Digital & AI technologies
AI ethics
Stefan Buijsman works on the intersection of epistemology and computer science. He focusses on what information we need to responsibly use AI and has projects on explainable AI and Human Computer Interaction with the computer science faculty.
Buijsman, S., Veluwenkamp, H. Spotting when algorithms are wrong. (forthcoming) Minds and Machines.
Juan M. Durán has published on how our knowledge of and about technology is affected and affects our moral judgement. The main technological device of interest for him are machine learning in medicine and healthcare.
Durán J.M., Jongsma K.R. (2021) "Who is afraid of black box algorithms? On the epistemological and ethical basis of trust in medical AI” Journal of Medical Ethics. 47:329-335.
Olya Kudina - In the context of TU Delft AI-Labs’ programme, she explores the ethical implications of AI, specifically related to value change and the sociotechnical systems perspective.
Kudina, O. & de Boer, B. (2021). Co-designing diagnosis: towards a responsible integration of Machine Learning decision-support systems in medical diagnostics. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.
Kudina, O. (2019). Alexa does not care. Should you? Media literacy in the age of Digital Voice Assistants. Glimpse, Vol. 19, pp. 106-114.
Feng, S., Kudina, O., Halpern, B. M., & Scharenborg, O. (2021). Quantifying bias in automatic speech recognition. arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.15122.
Martin Sand (together with Karin Jongsma and Juan Durán) argue that utilizing AI technologies responsibly also poses demands towards those humans who are interacting with those systems. Explanability is not only a design feature.
Sand, M.; Jongsma, K.; Durán, J.M. (2021) Responsibility beyond design – Physician’s requirements for ethical medical AI. Bioethics. DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12887
Filippo Santoni de Sio has extensively published on “meaningful human control” of- and moral responsibility for Artificial Intelligence. He has (co-)authored ethics reports for the European Commission, the Dutch government, and the Swiss government.
Santoni de Sio F., Mecacci G. Four Responsibility Gaps with Artificial Intelligence: why They Matter and How To Address Them. Philosophy and Technology, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-021-00450-x
Santoni de Sio F., Van den Hoven J. Meaningful Human Control Over Autonomous Systems: A Philosophical Account. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00015
Di Nucci, E. and Santoni de Sio, F. (eds.) Drones and Responsibility: Legal, Philosophical and Socio-technical Perspectives on Remotely Controlled Weapons, Routledge 2016.
Di Nucci, E., Santoni de Sio, F. 2014. Who is Afraid of Robots? Fear of Automation and the Ideal of Direct Control, in F. Battaglia & N. Weidenfeld (eds.), Roboethics in Film, RoboLaw Series. Pisa: Pisa University Press
To bring some clarity in ethical issues concerning robots, and to foster a dialogue and collaboration between ethicists and robotics scholars, Steffen Steinert proposes a taxonomy of robo-ethics.
Steinert, S. (2014). The Five Robots—A Taxonomy for Roboethics. International Journal of Social Robotics, 6(2), 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0221-z
Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?
Aizenberg, E., & van den Hoven, J. (2020). Designing for human rights in AI. Big Data & Society, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/205395172094956
Santoni De Sio, F., & van den Hoven, J. (2018). Meaningful Human Control Over Autonomous Systems: A Philosophical Account. Frontiers In Robotics and AI, 5, [15]. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00015
- van de Poel, I. (2020). Three philosophical perspectives on the relation between technology and society, and how they affect the current debate about artificial intelligence. Human Affairs, 30(4), 499-511.
- van de Poel, I. (2020). Embedding values in artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Minds and Machines, 30(3), 385-409.
- Umbrello, S., & van de Poel, I. (2021). Mapping value sensitive design onto AI for social good principles. AI and Ethics, 1-14.
Digital society and inclusivity
Neelke Doorn has published on the use of digital technologies in the water domain and is regularly invited by water authorities to give ethics advice on the use of data and digital technologies in the water domain.
Doorn, N., Artificial intelligence in the water domain: Opportunities for responsible use. Science of The Total Environment, 2021. 755: p. 142561.
