Can AI be Ethical?
3 Feb 2022
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Prof Nigel Shadbolt, University of Oxford
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely regarded as a transformative and disruptive technology. The use of AI inspired algorithms powered by large amounts of data from various sources raises many ethical questions. This talk will review recent developments and deployments of AI and the ethical issues they raise. It will outline various approaches to constructing ethical guidelines and the need for research into the foundations of AI ethics now and in the future.
About Prof Nigel Shadbolt
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt is one of the UK’s foremost computer scientists. He is a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science. He is Principal of Jesus College Oxford and a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Oxford. He is chairman of the Open Data Institute which he co-founded with Sir Tim Berners-Lee. With Sir Tim, he has worked with successive governments overseeing Open Data releases across the public sector. He was knighted in 2013 for ‘services to science and engineering’.
Sir Nigel grew up in the Peak District of Derbyshire. He has a degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Newcastle and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. In 1983 he joined the Department of Psychology at Nottingham where he established and led a vibrant AI group. In 1992 he became the Allan Standen Professor of Intelligent Systems. He moved to Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science in 2000. At Southampton he researched the next generation of the World Wide Web and was the first Head of the Web and Internet Science Group. At Oxford he has centred his research in human centred AI in a wide range of applications. Most recently he was asked to lead the setting up of the Oxford Institute of Ethics in AI.
With over 500 publications, he has researched and published on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science. He is the co-author of The Spy in the Coffee Machine and is an authority on issues to do with privacy and trust in the Digital age. In 2018 he published The Digital Ape: how to live (in peace) with smart machines, described as a ‘landmark book’.
He has also been heavily involved with the commercial exploitation of his research. In 2008 Garlik, a company he co-founded to help protect personal information and prevent identity theft, was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum also winning the prestigious UK BT Flagship IT Award. Garlik had over 500,000 users when acquired by Experian in November 2011.
In its 50th Anniversary year 2006-2007, Nigel was President of the British Computer Society. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society. In 2011 he was awarded an Honorary DSc by the University of Nottingham.