A Distinguished Lecture with Mireille Hildebrandt

The Web Science Institute was delighted to host Mireille Hildebrandt at the University of Southampton on Monday 9 October to deliver the 10th in the series of Web Science Institute Distinguished Lectures, entitled "Interpretation and Prediction: Magical Thinking in ML".

Mireille gave an exciting and thought provoking talk that was very wide in subject matter. Her current interest and research area is on how the law extends to the technological world, particularly the web, and how the world of law will react to the implementation of AI in many areas across society.

She is a lawyer and a philosopher as well as a tenured Research Professor of ‘Interfacing Law and Technology’, appointed by the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Faculty of Law and Criminology. She is also a part-time Professor of ‘Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law’ in the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Radboud University in the Netherlands, teaching ‘Law in Cyberspace’ to masters students of computer science. She has been collaborating with computer scientists since 2004 and her research is focused on the implications of artificial intelligence and algorithmic management on democracy, law and the Rule of Law. Her most recent monograph is ‘Smart Technologies and the End(s) of Law’ (Edward Elgar 2015), her most recent edited volume (with Bibi van den Berg) is ‘Information, Freedom and Property’ (Routledge 2016).