There is still plenty of room for non-presenting registrants.
Symposium on
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and (Quasi-)Human Rights
Wednesday 19th April (all day) & Thursday 20th April (morning only)
2000
at
"Time for AI and Society"
2000 Convention of the Society for the Study of
Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour
(AISB-00)
17th-20th April 2000
University of Birmingham, England
TIMETABLE FOR THE SYMPOSIUM
NATURE OF THE SYMPOSIUM
The symposium is concerned with the ethical and rights issues
that are raised by AI. Some are as old as AI while some arise because of
recent developments. Some concern threats to human rights, others
concern ways in which AI could support human rights, some involve the
detection of unethicality, and yet others are about the rights, if any,
of intelligent artefacts. The issues range from the very practical to
the highly philosophical.
Human rights are an increasingly topical concern in world politics, and
a highly appropriate subject to address in 2000. The increase in the use
of computers and electronic communication, and the gradual increase in
the use of AI in computers and communication, is revolutionizing many
aspects of life, including in ways that deeply affect human rights and
raise new ethical issues (and old issues in new or intensified forms).
Specific issues for the Symposium include but are not limited to:
-
DANGERS, DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES
- automated monitoring of conversations (phone, email, web) by
governments
- responsibility for errors in expert systems and self-modifying
systems
- does a welfare state have a duty to ensure
people have human teachers/lawyers/doctors...?
- does you have the right to know you are speaking to an artefact
when seeking advice over the phone, etc?
-
BENEFITS
- automated plagiarism detection
- intelligent web crawlers for detecting danger to human rights,
e.g. detecting neo-Nazi organizations
- a possible human-rights protection measure:
implants that report assaults on person to distal agencies
-
ENCOURAGEMENT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR BY INDIVIDUALS
- AI-aided misrepresentation of oneself over the web
- use of AI in excessively violent computer games
-
THOUGHT ABOUT HUMAN ETHICS & RIGHTS
- can artefacts think well about human ethics, or is human
grounding needed?
- VR scenarios (aided by AI technology) as providing alternative worlds
in which to study ethical and rights issues
- diminution of respect and rights for humans because of rise of
intelligent artefacts
-
RIGHTS OF ARTEFACTS
- should intelligent artefacts have "human" rights?
- to what extent does having rights require having consciousness?
- is it ethical to create computer simulations of pain?
-
LEGAL ISSUES
associated with any of the issues above.
There is plenty of scope
for lively, interdisciplinary debate at the Symposium, as well as
opportunities for taking stock of the current situation and the
prospects for the next few years.
Please also see the
Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Legal Reasoning.
Papers by most of the authors in the
timetable will be included in a SYMPOSIUM PRE-PROCEEDINGS to be
published by AISB. It will be made available at the convention.
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
THE WHOLE CONVENTION
Click here for Convention webpage and other symposia:
The Programme Overseers and Local Arrangements Chairmen are:
NOTE: Please address all enquiries about the SPECIFIC SYMPOSIUM featured
in this call to Barnden, not to Lee.
In particular, please do not send poster suggestions to Lee.
Lee welcomes general enquiries about the Convention.
The whole Convention will largely consist of
four Keynote Talks and seven Symposia on a wide range of topics in
Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. Underlying subthemes of
the Convention will include but will not be restricted to:
- APPLICATIONS OF AI TO SOCIETY
- HOW AI CAN CHANGE SOCIETY
- HOW SOCIETY AFFECTS INDIVIDUAL COGNITION
- HOW INDIVIDUAL AGENTS WORK TOGETHER
- SOCIETY-OF-AGENTS VIEWS OF INDIVIDUAL COGNITION
- HOW AGENTS DEAL WITH TIME AND CHANGE OUTSIDE AND WITHIN
THEMSELVES.
Please see the Convention web page (above) for descriptions
of the individual Symposia.
The Keynote Speakers will be
Alan Bundy
from the University of Edinburgh,
Geoffrey Hinton
from University College, London (England),
Marvin Minsky
from MIT,
and
Aaron Sloman
from the University of Birmingham
(England). The keynote talks will be plenary events.