Janna van Grunsven’s research focuses primarily on how embodied, embedded, extended and enactive approaches to the human mind enable us to ethically evaluate developments in areas such as robotics (e.g. our future with humanoid sex robots); augmentative and alternative communication technologies; and social interaction technologies embedded in digital platforms. In 2022, Janna received a NWO Veni grant for the project “Mattering Minds: Understanding the Ethical Lives of Technologically Embedded Beings with 4E" to examine to how technology shapes our experience of the expressive bodily lives of others as beings who matter.
Veni Grant for the project “Mattering Minds: Understanding the Ethical Lives of Technologically Embedded Beings with 4E”
Van Grunsven, J & S. Roeser (2021) AAC Technology, Autism, and the Empathic Turn, Social Epistemology, DOI: 10.1080/02691728.2021.1897189
Van Grunsven, J. (2020) “Perceptual Breakdown during a Global Pandemic: Introducing Phenomenological Insights for Digital Mental Health Purposes,” Ethics and Information Technology, published online Sept. 1st 2020, doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09554-y
Van Grunsven, J. & A. Van Wynsberghe “A Semblance of Aliveness: How the Expressive Bodies of Sex Robots Will Matter,” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 2019 Vol 23(3), pp. 290-317.
“Anticipating Sex Robots: Critiquing the Sociotechnical Vanguard Vision of Sex Robots as ‘Good Companions,” Being and Value in Technology, (Ed. Vera Tripodi & Enrico Terrone), Palgrave MacMillan. Forthcoming
Social media and human-computer interactions
Michael Klenk developed an account of interpersonal manipulation that illuminates the ethics of interactions between humans and increasingly autonomous machines. He is regularly invited by policy groups and consultancies to advise on the topic
Klenk, M. “(Online) Manipulation: Sometimes Hidden, Always Covert”, Review of Social Economy, 2021.
Klenk, M. “Digital Well-Being and Manipulation Online”, in Burr C, Floridi L, Ethics of Digital Well-Being, 2020.
Klenk, M, Hancock J. “Autonomy and Online Manipulation”, Internet Policy Review, 2019.
Fleur Jongepier & Michael Klenk (eds.), The Philosophy of Online Manipulation, Routledge 2022.
Lavinia Marin is researching how interfaces shape user's thinking and abilities to self-determine their behaviour, fostering or hindering the user's critical thinking while being online. Her research on Social Media elucidates how and why users share misinformation when online by looking into the bottom-up norms created by communities of users.
Marin, L. (2022). How to do things with information online. A conceptual framework for evaluating social networking platforms as epistemic environments. Philosophy & Technology, 35(3), 77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00569-5
Marin, L. (2021). Sharing (mis) information on social networking sites. An exploration of the norms for distributing content authored by others. Ethics and Information Technology, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-021-09578-y
Marin, L. (2020). Three contextual dimensions of information on social media: Lessons learned from the covid-19 infodemic. Ethics and Information Technology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09550-2
Marin, L. Enactive Principles for the Ethics of User Interactions on Social Media: How to Overcome Systematic Misunderstandings Through Shared Meaning-Making. Topoi (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-021-09792-9
Marin, L., & Roeser, S. (2020). Emotions and digital well-being: The rationalistic bias of social media design in online deliberations. In C. Burr & L. Floridi (Eds.), Philosophical Studies Series. Ethics of Digital Well-Being (Vol. 140, pp. 139–150). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50585-1_7
Marin, L. (2021). A digital picture to hold us captive? A Flusserian Interpretation of Misinformation Sharing on Social Media. Philosophy Today. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2021514404
Steffen Steinert works on social media and value change.
Steinert, S. (2020). Corona and value change. The role of social media and emotional contagion. Ethics and Information Technology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09545-z
Steinert, S., Dennis, M.J. “Emotions and Digital Well-Being: on Social Media’s Emotional Affordances”. Philos. Technol. 35, 36 (2022). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-022-00530-6