There has been a torrent of news, announcements, and discussions in the last year about the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact AI can and may have on society. Thinkers and groups from all corners have entered the discussion: from multiple statements by the White House about artificial intelligence and the future of work and the economy; to new academic and research centers for ethics in artificial intelligence at Oxford and the Allen Institute; to large corporations forming the Partnership for AI. We sit down with four panelists to discuss what's hot, what they see on the horizon, and to answer your questions. Interested students should also consider submitting their thoughts to the ACM SIGAI Student Essay Contest on the Responsible Use of AI Technologies where they can win cash and chats with leading AI researchers. More details are available at https://sigai.acm.org/aimatters/blog/tag/contest/
Joanna J. Bryson
Joanna is a transdisciplinary researcher on the structure and dynamics of human- and animal-like intelligence. Her research covers topics ranging from artificial intelligence, through autonomy and robot ethics, and on to human cooperation. She will be running Society with AI (http://aisb2017.cs.bath.ac.uk/) (AISB 2017, CFPs due in January and February). She is also currently an affiliate of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.
Francesca Rossi
Her research interests focus on artificial intelligence, specifically including constraint reasoning, preferences, multi-agent systems, computational social choice, and collective decision making. She is also interested in ethical issues in the development and behaviour of AI systems, in particular the decision support systems for group decision making. She has published over 170 scientific articles in journals, conference proceedings, and as book chapters. She has edited 17 volumes, between conference proceedings, collections of contributions, special issues of journals, as well as the Handbook of Constraint Programming. She has more than 100 co-authors and has co-authored a book.
Stuart Russell
His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence including machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, real-time decision making, multitarget tracking, computer vision, computational physiology, global seismic monitoring, and philosophical foundations. His books include The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction, Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality (with Eric Wefald), and Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (with Peter Norvig).
Michael Wooldridge
Michael’s main research interests are in the use of formal techniques of one kind or another for reasoning about multiagent systems. He is particularly interested in the computational aspects of rational action in systems composed of multiple self-interested computational systems. His current research is at the intersection of logic, computational complexity, and game theory. He has published more than 300 articles in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multiagent systems.
