AI and Ethics - Topical Collection on AI and Ethical, Inclusive and Participatory Design
Guest Editors
Peter Smith (Lead Guest Editor), Emeritus Professor, University of Sunderland, UK, peter.smith@sunderland.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Shauna Concannon, Assistant Professor, Durham University, UK, shauna.j.concannon@durham.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Penny Duquenoy, Visiting Researcher, Middlesex University, UK, p.duquenoy@mdx.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Stephen Newton, Founder & CEO, Occipital Ventures, USA, stephenenewton@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab)
Simon Rogerson, Emeritus Professor of Computer Ethics, De Montfort University, UK, srog@dmu.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Laura Smith, Researcher and Author, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, laurasmithmail6@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab)
David Leslie, Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation Research at The Alan Turing Institute and Professor of Ethics, Technology and Society at Queen Mary University of London, dleslie@turing.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
It is increasingly apparent that the development of AI technologies fail to adequately interrogate and address ethical concerns at the outset and throughout their lifespan. Artefacts are too often designed without giving full thought to the ethical implications of the end product. Some research studies are started without any formal ethical approval or consideration of the needs of a diverse community of users.
This topical collection aims to provide a resource which discusses how ethics can be embedded into development lifecycles, to underpin every product design and research study from the concept stage onwards. It is not sufficient to undertake a study, or produce a product and then consider the ethical implications subsequently. Similarly, it is not enough to evaluate a product with users once it has been designed and implemented. Product designers should involve a diverse community of potential users at the outset. The norm would become inclusive participatory design, where a diverse community of potential users are involved from the concept stage onwards. Those undertaking AI research studies must seek ethical approval from a university, or equivalent body, before commencing any project. This must become the norm and not the exception. In short, we are seeking papers which will make a real difference in the way AI research and development is undertaken in practice.
The following papers give a flavour of the sort of articles we are looking for:
Editorial piece: Technology built on sand? | SpringerLink (this opens in a new tab)
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3359318 (this opens in a new tab)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9001063 (this opens in a new tab)
We are seeking thought pieces of up to 3000 words and full papers of up to 8000 words on topics including, but by no means limited to, the following:
- How can we achieve truly inclusive design in AI technologies or systems?
- Innovative methods of participation in the development of AI systems
- Implementations of ethical impact assessments, value sensitive design or other methodologies for examining potential harm and risk
- Discussion of AI products which are not based on sound ethical principles as well as those which are ethical exemplars
- Studies which scrutinize existing AI systems to assess potential harm and systematic biases, e.g., audits, ethical discrimination discovery methods
- Critiques and limitations of existing guidelines and codes of conduct
Manuscript submission deadline: The call for contributions will remain open until the editors feel that there are sufficient papers to constitute an issue of the journal.
Submission
Submissions should be original papers and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Extended versions of high quality conference papers that are already published at relevant venues may also be considered as long as the additional contribution is substantial (at least 30% of new content).
Authors must follow the formatting and submission instructions of the AI and Ethics journal at https://www.springer.com/journal/43681 (this opens in a new tab).
During the first step in the submission system Editorial Manager, please select “Original Research” as article type. In further steps, please confirm that your submission belongs to a special issue and choose from the drop-down menu the appropriate special issue title.