SHAPE researchers participate in workshop with Hamburg Institute of Advanced Study at AIAS
On June 13th, SHAPE researchers from the “Another AI” project organised a workshop at AIAS with Hamburg Institute of Advanced Study, discussing generative AI and its role in context of the global south.
SHAPE researchers Rachel Charlotte Smith, Christian Ulrik Andersen, Pablo Velasco and Nicolas Maleve participated in a workshop organized as Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, following the Januar event Computational Practices in ‘The Rest of The World’, and prior meetings in Hamburg.
Focus on generative AI in the Global South
The goal of the workshop was to discuss community approaches to generative AI, how community based generative AI function in practice, its different and potential roles in the context of the global south, and in particular Africa. The workshop consisted of presentations of the SHAPE “Knowledge Servers” project where Nicolas Maleve, Pablo Velasco and Christian U. Andersen presented their work on Stable Diffusion, the visual culture around Stable Diffusion and the construction of models, and how they function based on communities’ sharing of resources.
In the discussion was also Gertraud Koch, Professor of Anthropology at Hamburg University; Jean Louis Fendji, Associate Professor University of Ngaoundéré Cameroon and fellow at Hamburg Institute of Advanced Study/Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study; Pierre-Alexandre Murena, and Professor of artificial intellignve at Hamburg Technical University (TUHH)
Dr. Jean Louis Fendji is focusing on Innovative Technologies at AfroLeadership, and has – like Rachel Charlotte Smith, who has conducted extensive fieldwork in Namibia – deep insights into the politics of AI in Africa, and how this intersects with key questions of community engagement, and more fundamental questions around data and digital divides, affecting in particular marginalized communities and rural areas.
Future collaboration within the network of institutes for advanced studies
Following the discussion, the researchers met with management from AIAS and HIAS to discuss future collaboration in the context of networks for institutes of advanced study. As part of Rachel Charlotte Smith’s fellowship at Hamburg Institute of Advanced Study, another Net-IAS debate around Computational Practices ‘and/in the Global South’ will take place at HIAS on 27-28th Nov. 2025.