Posts relating to “ethics”, in the sense of guiding principles that we should follow, even though they are not legal requirements
Reading the Machine Learning literature, you could get the impression that the aim is to develop a perfect model of the real world. That may be true when you are trying to distinguish between dogs and muffins, but for a lot of applications in education, I suspect that a model that achieved perfection would be […]
I’ve been reading a fascinating paper on “System Safety and Artificial Intelligence”, applying ways of thinking about safety-critical software to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Following is very much my interpretation: I hope it’s accurate but do read the paper as there’s lots more to think about. AI is a world of probabilities, statistics and data. That […]
I’m hoping to use the EU’s draft AI Act as a way to think about how we can safely use Artificial Intelligence. The Commission’s draft sets a number of obligations on both providers and users of AI; formally these only apply when AI is used in “high-risk” contexts, but they seem like a useful “have […]
A colleague spotted an article suggesting, among other things, that Virtual Reality could provide a safe space for students to practice their soft skills. This can, of course, be done by classroom roleplay but the possibility of making mistakes that fellow students will remember could well increase stress. This certainly chimes with feedback I received […]
We can probably agree that “Ethical Artificial Intelligence” is a desirable goal. But getting there can involve daunting leaps over unfamiliar terrain. What do principles like “beneficence” and “non-maleficence” mean in practice? Indeed, what is, and is not, AI? Working with the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA), Jisc’s National Centre for […]
Something made me uneasy when a colleague recently referred to “AI bias”. I think that’s because it doesn’t mention the actual source of such bias: humans! AI may expand and expose that bias, but it can’t do that unless we give it the seed. That’s rarely deliberate: we might treat it as a result of […]
“Consent” is a word with many meanings. In data protection it’s something like “a signal that an individual agrees to data being used”. But in political theory “consent to be governed” is something very different. A panel at the PrivSec Global conference suggested that the latter – also referred to as the “social contract” – […]
A fascinating discussion at today’s QMUL/SCL/WorldBank event on AI Ethics and Regulations on how we should develop such ethics and regulations. There was general agreement that an ethical approach is essential if any new technology is to be trusted; also, probably, that researchers and developers should lead this through professionalising their practice. First steps are […]
Jisc’s 2020 Future of Assessment report identifies five desirable features that assessors should design their assessments to deliver: authentic, accessible, appropriately automated, continuous and secure. Those can sometimes seem to conflict, for example if you decide that “secure” assessment requires the student to be online through their exam, then you have an “accessibility” problem for […]
This morning’s Westminster Forum event on the Future of Artificial Intelligence provided an interesting angle on “Trust in AI”. All speakers agreed that such trust is essential if AI is to achieve acceptance, and that (self-)regulatory frameworks can help to support it. However AI doesn’t stand alone: it depends on technical and organisational foundations. And […]