Speakers
Dr Zeynep Engin
The Confidence Game: Designing Trustworthy Human-AI Collaborations
This talk examines how AI systems in public governance challenge traditional frameworks of accountability and oversight. Standard categorical approaches (tools vs. agents, decision support vs. automation) fail to capture the fluid, hybrid nature of real AI implementations. Using examples from different application domains, I'll demonstrate how agency shifts subtly between humans and algorithms, creating governance gaps where oversight mechanisms lag behind technological reality. Public sector AI faces unique challenges: heightened requirements for democratic accountability, outdated statutory frameworks, and the need to maintain citizen trust. The presentation explores the dynamic "confidence game" between institutional authority and algorithmic capability, offering insights on designing trustworthy human-AI collaborations that preserve democratic oversight in public governance.
Dr Zeynep Engin is the Chair and Director of Data for Policy CIC and the Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, an open-access journal published by Cambridge University Press. Her expertise lies in advancing public decision-making and citizen welfare through proactive and responsible use of data, AI, and technology solutions. Dr Engin has led numerous interdisciplinary and cross-sector initiatives that have earned recognition and support from esteemed organisations, including UK Research & Innovation, UCL, The Alan Turing Institute, the European Commission, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She holds a PhD in Bioengineering and Computational Neuroscience from Imperial College London and has served as a Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) at the University of Cambridge. She has also contributed as a visiting researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech).