CS4ALL Talks: Bias and inclusiveness in computer science

Join us for two inspiring talks, lunch, and discussion and learn about the journey towards more responsible AI-based communication and digital inclusion. Lunch will be served sponsored by DIKU during the talks.

12:00-12:45: Talk: "Ethical Conversational AI - Searching for the Truth?" by Anne Lauscher, Associate Professor of Data Science at the University of Hamburg. 

12:45-13:30: Talk: "What does digital inclusion in one of the most digital societies globally entail?" by Jesper Bentil Holten, Executive Member of the Danish Association of the Blind

13:30-14:00: Discussions  

"Ethical Conversational AI - Searching for the Truth?" by Anne Lauscher

2023 is the year of chatbots: state-of-the-art open-domain conversational AI systems suddenly produce fluent, engaging, and often helpful responses to various user inputs and have quickly reached the broad masses. In the coming years, they will continue to make more and more inroads into our daily lives and become an integral part of our communication. Nevertheless, conversational AI currently has a variety of critical flaws that threaten responsible and societally useful "communication of the future." For example, such systems regularly produce factually incorrect statements, encode and replicate unfair stereotypes, and exclude individuals from culturally and subculturally underrepresented groups. We will discuss some of these (ethical) problems related to conversational AI as well as their causes. The central concept that emerges is the question of "the truth." Based on that, we will exemplify how our research contributes to more responsible AI-based communication.
Anne will give another talk at the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence earlier this day.

"What does digital inclusion in one of the most digital societies globally entail?" by Jesper Bentil Holten

Digital inclusion as a sound principle has within the last couple of years started to gain traction in public administration and academic circles, trying to ensure that no one is being left behind in an ever-expanding digital society. Digital inclusion as a principle cannot however stand by itself, it needs to be reinforced and strengthened by adequate and coherent public policies that amongst other things need to facilitate and incorporate the principles of digital inclusion into the policies and strategies that govern the visions for a digital society at large. As laws about digital accessibility are being implemented, which again build on other legal instruments such as The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a more thorough and detailed approach is very much needed.

• How do we as a society ensure that no one is left behind, thus making sure that non-digital citizens are treated equally and have access to the same services as those who are digitally adept?
• How do we ensure that know-how on how to facilitate digital inclusion and accessibility exists, e.g. that our educational system has the means to research and teach future students?
• How do we make sure that future provisions for laws about digital solutions take digital inclusion and accessibility adequately and extensively into account?
• How do we raise awareness about digital inclusion in all aspects of our everyday digital lives?
• How do we finance this and who is responsible for making sure that various groups' prerequisite needs are being met and further coordinating these efforts?

Click the box on the right side of the page to register no later than 8 October.