Manifestations

Ethics, social values and artificial intelligence

Date : July 11th 2018

Place : European Science Open Forum (Toulouse)

When designing autonomous machines embedded with artificial intelligence, the integrated design of ethical safeguards can be difficult. One way may be to consider human values that are at stake in the machines behaviour, and identify when those values are promoted or infringed. In artificial intelligence, the notion of human values is left to the end-users discretion with respect to the targeted application. The reason is that human values are abstract concepts from philosophy, social sciences and psychology while computer science needs explicit formal definitions. While some works tried to define what should be general values for intelligent systems, modelling those values remains a key issue. This highly interactive session will put the audience in an ethical designers shoes, and let it experience the difficulties of designing with values. As an example, social networks moderation is important due to the presence of racist, sexist or illegal content, or to fight bullying. However, automated moderation may also forbid and constrain freedom of speech. The audience will be asked to design of a moderation procedure in terms of social values, identify situations when those values could be conflicting, and find ways to deal with them.

Autonomous machines: what are the ethical issues?

Date : 10 juillet 2018

Lieu : European Science Open Forum (Toulouse)

Machines can now automatically learn new skills (pattern recognition, game playing, car driving, etc.) and make efficient decisions in increasingly complex situations. Search engines, self-driving cars, electronic markets, smart homes, military technology, software for big data analysis, and care robots are just a few examples. As the scope of those autonomous machines' activities broadens, it is imperative to ensure that such systems will not make irrelevant, counter-productive or even dangerous decisions. The issue is all the more important as autonomous machines embedded with artificial intelligence and deep learning encounter new situations, evolve in open environments, interact with other agents based on different design principles, act on behalf of human beings and share common resources. This interactive round table focuses on the question: what ethical issues are raised by the use of autonomous machines?

International Workshop on Ethics in the Design of Intelligent Agents

Date : 30 août 2016

Lieu : World Forum The Hague (hébergé par ECAI 2016)

The development of Artificial Intelligence is experiencing a fruitful period of incredible progress and innovation. After decades of notable successes and disappointing failures, AI is now poised to emerge in the public sphere and completely transform human society, altering how we work, how we interact with each other and our environments, and how we perceive the world. Search engines, self-driving cars, electronic markets, smart homes, military technology, software for big data analysis, and care robots are just a few examples. As intelligent agents gain increased autonomy in their functioning, human supervision by operators or users decreases. As the scope of the agents’ activities broadens, it is imperative to ensure that such socio-technical systems will not make irrelevant, counter-productive, or even dangerous decisions. Even if regulation and control mechanisms are designed to ensure sound and consistent behaviors at the agent, multi-agent, and human-agent level, ethical issues are likely to remain quite complex, implicating a wide variety of human values, moral questions, and ethical principles. This workshop focuses on two questions: (1) what kind of formal organizations, norms, policy models, and logical frameworks can be proposed to deal with the control of agents' autonomous behaviors in a moral way?; and (2) what does it mean to be responsible designers of intelligent agents?

Journée Éthique et Intelligence Artificielle

Date : 1er juillet 2015

Lieu : Centre de Recherche INRIA de Rennes (hébergé par PFIA 2015)

Avec la métamorphose numérique de notre société, l'éthique des STIC et en particulier de l'IA est devenue une question cruciale. Il est évident que toutes ces techniques pénètrent profondément dans notre vie quotidienne, impliquant des modifications des relations humaines, du travail, des communications, de l'économie, etc. De nouvelles questions sont soulevées. Par exemple, les réflexions relatives à la protection de la vie privée doivent être repensées face à la généralisation de la collecte, de l'exploitation de masses de données individuelles s'appuyant sur des techniques issues de l'Intelligence Artificielle. Dans le même ordre d'idée se posent tout un ensemble de questions liées à la conservation de ces données et le droit à l'oubli. Sur un autre ordre d'idée, les questions de responsabilité, de décision doivent être repensées face aux développements de l'autonomie de décision et des champs d'action d'agents logiciels, humains ou robotiques. Ces questions sont par nature transverse à de multiples disciplines. Nous organisons cette Journée Éthique et Intelligence Artificielle avec pour vocation de croiser les questionnements et les approches, et de créer une communauté de réflexion sur ces sujets.

Suite à cette journée, les membres du consortium ont co-organisé à titre individuel les journées 2017 et 2018.

Questions d'éthique et de robotique : enjeux et perspectives

Date : 27 février 2015

Lieu : Cantine numérique rennaise

Demi-journée d'échanges sur le thème "questions de robotique et d'éthique: enjeux et perspectives". Cette manifestation publique réunira des enseignants-chercheurs, une post-doctorante, un doctorant et neuf élèves-ingénieurs de la filière ingénierie des services et des affaires de Telecom Bretagne.