2026 Walter Annenberg Lecture: Lynn Hershman Leeson

Why It Matters

The talk reframes AI as a sociopolitical actor, highlighting real-world harms from predictive systems and surveillance and calling for urgent ethical and policy responses to redirect technology toward environmental and social survival. Its blend of artistic narrative and concrete examples underscores the business, legal, and civic stakes for companies, governments, and communities deploying AI.

Summary

In the 2026 Walter Annenberg Lecture, artist Lynn Hershman Leeson stages a first-person AI narrative tracing artificial intelligence from Enigma and wartime code-breaking through Deep Blue and predictive policing to contemporary deepfakes and surveillance technologies. The AI narrator recounts its military origins, details how algorithms like predictive policing and facial-recognition systems target vulnerable communities, and criticizes the commodification of biometric data. It recounts historical episodes—such as Facebook bots and law-enforcement contracts with cloud providers—to illustrate how automated logic enacts violence and erodes human rights. The lecture shifts to a prescriptive note, urging humans to teach machines intuition and dreaming, repurpose technology for planetary survival, and break the cycle of algorithmic harm.

Original Description

Over the last five decades, artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has made innovative work investigating the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression.

For this Walter Annenberg Lecture, Hershman Leeson presents a talk about her practice from the 1960s to the present. A conversation between the artist and Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director, follows the presentation.