AI3SD AI4Good Workshop @ WebSci’20 Report 2020
Abstract: This year the AI3SD Network+ (Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientific Discovery –www.ai3sd.org) ran a workshop at the WebSci20 Conference. We are living through an AI and data revolution. Artificial and augmented intelligence systems are already being used in the scientific discovery domain and have the potential to make a groundbreaking impact. However, using AI in this way comes with a wealth of ethical and societal considerations, from algorithmic bias to explainability and privacy concerns. Ethical frameworks covering many of these issues abound but are they enough? Tensions, trade-offs and transparency in AI were the themes running through the AI3SD Network+’s all-day workshop, part of the ACM Web Science 2020 conference. In a vibrant example of the interdisciplinary approach that is essential to addressing these big challenges, philosophers, computer and material scientists, sociologists, ethicists and many more gathered to explore the topic. Four presentations set out some of the key issues. Participants then tackled the ethical dimensions of a very current real-life application, using data from a Covid-19 contact tracing app for scientific research, in an interactive session using Moral IT cards. Due to the Covid-19 situation, the entire workshop was conducted via Zoom.