Ben Byford
AI ethics | freelance web and games designer
AI and Ethics
A tiny, weenie, short, but perfectly formed introduction to AI Ethics
AI and Ethics
What is AI?
What is ETHICS?
Why should I Care?
What can I do?
What is Ai?
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A social construct?
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A Dream
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A Human like robot?
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A set of technologies?
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An algorithm and data?
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Anything doing something human us?
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A social construct?
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A set of technologies?
What is Ethics?
What is Ethics?
What is right to do?
What systems or frameworks should we make to help?
What behaviour is and isn't permissible or desirable?
What kinds of opportunities are we making available or not?
What does a good life look like?
What ought we create?
What direction are we taking the world in?
wikipedia
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.
Ethics is about US
how are ethics codified?
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Laws
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Money / Grants / Tax
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Standards / frameworks / code of conduct
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Culture / cultural artefacts / traditions
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Bureaucracy / Systems / Computers
In what way does AI participate in ethical questions?
Why should we care?
Technology
is part of our lives and it also
shapes it
“It is impossible to work in information technology without also engaging in social engineering.”
Jaron Lanier
With great power comes great responsibility
AIssues
AIssues
knowledge erosion / de-skilling, inappropriate AI uses, total surveillance, AI value alignment, diverse workforce, human rights and measurements of human flourishing, destablising democracy / political exploitation, lack of accountability, job displacement, lack of inclusion, fairness / bias, impersonation / deepfakes, environmental impacts, unintended consequences, lack of transparency, black box / explainability, data protection, consent, intellectual property rights, data manipulation, whos ethical values, information obfuscation, duplication of personal data, security, safety, perversion, robustness, personhood, singularity, world without work, human value
“Perhaps interacting with an ethical robot might someday even inspire us to behave more ethically ourselves.”
Anderson, Anderson 2012
Capitalism
What tools do we
have to help?
research
sharing
Governance
Regulation
Culture
Design
research
sharing
Governance
Regulation
Culture
Design
Thank you
www.benbyford.com
Thank you
www.benbyford.com
AI Ethics
DESIGN WORKSHOP
looking into the future using storytelling and critical design methods to inform decisions today
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Product definition / Intention
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Horizon scanning / consequence scanning
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Speculative design / design fiction
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Value sensitive design
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Design Critique
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Designated desenter
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Archetypes
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The Veil of Ignorance
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Confusion matrix
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Ethical Risk assessment
Tools for ethical risk discovery
| Risks | Opportunitities | To whom? |
|---|---|---|
|
|
It would be useful if we could pick a direction
Groups of 2-5
We're starting a business!!!
(1 minutes)
product / service
Pick an idea,
and imagine a new product or service
- Product name
- What it does
e.g. Artificially intelligent robots for dogs.
DogBuddy
the new robot dog friend that will feed, pet, talk to and walk your dog.
product / service
product Name
What it does
(5 minutes)
how was it?
product / service
2yrs
indirect
direct
badly
well
consequence scanning:
How has your product changed the world
in 2 years?
it went well / it went Badly
(5 minutes)
product / service
2yrs
indirect
direct
20yrs
badly
well
consequence scanning:
How has your product changed the world
in 20 years?
not much, amazing, exploitative?
(5 minutes)
product / service
2yrs
indirect
direct
20yrs
50yrs
consequences
badly
well
consequence scanning:
How has your product changed the world
in 50 years?
what was it's consequence?
Is the world a great place or a horrid dystopia?
(5 minutes)
consequence scanning:
circle the ethical issues with your product?
Think about the people, animals or things it effected, the kinds of scenario's that might happen, and the actions it allows or disallows e.g. human rights.
consequence scanning:
circle the ethical issues with your product?
What is the risk or opportunity?
To whom does it affect?
(5 minutes)
consequence scanning:
How did it go?
Generated idea
Product name
Most interesting futures
Ethical considerations
Using design to mitigate known, unknown and unintended consequences of our work
“The best way
to predict the future
is to invent it.”
Alan Kay
Thank you
www.benbyford.com
AI, ethics and design workshop
By Ben Byford
AI, ethics and design workshop
talk and workshops for Blackheath school 2025
