AI ethics from the ground up

Presentation from a special workshop at #WebSci20.

Presentation abstract:

Interdisciplinary research has led to significant breakthroughs in the fields of AI, robotics and autonomous systems. Yet it has also been the basis of significant controversies. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s amalgam of psychographics, data science and engineering at scale being perhaps the most infamous recent example. Despite continued promotion from research funders, it should be clear then that interdisciplinary research is not in itself an uncontested good. This presentation aims to explore the political and ethical dimensions of interdisciplinary research practices in the fields of AI, robotics and autonomous systems. Following a human capabilities approach and using mixed-methods, we locate and map a set of research capabilities valued by researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. This prompts a discussion on what it means to consider ethics of AI, not from a set of normative statements, but as practiced on the ground.

From the session abstract:

This year the AI3SD Network+ (Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientific Discovery) will be running a workshop at the WebSci20 Conference in Southampton, UK. Artificial and Augmented Intelligence systems have the potential to make a real difference in the scientific discovery domain however this brings a new wealth of ethical and societal implications to consider with regards to this research (e.g. human enhancement, algorithmic biases, risk of detriment). This workshop looks to explore the ethical and societal issues centered around using intelligent technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Intelligence, Machine Learning, and in general Semantic Web Knowledge Technologies) to further scientific discovery, with a strong consideration of data ethics and algorithmic accountability