DigHumComp

Modern challenges like COVID-19, refugee crises, and algorithmic biases are intricate issues involving complex systems of diverse groups, and power dynamics. We should view digitalization and humanism as part of this complexity. Surprisingly, digital humanism isn't well-recognized in complexity science research. Our proposal aimed to make the Complexity Science Hub Vienna Institute a leader in shaping a roadmap for digital humanism within complex systems. With this roadmap, we aimed to bring together scholars, policymakers, and industryexperts to create technology that prioritizes humanity within these complex systems.
Toward this goal, we organized multiple events, bringing in together experts and stakeholders from various parts of society and institutions. More importantly, we organized the first international workshop on Complexity science meets digital humanism, a 4-day program with 14 renowned speakers. We received positive feedback from students and early-career researchers in complexity science that they became more aware of the current topics in digital humanism, and they found the topic novel and important. One outcome concerned raising academic awareness; we made a series of videos showcasing how different researchers in complexity science approach digital humanism, raising awareness in the community with the goal of creating more cross-disciplinary collaboration and exchange. Another outcome so far has been writing a white paper on the topic of “AI as complex sociotechnical systems: Problems, approaches and reflections” that has been submitted to the United Nations call on “Global AI governance”.