Ethical AI and Our Future – Lecture Series

Designed to create a campus-wide conversation, the Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series gives first-year students an opportunity to interact with leading members of our faculty—scholars, scientists, and civic leaders who are nationally and internationally renowned. All students, faculty, alumni, staff, and community guests are invited, but the events will be aimed at entering first-year students. The Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Herbert Family.

Ethical AI and our Future
Dr. Junfeng Jiao
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 7-8 p.m., Texas Union Theater

It seems that in just a blink of an eye, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an important fixture in our everyday lives. AI is everywhere. You can easily find it in autonomous vehicles, voice/image recognition, robotics, and even World Cup offsides detection and dating app matches. So, what exactly is AI? And what is ethical AI? What are the consequences and impacts of our AI systems are harmful? How can we ensure that our AI systems are fair, inclusive, safe, and protect privacies? Dr. Junfeng Jiao argues that given the potentially disruptive consequences of AI systems, humanity cannot afford to wait until problems arise to consider their impacts on society. AI’s ethical and societal implications must be considered as systems are designed, developed, and deployed. The increasingly ubiquitous adoption of AI technology in homes, communities, and cities is poised to transform our society. Will we become a society where the gaps between haves and have-nots are further enlarged and entrenched, or can we steer the development of AI in ways that will make our society more just and equitable? Achieving the latter vision requires fundamentally reshaping how we train future AI scientists and developers. We cannot afford for AI to be designed without consideration of possible negative repercussions, leaving it to others to sort out the societal consequences of the technologies. Thus, there is an urgent need for us to understand the potential impacts of AI and why we need ethical AI systems to help us build a more just and equitable future for everyone.