Lecture on January 29th, 2020
Surveillance Studies Lecture 2020:
Three Arguments for “Responsible Users”. AI Ethics for Ordinary People
Pak-Hang Wong (Universität Hamburg)
as part of the Surveillance Studies Prize Award Ceremony 2020
About the lecture
Our daily life is increasingly mediated and structured by AI systems. These systems have been used in predictive policing, in credit scoring, and in everyday mundane decisions, e.g. recommendations on books, music, etc. In the past few years, however, cases like the COMPAS recidivism algorithm and Cambridge Analytica have shown the possible grave consequences from their (mis)uses. The existing discussion and critiques of AI systems are either directed at the AI companies (in the form of legislation and regulation) or AI researchers and developers (in the form of code of ethics and best practice policy). Legislation, regulation, code of ethics, and best practice policy are certainly important for ensuring better and more responsible design and use of AI, but these endeavours often neglect the consideration of the downstream of AI systems, i.e. individual users. The role of users become obvious once we recognise they at least partially determine the outputs of AI systems by being the inputs. If it is so, users should not be excluded from critical reflection. In the talk, I offer three arguments for “user responsibility”, and these arguments should call for the need to reflect more critically the role of users of AI systems.
About the speaker
Pak-Hang Wong is a philosopher of technology in the Research Group for Ethics in Information Technology at Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg, where he examines social, ethical, and political issues of Algorithms, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and other emerging technologies. Wong received his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Twente in 2012, and he held academic positions in Oxford and Hong Kong prior to his current position. He is the co-editor of Well-Being in Contemporary Society (2015, Springer), and has been published in various academic journals. At present, his research focuses on digital technologies' challenges to our understanding of moral responsibility and the practice of virtue cultivation.
Wednesday, 29. January 2020, 18:15-20:30
Main Campus, Flügelbau West, 2nd floor, room W 221
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1
20146 Hamburg
poster lecture Pak-Hang Wong [pdf]
programme "Taming the Machines" [pdf] in winter 2019/20
site plans:
lecture halls at Edmund-Siemers Allee 1: ESA1 [pdf]
University of Hamburg (Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 is number 12 in C3 of the map): UHH [pdf]