Session Overview
AI is currently being applied in almost every sector of our lives such as healthcare, education, entertainment, transport and finance to name a few. However as use has risen, so has awareness of potential for bias, discrimination and other types of harms. AI systems also mediate social perceptions and interactions and have environmental and climate consequences. Given the pervasive impacts of AI systems, it is no surprise that the field of AI ethics has gained force in recent years.
The ethical aspects of AI are studied and debated in diverse fields including philosophy, social science, computer science, and engineering with each field contributing distinct viewpoints and practices. Integrating humanistic and technical perspectives has proved challenging. But AI systems are sociotechnical, meaning there are complex interdependencies between their ‘social’ and ‘technical’ aspects throughout their lifecycle. Interdisciplinary approaches are the only way forward.
In this session, a data scientist and an anthropologist specialising in AI ethics reflect on the challenges of putting AI ethics into action, the tools currently available for organisations to align their principles and practices, and examples of cutting-edge approaches to ethical and responsible AI being used in industry.
We draw on our different experiences and backgrounds to shed light on the complex and crucial challenge of developing ethical AI for more inclusive and equitable futures.
In the session we will discuss with the audience the different challenges of bringing AI ethics into practice and open a debate about why we need AI ethics integrated in the development cycle of AI now more than ever after the recently released large language models like ChatGPT.