The issue
From robot care assistants to driverless cars, Artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to make profound changes to the world, presenting both opportunities as well as challenges.
The AI Futures project centres around identifying the opportunities posed by a future with AI. It explores what the public, scholars, policy-makers and technologists want from AI and digital technology and what the future will look and feel like when we have it.
While critically exploring the challenges posed by the growth of AI both in the every-day and in fiction, AI Futures aims to optimise our awareness of the positive impact of AI on the future of humanity by gathering narratives about its implications for digital creativity.
The research
This research involved a multidisciplinary team, working across the social sciences and computer science, to gather and analyse qualitative data from interviews with leading academics, decision-makers and thought-leaders. The project aimed to explore the perceptions and portrayals of AI, ultimately helping to inform policy and the identification of potential avenues for future, socially beneficial AI research.
The research was conducted online during the pandemic during which researchers used both deductive and inductive approaches to the data ie some findings emerged from the data rather than the result of questions directly asked. No direct questions were asked about Covid-19 but it emerged as a theme throughout the interviews. Participants said their responses were framed with current events in mind.
The outcome
The research highlighted that moments of crisis prompt questions about the future and can create a shifting sense of the present. Researchers found the ability of participants to imagine their future had been disrupted by the crisis. Many described a shifting perspective from a speculative and fantastical view of AI towards focusing on the more pressing issues including real-world applications.
Participants were hopeful that the role of technology, despite it’s clear role during the pandemic would not replace what it is to be ‘human’ - in a sense, the pandemic shifted humans more towards the material world.
The findings suggest the pandemic is a critical moment to stand back and reflect on how we use technology, to educate and to anticipate and it is recognised that this can’t be done without focusing on the ethical implications of AI. Building trust in systems and highlighting the potential biases which could arise from human values being encoded in technology must be addressed.
More broadly, the AI Futures project emphasises the urgent need for ethical reflection in AI governance, including ethical considerations relating to algorithmic bias and injustice, privacy, transparency, literacy, explainability, responsibility and trust. In particular, attention should focus on algorithmic bias with respect to specific groups such as age, race and class which could emerge.
The final aspect of the research investigated times where AI could help humans to flourish and equally, where it could impede them. Participants in particular talked about the double edged nature of a life with AI at home, work and in leisure. Further research will deepen the ethical reflection about how we help humans to flourish and mitigate harm.
