AI Ethics/Algorithmic Justice Panel Discussion

The LSU Ethics Institute and 

The Center for Computation & Technology 

Present:

AI Ethics/Algorithmic Justice

Wednesday, May 26

12-2pm, Central Time

A Panel Discussion with:

Michael Kearns, Safiya Noble, Mark Coeckelbergh

Registration for the panel discussion is free. Please complete your registration here: registration form

Schedule:

12pm:  Opening Remarks and Introductions:  Dr. Deborah Goldgaber, LSU Ethics Institute

12:10pm Dr. Michael Kearns, (UPenn)

Dr. Michael Kearns author, The Ethical Algorithm.

Professor and National Center Chair, Department of Computer and Information Science at University of Pennsylvania
Founding Director, Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences 

Title: TBA

Synopsis of The Ethical Algorithm:  Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. Algorithms have made our lives more efficient and sometimes, better informed. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly violating the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets routinely leak our most sensitive personal information; statistical models for everything from mortgages to college admissions reflect racial and gender bias. Meanwhile, users manipulate algorithms to “game” search engines, spam filters, online reviewing services, and navigation apps.  Understanding and improving the science behind the algorithms that run our lives is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of this century. 

12:35pm:  Dr. Safiya U. Noble (UCLA):  

Author, Algorithms of Oppression, Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies. Co-Founder and -Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford and Commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG). 

Title:  New paradigms of justice: How we can respond to the information crisis

In her recent best-selling book Algorithms of Oppression, Dr. Safiya Noble challenges the idea that “Big Tech” offers an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Her work argues that the combination of private interests, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of internet companies, leads to a limited understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in everyday digital engagements.  Data discrimination is a real social problem, and in this talk, Noble offers a powerful set of data points, examples, and provocations. She asserts we are at the beginning of creating new paradigms of justice in the technology sector and we need a reckoning with the past and a vanguard for the future.

1pm  Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh 

Author,AI Ethics (MIT Press, 2020). Professor, Philosophy of Media and Technology (Vienna). Member, High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence for the European Commission, the Austrian Council on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, and the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) for the Foundation for Responsible Robotics.

Title: Algorithmic Bias and Responsibility: Who, When, To Whom?

This talk will address three issues regarding algorithmic bias. First I will argue that we should consider bias in the entire algorithmic and data process. This raises the question of when bias arises, which is important for ascribing responsibility. Second, I will ask who should fix the bias: given that bias in AI is related to bias in society and that a democratic way of addressing the issue is preferable, it is not clear that developers and their companies should carry all responsibility for minimizing bias. Third, what we identify as bias is culturally and historically influenced. The current discourses on bias usually fail to be sufficiently sensitive to differences in a global context. This issue is related to the question ‘to whom are we responsible?’ and connects to my arguments about relational responsibility.

1:25-2pm Open Discussion and Concluding Remarks