ETHICAL AI FOR WHOSE SOCIAL CAUSE? – A talk by Microsoft researcher Luke Stark

"Ethical AI" and "AI for social good" are now global buzzwords -- but good for whom? Luke will provide an overview of recent papers (Stark & Hoffmann 2019; Greene, Hoffmann & Stark 2019; Stark & Fish, in review)  which deploy critical design research and discursive analyses to question the grounding assumptions and terms of debate shaping current conversations around the ethic of data science and AI. This work interrogates recent high-profile values statements endorsing ethical design for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), professional ethics codes in computer science, statistics, and other fields, and extant formal models of values such as fairness in AI/ML technical work. Guided by insights from science and technology studies, critical media studies, and the sociology of business ethics, Luke will advocate for an expanded view of expertise and equality in understanding what ethical AI/ML for social good should mean.

Biography: Luke Stark is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics (FATE) Group at Microsoft Research Montreal. His scholarship examines the history and contemporary societal impacts of AI and other digital media facilitating for social and emotional interaction. His work has been published in venues including Social Studies of Science, Media Culture and Society, History of the Human Sciences, and The International Journal of Communication. He has previously been a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College, a Fellow and Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and an inaugural Fellow with the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Technology, Society, and Policy. He holds a PhD from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, and an Honours BA and MA in History from the University of Toronto