Seminar on Why Ethics is relevant for Al algorithm compliance? by Prof. Enrico Panai



AI algorithms have intrinsic characteristics that go beyond the classical limits of technologies. Basically, for two reasons: firstly, AI systems have agency capabilities, which no previous technology had; secondly, AI systems are socio-technological systems that impact the informational environment (infosphere), which implies an increase in ethical risks. I will explain how the ethics of information has the appropriate tools to cope with the ethical risks associated with AI systems. Finally, I will show how ethics impacts the European approach to standardization.

About the Speaker

Enrico Panai is an AI Ethicist and a Human Information Interaction Specialist. Following his studies in philosophy and a multi-year experience as a consultant in Italy, he taught for seven years as an adjunct professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sassari. Since his move to France in 2007, Prof. Panai has been working as a consultant for large corporations. In 2017, he studied Strategies for Cyber Security Awareness at the Institut National de Hautes Etudes de la Sécurité et de la Justice [Institute for Advanced Studies in Security and Justice] at the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in Cybergeography with a thesis on “Latent Cyber Battlefields in Tourism”. He is the president of the Association of AI Ethicists, founder of the consultancy BeEthical.be and EthiqueNum.fr, professor of Responsible AI at EMlyon Business School in Paris, member of the French Standardisation Committee for IA – AFNOR, co-convenor on AI-enhanced nudging at CEN-CENELEC, and board member of humanity, a non-profit association dedicated to the development of Independent Audits for Artificial Intelligence. His main research interests concern cyber geography, cyber wars, information ethics, data ethics, cybersecurity, human-information interaction, philosophy of information, and semantic capital.