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Governance Conflicts and Public Court Records
Get PDFDatafication of society has heavily influenced the way in which we use technology and how technology is designed. Social informatics research illustrates that technology use by diverse groups is not neutral. With the increased usage of technology, critical analysis of data and uses becomes a more significant topic of research. Data governance, as one priority research subarea, varies widely as it is influenced by those who have the power to control it, raising many research questions. With the differences in how data is governed differing across data, what does that mean for data that is used to train models? How do the implications of data governance shape how what is trained? This paper seeks to evaluate that relationship through multi-method content analysis of governance documents regarding data and access to public court records in Illinois and California. It seeks to address the gap in research surrounding ethical impacts of data governance and how those impacts can have larger implications, both positive and negative
Including a Social Perspective In AI Ethics: The Contribution of a Dialogue Between American Pragmatism and Critical Theory
Get PDF Throughout the history of moral philosophy, the theoretical postures have been privileged. Modern ethics is no exception and is indeed characterized by the predominance of voluntarist and universalist frameworks, which are primarily concerned with the actions of the moral agent, with no real regard for the conditions of possibility necessary for the effective realization of moral actions. Recent developments in applied ethics have shown that an integral application of classical ethical frameworks does not adequately address the new moral dilemmas emerging from our different spheres of activity. Artificial intelligence (AI) ethics once again demonstrates the inadequacy of traditional ethical frameworks to deal with the many ethical issues related to the pervasiveness of AI systems. Indeed, the dominant theories in ethics fail to take account of the shared responsibility that characterizes the moral obligations we have towards AI systems. The particularity of pragmatist ethics is that it aims at a practical intervention without however renouncing the conceptual clarifications necessary for such an intervention. We will demonstrate how the characteristics of pragmatist ethics avoids certain pitfalls in AI ethics and provides a conceptual framework particularly well suited to address the ethical issues related to the increasing use of AI systems in our societies
Causes and Reasons – Decisions, Responsibility, and Trust in Techno-Social Interactions
Get PDFThe interaction between humans and AI creates a new type of interaction that goes beyond subject object relations. AI technologies cannot always be described as a conventional object due to its activity capabilities and the black box aspect. An additional category is created, which is outlined by the ‘sobject approach’. This creates the opportunity to study the human-like characteristics of the interaction on the part of the AI. The ‘social’ possibilities of AI can thus be focused by referring to ‘techno-social’ rather than ‘social’ interactions, since the possibilities are different from the human sociality but exist in the human-social lifeworld. If an AI is a techno-social interaction partner, it can ‘act’ and make ‘decisions’. The additional category can therefore be used to investigate what types of decisions there are, if they are based on ‘reasons or causes’, whether they can be ‘trusted’, and if one can assign or delegate ‘responsibility’ to such technology. Thus, classical ethical questions regarding subjective categories like decision-making, trust, and trustworthiness, and responsibility can be rethought for somewhat human-like but not human technologies like AI. 
Stop at red? Engineering meets ethics
Get PDFOver the past few years, artificial intelligence has fueled a revolution in several scientific fields. Intelligent agents can now give medical advice, translate spoken language, recommend news, and drive different types of vehicles, to name but a few. Some of these agents need to interact with humans and, hence, need to adhere to their social norms. Safety engineers have always worked with critical systems in which catastrophic failures can occur. They need to make ethical decisions in order to keep the system under some acceptable risk level. In this paper, we will propose an approach to give a value to contrary-to-duty behaviors by introducing a risk aversion factor. We will make use of decision theory with uncertain consequences together with a risk matrix used by safety engineers. We will successfully exemplify this approach with the problem in which an autonomous car needs to decide whether to run a red light or not
Framing Effects in the Operationalization of Differential Privacy Systems as Code-Driven Law
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MIIND and HEART: Measuring and designing for thicker qualities of user experience
Get PDFIn this paper, we discuss our interdisciplinary approach to developing a new framework for evaluating how design elements of digital technologies interact with joy in user experience. We explain why this framework is needed, given a distinction between thin and thick engagement in user experience. We elaborate on our framework in light of four case studies we conducted or supervised, showing how cognitive and normative elements of user experience might be better engaged with in UX frameworks, and in the design and use of technology more generally
Democratic Culture and the Automation of Information: What is really at stake?
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European or Universal? The European Declaration of Digital Rights in a global context
Get PDFThis paper examines the potential universality of the European Declaration of Digital Rights, which was proposed to protect fundamental rights within the European Union. The investigation provides insights regarding the status of the Declaration as a position statement with a limited binding character, although it could serve as a reference point for future legislation at various levels. Digital Rights (DR) have the character of general principles, and the challenge in implementing them is the question of enforceability. The paper also considers universality in its philosophical, social, ethical, and legal dimensions. Cultural and contextual differences present a challenge to establishing a globally accepted and similarly interpreted set of fundamental rights. Moreover, social values and familiarity with technologies may highly influence social opinion. Additionally, the interpretation of ethical principles varies across different societies, for whom the question of DR is not uniformly relevant or urgent. Legitimacy is a crucial factor in universality, and Peter Wahlgren’s model provides a useful analytical framework that includes political, legal, cultural, functional, and internal rationalities that are crucial facets of legitimacy. The paper suggests two paths for future discussions of universality in DR: a normative approach that focuses on identifying fundamental and universal values, and an empirical approach that seeks values that are widely accepted and uses them as criteria for universality.  
