AI in Everyday Life: Awareness, Ethics & Practical Use

Join us for a full-day interactive workshop designed to explore how artificial intelligence impacts your daily life—and how to engage with it critically, ethically, and effectively. Whether you’re curious, sceptical, or already using AI tools, this workshop is for you!

Who Will Be You Lecturer

Maria Sahakyan is a postdoctoral researcher at NYU Abu Dhabi, with a PhD in Computer Science and a background that bridges engineering, finance, and sustainability. Her work spans explainable AI, computational social science, and large-scale data analysis — with a focus on making algorithmic systems more transparent, fair, and grounded in real-world impact.

Maria’s current research projects include:

• Analysing 80,000 peer reviews from 30,000 scientific articles to examine how reviewer tone and bias are shaped by authors‘ gender, race, and institutional rank
• Studying scientist migration patterns and the effects of relocation on productivity, collaboration, and academic success
• Investigating career discrimination using ~300 million LinkedIn CVs, with a focus on how gender and race influence professional trajectories
• Developing explainable AI tools that improve how we interpret and audit machine learning models — the core of her dissertation

Beyond her academic work, Maria has contributed to projects in energy systems modelling, statistical consulting, and algorithmic transparency, bringing a unique interdisciplinary and global lens to her research.

What You’ll Learn

• >>How AI really works (no jargon needed!)
• >>How to spot and avoid AI bias and misinformation
• >>How generative tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E create content
• >>Practical AI tools you can use today
• >>How to write better prompts for smarter AI responses
• >>What AI means for the future—and how to stay ahead

Full-Day Program Overview

9:00 – 9:30 | Registration 

9:30 – 10:00 | Introduction & Icebreaker

• >>Quiz: Test your AI awareness
• >>Group chat: Where do you meet AI in daily life?
• >>Debunking myths: AI as a tool, not a threat

10:00 – 10:45 | Foundations of AI

• >>How AI, Machine Learning & Deep Learning work
• >>AI bias explained + transparency tools
• >>Interactive: Visualising AI decisions using SHAP/LIME

10:45 – 11:30 | Generative AI: Text, Images & More

• >>Behind the scenes of ChatGPT, DALL·E, and others
• >>Hands-on demo: See AI generate content live
• >>Ethical concerns & how to spot misinformation

11:30 – 11:45 | Coffee Break

11:45 – 12:30 | AI Risks & How to Mitigate Them

• >>Topics: Privacy, bias, job automation, deepfakes
• >>Activity: Team challenge to solve real-world AI issues

12:30 – 13:00 | Public Perception of AI

• >>Czech public opinion: Surprising results from recent surveys
• >>Group talk: Fears vs. Facts

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00 – 14:50 | AI Tools in Everyday Life

• >>Tools for productivity, education, healthcare, and finance
• >>Tips for ethical, mindful use of AI tools

14:50 – 15:35 | Prompt Engineering: Talk to AI Like a Pro

• >>How prompts shape AI responses
• >>Practice: Test and refine your own AI prompts

15:35 – 16:05 | The Future of AI

• >>Where AI is heading: trends, ethics, and regulation
• >>Group reflections and Q&A

16:05 – 16:30 | Wrap-Up & Feedback

• >>Post-workshop survey
• >>Share your thoughts and takeaways
• >>Resource pack for continued learning

What’s Included

• >>Presentation slides & live demos
• >>Prompt engineering scripts
• >>Case studies on AI ethics
• >>List of recommended AI tools & learning platforms

Why Attend?

• >>No tech background needed
• >>Interactive & hands-on sessions
• >>Real-world examples & discussions
• >>Learn from experts & peers

Are you interested? Please register here!