[EVENT] Workshop: AI And Responsibilities: How Are Ethical Standards Integrated In Technical Systems? Examples including Smart Cities 22 March 2022

Register here How should we consider, or reconsider, the forms of responsibilities that arise from the phenomenal development of AI and algorithms that permeate all social, economic, scientific, and cultural practices? A first aspect of this question is to examine the ethical standards that serve as a foundation for or influence the development of algorithms, the design of technical tools, and how they are used by professionals, citizens, or consumers of these technical systems. A second aspect of the question is to understand how they engage or challenge our shared conceptions of responsibility. The complexity of these technical systems, their levels of organization, the scenarios they include, the forms of mathematization used, and the purpose they seek to achieve, make it essential to investigate how ethical standards are currently taken into account. The relationship between AI and responsibilities will be the topic of several international conferences and workshops, and the first of these will be held in Quebec. Two examples of complex technical systems, smart cities and finance, were chosen to try to understand these systems, to challenge them and to address the phenomenon of the integration of ethical standards. This international and interdisciplinary workshop is divided in two specific workshops.

FIRST WORKSHOP

CITIES AS TECHNICAL SYSTEMS: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LIFE, LIVING, AND LIVELIHOODS?

March 22, 8:45AM to 4:30PM The first workshop examines the ethical, psychological, sociological and political challenges of smart cities. The smart city model seems a priori more complex, but above all, more heterogeneous with different mathematical models, multiple added technological devices (connected objects) and the integration of political scenarios and ethical standards. Political scenarios such as “the sustainability of cities” and ethical standards such as “citizen engagement” play a role both in preparing and implementing smart city projects. Yet, there are various understandings of what a smart city is for the individual dweller, life and livelihoods in the neighborhoods, and the city (and city-state) as a whole. What are the causes of these different understandings, and how do they affect the city from its governance to its everyday life? How should we understand the changes that the smart city brings to the consciousness of collective living, the character of life in city neighborhoods, and responsibilities of the individual, community and state?

SECOND WORKSHOP

MATHEMATICAL MODELS, ALGORITHMS AND ETHICAL STANDARDS INTEGRATED IN THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM

March 23, 9:00AM to 12:30PM The second workshop will focus on the mathematical models used upstream of the financial system and which underpin the algorithms used in current financial practices. These algorithms do not play a neutral role in the way risks are calculated or in the way professionals comply or not with the management framework. This situation contributes to a form of epistemic responsibility that values certain ethical standards over others. As a result, the dominant financial model seems to reveal an integrated or even closed system made of mathematical models, algorithms, and types of management with ethical standards that ensure its efficiency and predictability. This second workshop will question the very foundations of this model.

ORGANIZATION

This event is organized by Marie-Hélène Parizeau, professor at Faculté de philosophie, Université Laval, and researcher member of OBVIA, with support from Jennifer Ang, Singapore University of Social Sciences, and Vanessa Nurock, Université Nice-Côte d’Azur, for the firs workshop and Christian Walter, co-titulaire de la chaire Éthique et Finance (FMSH, ISJPS), for the second workshop. Jennifer Ang and Vanessa Nurock are members of DesCartes Program. Thanks to our collaborators: LinkedIn post here Source: https://observatoire-ia.ulaval.ca/en/ia-and-responsibilities-finance-and-smart-cities/