SIENNA underscores major issues of big data and AI at SHERPA workshop

On 3 May 2018, the EU-funded H2020 SHERPA project organised a workshop on “AI and Big Data: Ethical and Human Rights implications” at the Press Club Brussels Europe. At the meeting, SIENNA’s coordinator Philip Brey shared insights from our ongoing research on big data and artificial intelligence.

(Image removed) Professor Philip Brey, SIENNA coordinator

The workshop, chaired by Doris Schroeder (Professor of Moral Philosophy in the School of Law at University of Central Lancashire Cyprus), was attended by 27 people. Speakers included Luke Dormehl (freelance journalist, author and public speaker, author of Thinking Machines);  Marek Havrda (Founder, Strategy Advisor, Good AI, Neopas); Félicien Vallet (Privacy Technologist, Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL); Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou (Head of Law School and Professor of European Law and Reform, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus); and Philip Brey (Professor of philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente and co-ordinator of the EU-funded H2020 SIENNA project).

Professor Brey shared insights from SIENNA research relating to big data and artificial intelligence (AI). Four major big data issues highlighted were: privacy, security, bias (social, intended or unintended) and inaccuracies, which can cause harms in persons, false conclusions and severe harm to society. AI issues highlighted included: accountability, transparency, autonomy and well-being. Brey stated, “putting the two together we see them reinforcing each other in smart information systems. Privacy and bias become less tractable and less clear who is responsible”.

SIENNA and SHERPA both share mutual interests i.e., related to AI, ethics, law and human rights and hope to closely collaborate and draw inspiration from each other.

SHERPA is co-ordinated by Professor Bernd Carsten Stahl, De Montfort University (UK). Its partners include Universiteit Twente (Netherlands), EUREC (European Network of Research Ethics Committees) (Germany), University of Central Lancashire (Cyprus), Depoorter Dries (Belgium), Trilateral Research (UK), Stichting Nederlands Normalisatie (NEN) (Netherlands), Mutual Shoots Ltd (UK), Aequitas Ltd (Cyprus), European Business Summit (Belgium) and F-Secure OYJ (Finland).

Visit the SHERPA website

By Rowena Rodrigues, Trilateral Research Ltd.
Deputy coordinator, SIENNA