Colloquium Robert C. Williamson: The AI of Ethics

Prof. Dr. Robert C. Williamson, Australian National University, Research School of Computer Science, Australia

With the rapid growth of AI and its deployment with consequences to people, ethical concerns regarding AI have become extremely topical. In this talk I will present a view somewhat contrary relative to much of the current literature. After briefly summarising some of the ethical concerns, I will argue that

1. the ethical problems of AI can be well understood, and mitigations and progress can be made, by recognising that AI, as a technology shares many features with other older technologies;
2. ethical decisions have always been made using technologies;
3. the careful formulation of the problems to be solved is more important than immediately attempting to come up with solutions;
4. in so doing new and valuable research directions in AI are opened up;
5. many of the problems ascribed to AI are more to do with the business models within which they are used; and
6. while there are pressing problems that demand solving, there are also many promising prospects for making real ethical progress with AI technologies as tools – it all depends upon the choices that we make.

Curriculum vitae: 

BOB WILLIAMSON CV May 2020

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