•  492
    The Motivations and Risks of Machine Ethics
    with Rune Nyrup, Karina Vold, and Adrian Weller
    Proceedings of the IEEE 107 (3): 562-574. 2019.
    Many authors have proposed constraining the behaviour of intelligent systems with ‘machine ethics’ to ensure positive social outcomes from the development of such systems. This paper critically analyses the prospects for machine ethics, identifying several inherent limitations. While machine ethics may increase the probability of ethical behaviour in some situations, it cannot guarantee it due to the nature of ethics, the computational limitations of computational agents and the complexity of th…Read more
  •  386
    The Whiteness of AI
    with Kanta Dihal
    Philosophy and Technology 33 (4): 685-703. 2020.
    This paper focuses on the fact that AI is predominantly portrayed as white—in colour, ethnicity, or both. We first illustrate the prevalent Whiteness of real and imagined intelligent machines in four categories: humanoid robots, chatbots and virtual assistants, stock images of AI, and portrayals of AI in film and television. We then offer three interpretations of the Whiteness of AI, drawing on critical race theory, particularly the idea of the White racial frame. First, we examine the extent to…Read more
  •  359
    The Automaton Chronicles
    with Kanta Dihal
    Nature 2018 (559): 473-475. 2018.
    A brief history of affective responses to AI.
  •  29
    Race and AI: the Diversity Dilemma
    with Kanta Dihal
    Philosophy and Technology 34 (4): 1775-1779. 2021.
    This commentary is a response to ‘More than Skin Deep’ by Shelley M. Park, and a development of our own 2020 paper ‘The Whiteness of AI’. We aim to explain how representations of AI can be varied in one sense, whilst not being diverse. We argue that Whiteness’s claim to universal humanity permits a broad range of roles to White humans and White-presenting machines, whilst assigning a much narrower range of stereotypical roles to people of colour. Because the attributes of AI in the popular imagi…Read more
  •  7
    Challenges of responsible AI in practice: scoping review and recommended actions
    with Malak Sadek, Emma Kallina, Thomas Bohné, Céline Mougenot, and Rafael A. Calvo
    AI and Society 1-17. forthcoming.
    Responsible AI (RAI) guidelines aim to ensure that AI systems respect democratic values. While a step in the right direction, they currently fail to impact practice. Our work discusses reasons for this lack of impact and clusters them into five areas: (1) the abstract nature of RAI guidelines, (2) the problem of selecting and reconciling values, (3) the difficulty of operationalising RAI success metrics, (4) the fragmentation of the AI pipeline, and (5) the lack of internal advocacy and accounta…Read more