BRAID ‘Responsible AI Futures’ Seminar Series

Edinburgh Law School's Dr Emily Postan and Bhargavi Ganesh, PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, will be speaking at BRAID UK's 'Responsible AI Futures' seminar series. 

Uncanny Kinds - Dr Emily Postan, Thursday 2 May 4pm

In the fields of healthcare and health research, there is particular interest using machine learning (ML) to generated novel or refined diagnostic, prognostic, risk, and treatment categories. This talk interrogates the nature of these categories and their implications for the people thus (re)categorised. It approaches these questions through the lens of the philosophical idea of ‘human kinds’. It asks to what extent health-related categories generated by ML might function as human kinds and, if so, whether they might differ, in ethically significant ways, from socially-originating kinds. In doing so, it suggests that our understanding of responsible ML categorisation practices need to look beyond technical capabilities and clinical utility to consider wider personal and social impacts.

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Reframing Governance as Innovation - Bhargavi Ganesh, Thursday 16 May 4pm

Despite the emergence of promising policy proposals worldwide, AI governance is often discussed by policymakers and scholars alike as an intractable challenge. This is largely due to the technical/organisational complexity of sociotechnical AI systems, and a fear that imperfect regulation will result in suppression of technological innovation. In this talk, Bhargavi will draw on the historical example of a previously “ungovernable” technology- the steamboat in the 1800’s- to challenge latent scepticism and argue that the governance of AI should in and of itself be viewed as an exercise in innovation. Steamboat governance was iterative, requiring many instances of trial and error before achieving its aims. Similarly, global AI governance can be reframed as an exercise in policy innovation. In doing so, we can both celebrate the progress that has already been made, and remain optimistic about the emergence of new regulatory interventions in response to novel challenges generated by AI.

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