Responsible AI: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Humanities, Social and Computer Sciences

The Centre for Machine Intelligence is the University of Sheffield’s strategic investment in AI research, education and outreach activities. In this online session, three members from across the faculties of Social Sciences, Humanities and Engineering will offer interdisciplinary perspectives, reflections and advice on responsible AI as a research area:

• Dr Sarah Moth-Lund Christensen will present on the philosophical questions that underpin Responsible AI and Robotics debates, offering perspectives from her work on autonomy and AI.
• Dr Susan Oman will present personal and methodological reflections on working with organisations to understand how responsible AI and tech works in practice for and against different parts of society, from those most marginalised, to senior decision-makers.
• Dr Denis Newman-Griffis will present key learnings from their work on the skills and ways of working that underpin responsible AI for individuals, teams, and organisations. This will include policy-driven reflections on the interdisciplinary nature of AI skills and an AI Thinking framework to structure responsible AI practice.

Outcomes

Participants will:

• Understand the interdisciplinary underpinnings of responsible AI research, development, policy and practice;
• Identify the philosophical, methodological, technical and relational complexities often present in research projects and programmes in this field;
• Reflect on experience of working with organisations in PhD, early career and mid career research partnerships.

Contributors

Dr Sarah Moth-Lund Christensen is a philosopher of AI Ethics with a particular interest in responsibility and moral agency questions. She is a staunch advocate for centering ethics and responsibility in any debates on new technology development and deployment.

Dr Susan Oman has been researching how data and digital technologies work for (or against) different parts of society for fifteen years. She is committed to advocating for people often sidelined from these conversations, and informing policy and practice across local, national and international contexts. 

Dr Denis Newman-Griffis is an interdisciplinary researcher with expertise across natural language processing, health informatics, social research methods, and science and technology studies. Their work aims to help others bridge the knowledge, skills, and ways of working to approach AI technologies in a situated and impact-oriented way.

Dr Warren Pearce is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Methods, Science and Society at the University of Sheffield, and Director of the WRDTP’s Digital Technologies, Communication and Artificial Intelligence (DCA) Pathway.