In Harmony with Emerging Tech

When Onur Bakiner was a young kid in Istanbul, he had dreams of growing up to be a professional soccer player. There was just one problem. Kicking? No. Running? Nah.

It was the prospect of singing. Yes, singing.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to remember the words to the national anthem so I couldn’t play for the national team,” he says.

Ironic, then, that when Political Science Associate Professor Bakiner, PhD, isn’t teaching or researching about human rights and emerging technologies, you may find him on stage making music. He plays classical guitar in two bands around the Seattle area. One, Kavak, plays Turkish/Greek music and the other, Samba de Renata, Brazilian/samba music.

There are similarities between music and teaching, says Dr. Bakiner.

“There’s a balance to both, between advanced preparation and creativity,” he says. “There is tedious work that is fundamental to both—in preparing for the music performance or teaching. And how you deliver the material both in music and to your class matters. It’s performative.”

Dr. Bakiner first began playing music at age 6 when his parents introduced him to the mandolin. He loves creating harmonies with others in music and says there are times when you can feel what the other musicians are doing.

It’s those human harmonies that are part of the core of his research into emerging technologies—think artificial intelligence—and how we work to use them safely. While much focus about emerging technologies has been on the technology itself, Dr. Bakiner argues that the real focus should be on how humans use it.

“There’s a technological component that needs to be addressed,” he says. “But many of what we consider to be AI problems start at the level of social and political organizations. We have to educate ourselves better about the opportunities and risks. It comes down to an informed citizenry.”

“We don’t have to be helpless in the face of technology. … We are always going to be in a better position if we have a community of support.”

Moving on from his early dreams of soccer stardom, Dr. Bakiner considered being a genetic engineer and he says that may have happened if not for a teacher convincing him to give social sciences a try when he was in 11th grade. While much of the focus initially was military history, what really got his interest was understanding the social and political history that led to those events.

Again, as with his current interest in emerging technology and ethics, it was more about the role humans play than in the events themselves.

After getting a degree in political science from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Dr. Bakiner came to the United States to earn his political science PhD at Yale (he later earned a Master of Science in Computer Science from Seattle University in 2021). After teaching at Yale and Simon Fraser University, he was hired as an assistant professor at Seattle University in 2014.

In 2017, his book Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy was awarded the Best Book Award by the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. His writing on transitional justice, human rights, civil war and conflict resolution and politics in the Middle East and Latin America have been regularly published and cited.

For the past decade, Dr. Bakiner’s attention has turned toward the impact of emerging technologies on human rights and ethics. It was a topic he touched on in a fall Red Talk event, one of many talks he’s given on the subject. He recognizes that there is no shortage of concern, confusion and fear about the role technology plays in a world that feels increasingly divided. When trust in government and media is already low, the ease in using technology to create and spread disinformation is a scary challenge that Dr. Bakiner says it’s up to everyone to tackle.

Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially with a subject that is already overwhelming and complex to many. Dr. Bakiner recommends people avoid the sensational headlines about technology and focus more on the facts. Also, keep in mind that for as many scary applications of technology, there is no shortage of positive uses—yes, including ChatGPT—that well-intentioned people are working on.

“We don’t have to be helpless in the face of technology,” he says. “I believe we can live harmoniously with technology. We can’t do it with an eye to dominating one another and an eye to dominating nature. We can’t do it if we allow ourselves to be passive recipients of technology. We need to reclaim our agency in the spirit of building a better world for all of us.”