Ethics – Social Robot Futures

Awakening to the Realities of AI in Healthcare

July 20, 2020September 16, 2021

I was standing in an airport customs line when I realized that I wanted to be a physician. An announcement sounded overhead – an employee asking if anyone present was a doctor. My parents, both in medicine, shared a look. We were already at risk of missing our connecting flight and neither of them were currently in general practice or emergency medicine. When no one else stepped forward, my father pushed through the nearby crowd that had formed around a seated woman, crouched to her level, and told her that he was a doctor.

Talks/Presentations

On Ethics, AI, and the Humanities

October 5, 2019September 16, 2021

— Video

In a presentation on the ethical challenges emerging with the rapid expansion of AI and robotics, in which the humanities too have become a target of automation, Teresa Heffernan argues that it is only by maintaining the tensions between these domains that we can hope to have an informed debate about the limits and possibilities of the emergent technology.

Upcoming Events

The Ethical Imagination: Humanities vs. AI

September 2, 2019September 16, 2021

— A forthcoming talk by Teresa Heffernan

The era of “disruptive” technologies has given way to an ethical quagmire. Biased algorithms, invasive facial recognition software, proprietary black boxes, the theft and monetization of personal data, and the proliferation of hate-spewing bots and deepfakes have undermined democracy. Killer robots and the automation of war have led to a new arms raise with Vladimir Putin declaring whoever leads in AI will rule the world.