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As data and artificial intelligence become increasingly embedded in everyday life, social relations, and institutional practices, digital technologies are no longer merely tools for recording individual behaviour or improving the efficiency of information processing. Rather, they increasingly participate in shaping personal identities, social positions, and the conditions for individual action. In this process, the collection, classification, and circulation of data are intertwined with the accumulation of platform capital, the control of technological infrastructures, and the formation of legal frameworks, making the digital self an important point of departure for understanding contemporary technological society and its power relations.

Under the theme Shaping the Digital Self: Data, Capital, and Justice, this symposium addresses a range of issues, including generative artificial intelligence, foundation models and sovereign power, collective data bias, data justice, artificial intelligence and public health information, the open web, AI voice cloning, digital advertising business models, and ambient intelligence. Through these topics, the symposium examines how datafication and artificial intelligence are transforming the conditions of individual autonomy, social relations, and public governance, while further considering the social, economic, and legal implications of technological development.

The symposium pays particular attention to the relationship between data and capital. As personal information, social interactions, and digital representations become important resources for technological development and the creation of commercial value, who has the authority to determine how data are accessed, used, and reused? How does the concentrated control of technological infrastructures affect state governance, the circulation of information, and individual choices? And when data classification and artificial intelligence systems may perpetuate or exacerbate existing social inequalities, how should law respond to the power asymmetries and structural injustices involved?

Drawing on diverse academic perspectives from science and technology studies, digital sociology, legal studies, political economy, and data governance, this symposium seeks to further explore the following questions: How is the digital self shaped through the interactions of technology, capital, and institutions? How can individuals and groups maintain their autonomy in an increasingly datafied society while securing opportunities to make their voices heard and participate in public life? Can law move beyond the regulation of individual data-processing activities to address the structural conditions that shape digital life?

This symposium aims to establish a space for interdisciplinary dialogue in which to re-examine the power relations, social inequalities, and regulatory challenges arising from data and artificial intelligence. Through the exchange of research and perspectives across different disciplines, it seeks to explore possibilities for digital governance that reconcile individual autonomy, the public interest, and social justice.

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Contact: Ms. Dai 2652-5414