AI Ethics for Systemic Issues: A Structural Approach

Much of the discourse on AI ethics has focused on technical improvements and holding individuals accountable to prevent accidents and malicious use of AI. While this is useful and necessary, such an “agency-focused” approach does not cover all the harmful outcomes caused by AI. In particular it ignores the more indirect and complex risks resulting from AI’s interaction with the socio-economic and political context. A “structural” approach is needed to account for such broader negative impacts where no individual can be held accountable. This is particularly relevant for AI applied to systemic issues such as climate change. This talk explains why a structural approach is needed in addition to the existing agency approach to AI ethics, and offers some preliminary suggestions for putting this into practice.

Speaker bio: Agnes Schim van der Loeff: Hi, my name is Agnes and I do ethics and policy research at Cervest, which is developing Earth Science AI to quantify climate uncertainty and inform decisions on more sustainable land use. As part of Cervest’s research residency programme earlier this year I started exploring the ethical implications of such use of AI, which resulted in this NeurIPS paper! Now I am developing a framework to ensure all steps in the development, distribution and use of Cervest’s AI-driven platform are ethical and prevent any harmful outcomes. I hold a first class Honours degree in Arabic and Development Studies from SOAS University of London. Having studied the intersection of social, economic and political aspects of development, I am interested in how dilemmas around AI reflect wider debates on power relations in society and I want to explore how AI could be a vehicle for transformative social change. I am particularly passionate about climate justice, which I have engaged with academically and through campaigning.