AI and the Philosophers

Could AI be conscious? Can machines be moral? Is it ethical to treat people experiencing mental ill-health through chatbots?

CAIDE’s AI and the Philosophers theme is centred around the philosophical issues raised by AI. These range from questions around consciousness, to questions regarding machine morality, and the reflections of technology on humanity. The philosophical topic of ethics, specifically digital ethics, is also prevalent in much of CAIDE’s work.

Engagement

CAIDE staff have presented at a number of conferences and events in the past year.

  • Dr Marc Cheong was a keynote speaker at the international workshop titled Philosophy [in:of:for:and] Digital Knowledge Infrastructures, recorded here
  • Prof Jeannie Marie Paterson spoke as a part of the Institute for Ethics in AI’s TUM speaker series
  • Jeannie also spoke on a panel, and led a roundtable discussion for Advancing AI, with a focus on programming ethical principles into AI

CAIDE have also presented at a number of talks at universities and workplaces, both within Australia and abroad.

  • Jeannie spoke on the ethics of facial recognition technology at the University of Melbourne’s Open Day
  • Jeannie also spoke at Trinity College Dublin, regarding the ethics of AI-informed mental health apps
  • Gabby Bush gave a lecture to Melbourne University Computer Science Masters students regarding AI, Art and Ethics
  • Dr Michael Wildenauer spoke to IT executives at Logicalis Australia regarding AI and Digital Ethics.

Thao Le’s paper ‘Explaining Model Confidence Using Counterfactuals’, was also presented at the AAAI conference in Washington, DC.

Past engagement under this research theme includes the 2021 'Animals, Ethics and Technology' seminar at the University of Melbourne, presented by Dr Simon Coghlan and Prof Jeannie Paterson, and Simon's 2020 article in The Conversation, 'You wouldn't hit a dog, so why kill one in Minecraft'.

Research

Much of CAIDE’s research investigates digital ethics, which is interlinked with philosophy. Examples of such research include:

Further philosophical research includes Marc Cheong’s research on existentialism on social media, and Thao Le’s paper on model confidence and counterfactuals.

Some of CAIDE's past philosophical research includes Dr Simon Coghlan's papers on animal ethics:

Simon, alongside Tim Miller and Jeannie Marie Paterson also published a 2021 paper on the ethics of online exam supervision technologies.

CAIDE have also collaborated with the University of Zurich on a project investigating the AI - Machine - Human - Animal continuum, and completed a 2021 seed funding project considering the ethical issues regarding Automated Nursing Observations in Acute Psychiatric Settings.

Teaching

The undergraduate CAIDE subject AI, Ethics and the Law investigates the ethics of AI, including impacts on interpersonal relationships and human rights.

At a postgraduate level, CAIDE teaches two subjects focused on ethics:

  • Science and AI: Ethical and Legal Challenges focuses on ethical challenges surrounding AI, including ethical risks that can arise from data collection
  • The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence focuses on identifying social and ethical issues of digital technology.

Research Projects