Where are the ethics in Artificial Intelligence?

Humanity is on the brink of the most significant technological revolution thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence. Is AI a tool with capacity to do unimaginably great things from climate change to agriculture or does it really herald dangerous deep-fakes, authoritarian regimes and unimaginable harm that will culminate in human extinction? Who will control the new AI future and where do ethics fit into all of this?

Chair: Maggie Chapman MSP, Board Director Scotland’s Futures Forum, and Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Panellists:

Brian Hills is Chief Executive of The Data Lab, Scotland's Innovation Centre for Data and Artificial Intelligence. Brian was recognised as one of the most influential people in data as part of the 2022 Data IQ UK top 100 and as an Information Age Top 50 Data Leader in the UK, winning a best-in-class award for contribution to data science and analytics. Prior to The Data Lab, Brian held senior roles at Skyscanner, Sumerian and HP. 

Professor Georgios Leontidis is a Professor of Machine Learning and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Data and AI at the University of Aberdeen. His research interests revolve around foundations of machine learning, AI for agri-food sustainability, AI ethics, and AI for industrial applications. Georgios is also a member of the Scottish AI Alliance Leadership Group.  

Dr Atoosa Kasirzadeh is a Chancellor’s Fellow in the philosophy department and the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a Research Lead at the Alan Turing Institute. Prior to this, she was a visiting research scientist at Google DeepMind in London and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University. Her research is on ethics, safety, and philosophy of AI, philosophy of science and their intersection with socio-political philosophy and philosophy of language.