On 18th September 2025 the symposium ‘The Politics of AI: Governance, Resistance, Alternatives’ will take place at Goldsmiths, University of London. You can still register for the symposium here. The symposium is part of the BRAID project Sustainable AI Futures, which is mobilising interdisciplinary perspectives on AI and the environment, including the social life of AI environmental governance tools.
Getting there:
Goldsmiths is near New Cross and New Cross Gate stations. More details here. The day will open in RHB300A (note the ‘A’!). Turn right when coming into the front entrance of the building and go up the stairs. Note that all rooms can be found via the room finder: https://www.gold.ac.uk/campus-map/rhb-room-finder/ .
About the symposium
The rapid expansion of AI and computational infrastructure raises critical questions on whether we are governing AI responsibly, and if that is even possible at all. Contemporary governance regimes reduce social and environmental impacts to mere issues of quantification of harms and management of resources. Even if we track down an elusive number for its carbon emissions or water usage, how can we reconcile that with AI’s complex, messy and highly uncertain social impacts? What are AI’s sociopolitical effects, and how do we begin to notice, imagine, manage, or measure these effects?
This symposium bring together researchers who question AI’s implications for sustainability, public interest technology, and economic justice across multiple disciplines. The talks will critically engage with concepts like responsible AI, sustainable AI, and AI governance, and present alternative visions to the current AI entanglements with green capitalism and the twin transition, austerity, war, and accelerationism?
Programme: ‘The Politics of AI: Governance, Resistance, Alternatives’
You can find the latest version of the programme at You will find a live programme at https://tinyurl.com/the-politics-of-ai
Lunch suggestions
There will be coffee and tea provided throughout the day. For lunch, we suggest:
- For a coffee and snack, there’s Cafe Thirty-Five in the RHB building.
- Wakey Wakey, 319 New Cross Rd, London SE14 6AS – “Reliable”. https://wakeywakeycafe.uk/menu/
- New Cross House (pub), 316 New Cross Road, London SE14 6AF – “Food is ok, a bit pricey. But good if you want to socialise and converse and you can actually hear each other” https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/new-cross-house
- Bar Beach Tropical https://www.instagram.com/barbeachtropical
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