Posts relating to “ethics”, in the sense of guiding principles that we should follow, even though they are not legal requirements
The latest reports from the ICO sandbox provide important clarification of how data protection law applies to, and can guide, the application of novel technologies. This post looks at machine learning… Onfido’s engagement looked at how to train and review the performance of machine learning models. In thinking about that I’d concluded that the GDPR […]
Today’s expert panel on Data Ethics took a fascinating turn: to consider what a healthy relationship between human and AI would look like. Although we tend to discuss characteristics and affordances of technology, proper use of technology depends on the human side of the partnership, too. When choosing or using any tool that uses AI, […]
I was invited to be a “catalyst” or “provocateur” for a discussion on Data Ethics, hosted by the Institute for the Ethics of AI in Education. Here goes… This has definitely been my “summer of Ethics”: I’ve read, listened, discussed and learned a lot. Mostly good, but here are four tendencies that concern me. Don’t […]
This morning’s discussion – jointly hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Data Analytics and Health – suggested that if we want uses of health data to be trusted, we need to trust citizens and patients to think more deeply about benefits and risks than media headlines might suggest. The session was inspired by a […]
To ensure a lively discussion at a recent round-table on AI Ethics participants were asked, provocatively, “was the A Level algorithm fair?”. OK, I can be provoked… It depends on what you mean by “fair”… As has been widely discussed, the main objective set for those who designed the algorithm seems to have been to […]
Alan Shark’s SOCITM ShareNational keynote looked at why regulation is not sufficient to deal with emerging technologies, and the complementary role that needs to be played by ethics. Although privacy is not the only threat posed by such technologies, it does seem to be the one that has got people interested in the debate, whether over […]
Allison Gardner’s keynote to the SOCTIM ShareNational conference last week highlighted how using AI responsibly is at least as much about how decisions are made as about the technology itself. Questions of “transparency” often focus on whether the AI is explainable, but how decisions were made – even how a particular problem was identified and […]
Perhaps surprisingly – given that its title was “Digital ethics” – last week’s SOCITM panel session spent a lot of time exploring things that aren’t “digital”. Although the discussion focussed on local government, a lot of the ideas seemed relevant to education, too. Don’t be solutionist: technology might not be the right option. When identifying […]
Thinking through an idea that occurred to me during our SOCITM ShareNational panel on ethical use of data and technology. What happens if we explicitly think about “our spaces, which people use”, rather than “people that use our spaces”? That may seem like a semantic quibble, but I think it leads in three interesting directions: […]
When I was invited to join a panel at the SOCITM ShareNational event for local government I presumed my role was to provide a different, external, perspective on “Ethical Use of Emerging Technologies and Data”. So I offered to contribute a five-minute “sparkler” introduction: a bit of illumination, some striking of ideas, maybe a smile. […]