“Begin as you mean to go forward.” Michael Stewart is founder, chairman & CEO of Lucid, an Artificial Intelligence company based in Austin that recently announced the formation of the industry’s first Ethics Advisory Panel (EAP). While Google claimed creation of a similar board when acquiring AI firm DeepMind in January 2014, no public realization of its efforts currently exist (as confirmed by a PR rep from Google for this piece). Lucid’s Panel, by comparison, has already begun functioning as a separate organization from the analytics side of the business and provides oversight for the company and its customers. “Our efforts,” Stewart says, “are guided by the principle that our ethics group is obsessed with making sure the impact of our technology is good.”
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“You can sometimes do things that are entirely legal yet highly unethical.” Roland van Rijswijk works at SURFnet, the National Research and Education Network in the Netherlands connecting academia and research institutes throughout the country. He recently worked with van Wynsberghe to create a booklet designed to help staff identify ethical issues concerning how their data would be used by outside researchers. He’s quick to note the booklet (soon to be made public) is not simply a checklist for getting approval but a blueprint for spirited staff discussions designed to form educated decisions. As the booklet points out, “Virtue ethics allows for a discussion beyond hard and fast rules or duties and goes further than a discussion of consequences alone. It demands one to search for inner motivation and commitment, to articulate their intentions behind an action.” Introspection breeds innovation by this articulation of accountability. While some ethical decisions may seem clear cut, values are subjective. It’s in discussing issues openly that communal understanding can enlighten previously unclear paths.
“The more we interact with systems engaging human intentionality, the more we’re going to have to understand ourselves.” Jake Metcalf is a fellow at Data & Society, a research institute in New York City focused on social and ethical issues regarding data-centric technology. He’s also co-founder of the consulting firm, Ethical Resolve and notes that in trying to figure out what ethical decisions a company needs to fulfill their values, they gain more insight into their product and market. The more a company can be self reflective, the more successful they’re going to be.
- More Here
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“You can sometimes do things that are entirely legal yet highly unethical.” Roland van Rijswijk works at SURFnet, the National Research and Education Network in the Netherlands connecting academia and research institutes throughout the country. He recently worked with van Wynsberghe to create a booklet designed to help staff identify ethical issues concerning how their data would be used by outside researchers. He’s quick to note the booklet (soon to be made public) is not simply a checklist for getting approval but a blueprint for spirited staff discussions designed to form educated decisions. As the booklet points out, “Virtue ethics allows for a discussion beyond hard and fast rules or duties and goes further than a discussion of consequences alone. It demands one to search for inner motivation and commitment, to articulate their intentions behind an action.” Introspection breeds innovation by this articulation of accountability. While some ethical decisions may seem clear cut, values are subjective. It’s in discussing issues openly that communal understanding can enlighten previously unclear paths.
“The more we interact with systems engaging human intentionality, the more we’re going to have to understand ourselves.” Jake Metcalf is a fellow at Data & Society, a research institute in New York City focused on social and ethical issues regarding data-centric technology. He’s also co-founder of the consulting firm, Ethical Resolve and notes that in trying to figure out what ethical decisions a company needs to fulfill their values, they gain more insight into their product and market. The more a company can be self reflective, the more successful they’re going to be.
- More Here
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