You can watch the episode here.

Featuring Rumman Chowdhury, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Sarah Quinn and Mona Sloane in conversation, this event examined how AI and automation may change the financial industry, the economy and society. What is the connection between AI and other forms of automation in the financial industry? How do social relations constitute AI as an economic technology? And how In what ways do finance and AI intersect with other regimes? The panelists will come together to provide their expertise on markets, culture, economy, finance, automation and society to consider these questions.

Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego. He received his BSc in physics from UNAM (Mexico) and his PhD in science and technology studies from the University of Edinburgh. His research explores the connections between markets, cultures and technologies. Combining theoretical insights from economic sociology and science and technology studies, he has conducted historical research on the automation of stock exchanges, the development of national financial infrastructures, and the emergence of algorithmic and high frequency trading. In 2019, Pardo-Guerra published his latest book entitled Automating Finance – Infrastructures, Engineers, and the Making of Electronic Markets (Cambridge), which examines the moral, political and organizational struggles that were central to the automation of modern stock markets. He is additionally interested in studying the consequences of standardized quality evaluation exercises on career structures and research practices as well as the role of knowledge and information infrastructures in contemporary societies, including discussions about the challenges and possibilities of ‘big data’.

Sarah Quinn is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, and is currently a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. She uses historical research and case studies to investigate the intersection of political institutions, market practices, and systems of moralization. She is the author of American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped the Nation (Princeton, 2019), which explains how political institutions became involved in the nation’s lending practices. Her research has been funded by the Institute of New Economic Thinking, and published in the American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Theory, and other venues. Quinn is a current faculty affiliate of Urban@UW, and a past fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows. She has a BA in Sociology from Smith College, and a MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rumman Chowdhury is currently the Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence, where she works with C-suite clients to create cutting-edge technical solutions for ethical, explainable and transparent AI. Rumman serves as co-chair of the RSA’s Citizen AI Jury and actively participates in IEEE standards committees, the Partnership on AI, as an advisor to the UK House of Lords Parliamentary group on AI, and other global AI and ethics organizations. She has presented at multiple international governing bodies, including the United Nations, the OECD and the UK Parliament. Rumman has been featured in international media, including the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, MIT Technology Review, BBC, Axios, Cheddar TV, CRN, The Verge, Fast Company, Quartz, Corrierre Della Serra, Optio, Australian Broadcasting Channel and Nikkei Business Times. She is a member of BrainTrust, a community of experts for Protocol, a tech magazine by Politico.

The event was moderated by Mona Sloane and supported by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU Tandon’s Department of Culture, Technology and Society and the 370 Jay Project.