The SRI Seminar Series welcomes Joanna J. Bryson, professor of ethics and technology at the Hertie School in Berlin. She is a globally recognized leader in intelligence broadly, including AI policy and AI ethics, and has additional professional research experience from Princeton, Oxford, Harvard, and LEGO, and technical experience in Chicago's financial industry, and international management consultancy.
Bryson’s present research focuses on the impact of technology on economies and human cooperation, transparency for and through AI systems, interference in democratic regulation, the future of labour, society, and digital governance more broadly. Her work has appeared in venues ranging from a reddit to Science.
As of July 2020, Bryson is one of nine experts nominated by Germany to the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). Visit her blog Adventures in NI for more on her work in natural and artificial intelligence. You can find her recommended readings from her blog below under, additional readings.
Talk title
“Bias, Trust, and Doing Good: Scientific Explorations of Topics in AI Ethics”
Abstract
This talk takes a scientific look at the cultural phenomena behind the #tags many people associate with AI ethics and regulation. I will introduce the concept of public goods, show how these relate to sustainability, and then provide a quick review of three recent results concerning:
What trust is, where it comes from, what it's for, and how AI might alter it;
Where bias in language comes from, what it's for, and whether AI might and should be used to alter it;
Where polarization comes from, what it was for historically, and how we should deal with it in the present day.
Recommended readings
J. Bryson, P. Rauwolf, H. Wilson, “Evolutionary Psychology and Artificial Intelligence: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Behaviour”
J. Bryson, “The Past Decade and Future of AI’s Impact on Society”
J. Bryson, P. Rauwolf, “Expectations of Fairness and Trust Co-Evolve in Environments of Partial Information”
J. Bryson, A. Caliskan, A. Narayanan, “Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases”
J. Bryson, N. McCarty, A. Stewart, “Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline”
Additional readings
It's (still) not about trust: No one should buy AI if governments won't enforce liability
We Didn't Prove Prejudice Is True (A Role for Consciousness)
Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline: with an interview by Mohammed El-Said
Insurrection in the digital age (on being made an instrument of the state II)
About Joanna J. Bryson
Joanna J. Bryson is an academic recognized for broad expertise on intelligence, its nature, and its consequences. Holding two degrees each in psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT), she is since 2020 the Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Bryson advises governments, corporations, and other agencies globally, particularly on AI policy. Her work has appeared in venues ranging from reddit to the journal Science. From 2002-2019 she was Computer Science faculty at the University of Bath; she has also been affiliated with Harvard Psychology, Oxford Anthropology, The Mannheim Centre for Social Science Research, The Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, and the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy. Bryson first observed the confusion generated by anthropomorphised AI during her PhD, leading to her first AI ethics publication “Just Another Artifact” in 1998. She is now a leader in AI ethics, having since coauthored the first national-level AI ethics policy, the UK’s (2011) Principles of Robotics, and contributed to efforts by the OECD, EU, UN, OSCE, Red Cross and Google among others. She also continues to research the systems engineering of AI and the cognitive science of intelligence. Her present research focuses are the impacts of technology on human societies, and new models of governance for AI and digital technology. She is a founding member of Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance, and one of Germany’s nine nominated experts to the Global Partnership for AI.
About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.
Each week, a featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of discussion. Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link approximately one hour before the event begins. The event will be recorded and posted online.
Joanna J. Bryson