul G. Haaga Jr. Program on American Entrepreneurship was created in honor of former Huntington Trustee Paul G. Haaga Jr. by his wife, Heather Sturt Haaga. The program focuses on an issue close to Paul’s heart, specifically the history and culture of American business, leadership, and innovation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Ramesh Srinivasan speaks about the intersection of technology, innovation, politics, business, and society. He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2005 in the Information Studies and Design Media Arts departments. Srinivasan is the founder of the University of California Digital Cultures Lab, which examines the means by which new media technologies impact businesses, economics, cultures, politics, labor, and the environment through collaborations with global partners. He is on the board of directors for Digital Democracy, which works with land protectors in the Amazon and all around the world. He also advises One Project, New Public, numerous members of the U.S. Congress, and global leaders.

Todd Presner chairs UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, and he holds the Michael and Irene Ross Chair in the UCLA Division of the Humanities. Presner serves as special adviser in the Office of Research and Creative Activities (2018–present). Previously, he was the chair of UCLA’s Digital Humanities Program (2011–21) and also associate dean of Digital Innovation (2018–21). His forthcoming book, Ethics of the Algorithm (Princeton University Press, 2024), addresses the possibility of using computational methods in ethical and humanizing ways.

MORE RESOURCES

• Office of the President at The Huntington: https://huntington.org/office-president
• UCLA School of Education and Information Studies – Ramesh Srinivasan: https://seis.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/ramesh-srinivasan
• UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies – Todd Presner: https://elts.ucla.edu/person/todd-presner/

Brooke Palmieri, the inaugural writer-in-residence at The Huntington, examines traces of queer history as a way of building a wider understanding about the relationship between what survives from the past and how that information is or is not incorporated into our sense of history.

The Huntington is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our dear friend Charlie Munger, who died today at age 99. Our hearts are with the Munger family at this time.

The Huntington conference “Correspondence and Embodiment: The Bluestocking Corpus Online,” organized in collaboration with the Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online project, will investigate new questions deriving from the recent digitization of The Huntington’s Elizabeth Montagu Papers.

Michele Currie Navakas—professor of English at Miami University and a 2017–18 National Endowment of the Humanities fellow—tells the story of coral as an essential element of the marine ecosystem, a highly sought-after ornament used for display and adornment, a global commodity, and a powerful political metaphor.

“Portrait of José Antonio Caballero, Second Marqués de Caballero, Secretary of Grace and Justice” (1807) will go on view Nov. 29, 2023, in the Huntington Art Gallery. 

The extensive Los Angeles Area Court Records offer researchers invaluable evidence of everyday contestations over sexuality and gender relations in early California, the blurring of lines between sexual consent and coercion, and abuses of women whose economic survival was at stake.