An Ethics Ecosystem for AI and Big Data: Why? What? How?

In this Expeditions in Experiential AI seminar, John diagnosed errors that persist in the development and deployment of AI and big data analytics, using these insights to motivate the need for an ethics ecosystem—a coordinated set of components that distributes the task of managing ethical issues in AI and big data. Throughout the seminar, a range of philosophical and ethical issues raised by AI were explored.

Key Outcomes and Questions Addressed

1. Understanding the Necessity of an Ethics Ecosystem:
   • Why traditional approaches to managing ethical issues in AI and big data are insufficient.
   • How an ethics ecosystem provides a more comprehensive and distributed approach to ethical oversight.
2. Diagnosing Common Ethical Failures in AI and Big Data:
   • What specific errors continue to occur in AI and big data deployment.
   • Case studies or examples of where these errors have led to significant ethical breaches.
3. Components of an Effective Ethics Ecosystem:
   • What are the essential components of an ethics ecosystem for AI and big data?
   • How can these components be coordinated to effectively manage ethical issues?

Flip through John's slides here:

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Bio

John Basl is an associate professor of philosophy whose work is primarily in applied or practical ethics, including the ethics of AI and emerging technologies. Much of John’s work focuses on building effective ethics oversight and integrating theoretical resources from philosophical ethics into the design and development of Machine Learning applications. He teaches courses in moral philosophy, ethics of technology, and ethics in scientific research.

John is the co-author of Building Data and AI Ethics Committees, published with Accenture and Getting from Commitment to Content in AI and Data Ethics: Justice and Explainability published with the Atlantic Council. Other recent work includes contributions to the Oxford Handbook of AI Ethics on AI as a moral rights-holder and the forthcoming volume Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: Beyond the Trolley Problem.

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