The ethics of seeing in the age of AI | Tiffany Barber | TEDxUCLA

Who gets seen and who gets left out in the age of artificial intelligence? As AI systems increasingly shape what we see, measure, and value, the data behind them determines whose stories are told and whose are erased. In this talk, Dr. Tiffany E. Barber explores data consciousness and the ethics of seeing through the groundbreaking handmade data visualizations of Harlem Renaissance-era scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Drawing connections between art, history, race, and AI, she reveals how Du Bois's work challenges the limits of data and offers a powerful framework for imagining more equitable technologies. As we enter a new data renaissance, will artificial intelligence simply reproduce historic inequalities, or can we create entirely new, more just ways of seeing? Dr. Tiffany E. Barber is an internationally recognized scholar, curator, and critic whose work examines race, gender, contemporary art, and visual culture. She is Assistant Professor of African American Art at UCLA, where her research explores art as a form of data consciousness. Bridging art history, performance theory, Black feminist thought, and technology, Dr. Barber inspires audiences to rethink the relationship between data, representation, and cultural futures. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx