The Ethics of Ethics of AI

By Jean-Gabriel Ganascia

Abstract

Can ethical committees enact sets of norms to prevent the unethical use of AI technologies? Jean-Gabriel Ganascia starts his lecture on ethics and AI by recalling the origins of the scientific discipline as well as the different definitions of the term “artificial intelligence”. He then provides examples of the unethical use of AI in different situation, for instance with autonomous cars or intelligent agents. Through descriptions of ethical dilemmas that may occur when implementing AI technologies, Ganascia characterizes the specifics of ethics in the digital era. He concludes his lecture by mentioning a scientific paper he wrote with Thomas Powers about the ethics of ethics of AI. According to him, the risk of having unethical AI does not come from the technology itself that would take its autonomy, but from the men behind the technology.

Summary

00:00:10 – Introduction
00:01:00 – A. Overview of the lecture
00:04:45 – B. The origins of AI
00:08:27 – C. The definitions of AI
00:11:55 – 1. AI and ethics
00:12:03 – 1.1. Unethical autonomous agents
00:16:12 – 2. Computational ethics
00:16:20 – 2.1. The example of autonomous cars
00:21:04 – 2.2. The example of an Uber accident
00:28:14 – 2.3. The example of LAWS
00:33:45 – 2.3.1. Autonomy
00:40:50 – 2.3.2. Prudence
00:42:40 – 2.3.3. Sagacity
00:42:54 – 2.3.4. Deliberation
00:47:05 – 3. Conceptual clarification
00:47:10 – 3.1. Autonomous agent
00:49:08 – 3.2. Artificial intelligence
00:49:45 – 3.3. Bias
00:50:48 – 4. Ethics in the digital era
00:51:30 – 4.1. “Reontologization” of the human society
00:56:00 – 4.2. Ethical committees
01:01:30 – 5. The ethics of ethics of AI
01:02:00 – 5.1. Oppositional versus systemic
01:04:10 – 5.2. Epistemological thinking
01:06:30 – 5.3. European general data protection regulation
01:11:55 – 5.4. Epistemology of Big Data
01:13:12 – 5.5. Underestimating and overestimating risks
01:23:45 – Conclusion