Can AI be deployed in ways that enhance equality, or will AI systems exacerbate structural inequalities and create new inequities?
The Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI) is an innovative impact-oriented community of practice seeking to understand the innumerable ways in which AI impacts equality for better or worse. We work to empower ethics in AI so that it is deployed in a just, responsible, and inclusive manner.
The Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative seeks to:
Build
Build the foundation for an inclusive dialogue—an Agora—to probe issues related to the benefits, risks, tradeoffs, and tensions that AI fosters.
Nurture
Nurture an interdisciplinary, intergenerational community of practice to rapidly address urgent challenges in the uses of AI and other novel technologies.
Establish
Establish a forum for those in positions where they must make considered choices and decisions about the development and deployment of AI applications.
Forge
Forge transparent, cross-disciplinary, and inclusive conversations and guided inquiries.
Empower
Empower ethics as a tool for making thoughtful decisions about embedding AI systems and applications in the fabric of daily life.
Featured Podcasts, Events, & Articles
Now is the Moment for a Systemic Reset of AI and Technology Governance
How can we ensure that the technologies currently being developed are used for the common good, rather than for the benefit of a select few? Anja Kaspersen and Wendell Wallach write that for effective technology governance to truly materialize, a systemic reset directed at improving the human condition is required.
Ethics, Digital Technologies, & AI: Southeast Asian Perspectives, with Elina Noor
In this "Artificial Intelligence & Equality" podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen is joined by Asia Society Policy Institute's Elina Noor for a talk on how we frame discussions on AI ethics and governance matters. They also speak about social justice and the digital landscape in Southeast Asia.
AIEI Team
Wendell Wallach
Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow, Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI); Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Anja Kaspersen
Carnegie Council Senior Fellow, Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI)
Tom Philbeck
Carnegie Council Senior Fellow, Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI); Director, Carnegie Ethics Fellows; SWIFT Partners
How does AI impact equality, for better or worse?
Structural inequality is the result of a broad array of political, economic, social, and cultural factors. The socio-technical systems that are the result of introducing innovations into this mix have become increasingly destabilizing. The sheer ubiquity and speed by which AI-based systems are permeating our lives is disruptive of countless industries and institutions. Growing monopolies of proprietary data have and continue to rapidly empower digital elites and new digital alliances. And yet the understanding of exactly how social and technical systems interact and how to govern them globally, regionally, or locally lags far behind. To complicate matters, some applications of AI may actually reduce inequality or enhance equality in discreet ways.
AIEI is working to unpack this difficult and highly transdisciplinary terrain to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a just, responsible, and inclusive manner.
Read more.
Why are we failing at the ethics of AI?
The last few years have seen a proliferation of initiatives on ethics and AI. Whether formal or informal, led by companies, governments, and international and non-profit organizations, these initiatives have developed a plethora of principles and guidance to support the responsible use of AI systems and algorithmic technologies. Despite these efforts, few have managed to make any real impact in modulating the effects of AI.
Read more.
Latest Podcasts, Events, & Articles
MAY 25, 2022 • Podcast
New War Technologies & International Law: The Legal Limits to Weaponizing Nanomaterials, with Kobi Leins
In a fascinating podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen speaks with Kobi Leins about her new book "New War Technologies and International Law: The Legal Limits ...
MAY 13, 2022 • Article
Ethics As We Know it is Gone. It's Time for Ethics Re-envisioned.
Given the troubling state of international affairs there is reason to be greatly concerned about how ethics is framed or co-opted. To meet this moment, ...
MAY 10, 2022 • Podcast
Making Decisions When Values Conflict or Are Prioritized Differently, with Paul Root Wolpe
In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow Wendell Wallach sits down with Emory University's Professor Paul Root Wolpe for a thought-provoking conversation about the ...
MAY 9, 2022 • Podcast
Any Progress in Building Moral Machines? with Colin Allen
Much has been said about the inability of tech and AI developers to grapple with ethical theory and inherent tension. Similarly, philosophers are often criticized ...