IA and responsibilities: how are ethical standards integrated int technical systems? Examples from finance and smart cities

IA and responsibilities: how are ethical standards integrated int technical systems?
Examples from finance and smart cities 

The symposium will be held in a hybrid format. Simultaneous translation with subtitles of the video presentations, in French and in English, is planned.

Registration

How should we consider, or reconsider, the forms of responsibilities that arise from the phenomenal development of AI and algorithms that permeate all social, economic, scientific, and cultural practices?

A first aspect of this question is to examine the ethical standards that serve as a foundation for or influence the development of algorithms, the design of technical tools, and how they are used by professionals, citizens, or consumers of these technical systems. A second aspect of the question is to understand how they engage or challenge our shared conceptions of responsibility. The complexity of these technical systems, their levels of organization, the scenarios they include, the forms of mathematization used, and the purpose they seek to achieve, make it essential to investigate how ethical standards are currently taken into account.

The relationship between AI and responsibilities will be the topic of several international conferences and workshops, and the first of these will be held in Quebec. Two examples of complex technical systems, smart cities and finance, were chosen to try to understand these systems, to challenge them and to address the phenomenon of the integration of ethical standards. This international and interdisciplinary workshop is divided in two specific workshops.

Program

March 22, 8:45AM to 4:30PM

Cities as technical systems: what this means for life, living and livehoods?

The first workshop examines the ethical, psychological, sociological and political challenges of smart cities. The smart city model seems a priori more complex, but above all, more heterogeneous with different mathematical models, multiple added technological devices (connected objects) and the integration of political scenarios and ethical standards. Political scenarios such as “the sustainability of cities” and ethical standards such as “citizen engagement” play a role both in preparing and implementing smart city projects. Yet, there are various understandings of what a smart city is for the individual dweller, life and livelihoods in the neighborhoods, and the city (and city-state) as a whole. What are the causes of these different understandings, and how do they affect the city from its governance to its everyday life? How should we understand the changes that the smart city brings to the consciousness of collective living, the character of life in city neighborhoods, and responsibilities of the individual, community and state?

March 23, 9:00AM to 12:30PM

The second workshop will focus on the mathematical models used upstream of the financial system and which underpin the algorithms used in current financial practices. These algorithms do not play a neutral role in the way risks are calculated or in the way professionals comply or not with the management framework. This situation contributes to a form of epistemic responsibility that values certain ethical standards over others. As a result, the dominant financial model seems to reveal an integrated or even closed system made of mathematical models, algorithms, and types of management with ethical standards that ensure its efficiency and predictability. This second workshop will question the very foundations of this model.

For the detailed program:

in english:

in french: