Hi, my name is Manon Zamblé and I am the new intern at AICON (a joint project between AiPact & ErasmusX). Throughout the course of my internship, I will be writing blog posts about the ins and outs of the project in the hopes to make knowledge about artificial intelligence (AI) more digestible. You can expect me to share about the successes, failures and the parts where we struggle or are learning during the journey. I will be doing this for the coming two months so keep an eye out for our social media posts to be updated! I am looking forward to contributing to the interesting works of AICON.
So, who am I? I was born in the city of Leiden to Ivorian and French parents, but moved to Rotterdam a few years ago. I am currently in my last year of the Sociology bachelor’s at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. As a sociology student, I feel deeply engaged and am interested in social issues such as social inequality, racism, gender discrimination, queerness and their intersectionality. Through my studies, I learn to critically analyze sociological developments and to place them in different perspectives.
Additionally, I love anything related to art because it makes us wonder about things; it helps us to see society in a different manner. For this reason, I find different forms of art to be inspiring. That’s why next to my studies you can find me working behind the bar at a foundation in Rotterdam for experimental, avant-garde and underground art.
AICON is “An intersectional radical project, bringing together the forces of art, science, and society to cocreate AI-for-good.”. That is why I like this project, it combines the scientific with the artistic to combine their strengths. It focuses on the societal impact of artificial intelligence whereby citizens, artists and researchers are collaborating to empower communities in Rotterdam. You might be wondering, what even is artificial intelligence? It is still a rather far-off and complex concept for most people. In a nutshell: it is a computer technology that can do a multitude of things that normally require human intelligence. For instance, it can perceive and solve problems. We’ll discuss this further in future blog posts but for now — I am happy to be joining the team and to share information with you!
