AI Eats the World: The Future of Privacy, Security and Integrity in the Age of AI

In the first iteration of our mid-year event, visionary panelists Trevor Paglen, Will Ackerly, and John Doyle hashed out the future of AI technology, privacy, and security.

February 19, 2025 | 4-7 PM EST

1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC

"When geniuses are scared, it means innovation is around the corner."

Our winter privacy salon brought together DMV powerhouses in art, technology, and intelligence — delivering an electric panel with Trevor Paglen, Will Ackerly, and John Doyle that challenged everything we thought we knew about our AI future, privacy, and how art can help us find the answers. 

Gallery

About Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen is an acclaimed American artist, geographer, and author whose groundbreaking work explores themes of surveillance, artificial intelligence, and the hidden infrastructures that shape our modern world. With a Ph.D. in geography from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, Paglen’s art spans photography, sculpture, and installation, often uncovering the unseen, ranging from covert military operations to data systems. His pieces are part of collections at institutions such as the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, the Barbican Centre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Paglen has received prestigious awards, including being named a MacArthur Fellow and a winner of the the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

Paglen’s unique approach challenges audiences to confront the unseen forces shaping their lives and inspires meaningful dialogue about privacy, security, and the future of humanity in a digital age.

See samples below and learn more at Paglen.Studio

This series uses advanced photography techniques to capture distant and classified military sites that cannot be seen with the unaided eye. The images challenge the boundaries of visibility and raise questions about secrecy and surveillance in modern governance. Paglen-Limit_Telephotography-02-768x576

Orbital Reflector is a conceptual satellite meant to be launched into orbit, where after a few days would deploy the reflective structure,  reflecting sunlight to the earth below. From the earth, the sculpture would have appeared like a slow moving, artificial star. Orbital Reflector explored themes of permanence, space exploration, and the intersection of technology and art.

Paglen-Orbital_reflector-01-1024x575
Created using artificial intelligence, these works reveal how machine learning algorithms interpret and distort the world. By visualizing "hallucinations" generated by AI, Paglen critiques the biases and subjectivities embedded in technological systems. Screenshot 2024-12-19 at 2.18.48 PM
Paglen-Limit_Telephotography-02-768x576 Paglen-Orbital_reflector-01-1024x575 Screenshot 2024-12-19 at 2.18.48 PM