Designing Ethical Technology
10:30About presentation
Conversations about the ethics and safety of automated systems have abounded in recent months. Whose responsibility is it? Is regulation necessary for the industry to change? Which philosophical approach is the right one?
Moving forward from the philosophical debate, it is time to look at digital ethics in practice. Technologists hold a unique position of power in their influence over automated systems that will drive our collective future. When all is said and done and you are knee-deep in a product cycle, how do you apply ethics in your product design?
Ethics can be a competitive advantage and technologists can be the torchbearers for it. The objective is to take a proactive approach to risks and opportunities, and this can be done by evaluating your system design against human rights, social impact and the proposed EU AI regulation. Whether you are a researcher, analyst, data scientist or designer, this talk will provide you with a framework and explore the tools and templates you have at your disposal to build ethically aligned products.
About speaker
Globally, digital infrastructure and automations are being incorporated into essential, everyday functions impacting billions of people. Aparna is on a mission to empower technologists so that as we design this infrastructure, it is primed to deliver equitable benefits and sidestep unintended, known harms.
A technology anthropologist, service designer and AI ethics researcher, Aparna approaches digital ethics from the human side of technology. She translates complex digital ethics challenges and makes them actionable with diverse audiences – be it an Ethics Sprint workshop for 120 technologists or consulting with public sector stakeholders at the UK Government. She co-created Fluxus Landscape – an expansive map of AI Ethics and Governance initiatives worldwide for Stanford University in 2019 – it debuted at the World Economic Forum’s first AI Global Council. She was named on the 100 Brilliant Women in AI ethics 2020 list by Lighthouse media and is an advisory group member for Wellcome Trusts’ Data Labs.