What to read, listen and watch on the ethics of AI, by Sarah Fay

Learning about AI and the discussions around the ethics of it is an interesting but ever changing task. I have compiled here some suggestions on what to read, listen and watch about AI ethics that I have personally found thought-provoking and helpful.

For more general learning I would recommend listening to The Reith Lectures: Living with Artificial Intelligence and Responsible AI: How to build machines.

For those of us who are interested in researching and studying AI, it is worth considering The Invention of “Ethical AI.” I would also recommend anything written by Shannon Vallor, the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, including The Thoughts the Civilised Keep. 

One of the most common ways many of us are touched by AI is through social media. This month Spotify’s 381 million users will have received their 2021 Spotify Wrapped which shows listeners their activity on the audio streaming platform. But have you considered All the Ways Spotify Tracks You - And How to Stop it? With Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s revelations and the Wall Street Journal’s investigation The Facebook Files published this year, it’s interesting to also consider How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation in the first place. 

However, for some the implications of AI can have very drastic consequences and one of the big ways this can be seen is within policing. In the UK I would recommend looking at Liberty’s Policing by Machine report. In the USA, two articles that I found particularly powerful were Heat Listed and Crime Prediction Software Promised to be free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates them. 

Finally, I’m sure many of you will have come across the Coded Bias documentary, but I would also recommend the interactive documentary Discriminator about facial recognition databases.