Brian Green
Title: Questions and Answers on Technology Ethics
Bio:
Brian Patrick Green is the director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. His work is focused on the ethics of technology, including such topics as AI and ethics, the ethics of space exploration and use, the ethics of technological manipulation of humans, the ethics of mitigation of and adaptation towards risky emerging technologies (including ones with catastrophic risk potential), and various aspects of the impact of technology and engineering on human life and society, including the relationship of technology and religion (particularly the Catholic Church). Green teaches AI ethics in the Graduate School of Engineering and formerly taught several other engineering ethics courses. He is co-author of the Ethics in Technology Practice corporate technology ethics resources.
Green is a member of the Safety-Critical AI working group at Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society. He also coordinates the Center’s partnership with The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, the Hackworth grant program, the Technology and Ethics Faculty Group, the Environmental Ethics Fellows, and several other initiatives. His background includes doctoral and master’s degrees in ethics and social theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. His undergraduate degree is in genetics from the University of California, Davis, and he has conducted molecular biology research in both academic and industrial settings. Between college and graduate school, he served for two years in the Jesuit Volunteers International teaching high school in the Marshall Islands.
He has been published, interviewed, or mentioned in media including America, The Atlantic, The China Global Television Network, CNN.com, The Daily Beast, IEET, Nature, NBC Bay Area, Religion News Service, Revista Instituto Humanitas Unisinos (Brazil), Revue Boussole (France), The San Jose Mercury News, and Smithsonian.com.
Many of his writings can be found at his academia.edu page.
Abstract:
There are basic questions about tech ethics: who, what, when, where, why, and how. This presentation will go through each systematically and demonstrate how the tech industry has gotten to this place, where it is now reaching out asking for help on ethics. It will look at big questions on how humanity has arrived at this ethical moment, as well as big answers of what to do, how to integrate ethics into the tech industry, and where we should go next. There will be time at the end for questions and answers on these questions and answers.
Abhishek Biswas
Title: Maintaining the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in the era of Over Digitization: Risks for Machines from Machines
Bio:
Abhishek Biswas is a Senior Management Consultant working for Protiviti Middle East. He specializes in Innovations, Digital Transformation, Ethics of Digitization and Cybersecurity. He has spearheaded over 50 audit, advisory, and implementation engagements across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA, India, and Bangladesh for sectors of Information Technology, Heavy Engineering, Oil and Gas, Finance, Railways, Paper, Mining, and Metals. Furthermore, he collaborates with the academic sector for projects contributing towards the betterment of humanity with Innovation. He has also founded a venture based on Smart and Clean Technology in the domain of Electric Vehicles.
From consulting corporations on innovation strategies to researching on emerging technologies to working on international standardizations, he feels that intellectual capital, innovation, and technology are the pillars behind the inclusive growth of the 21st century world and is looking forward to working for more humanitarian causes in his domain.
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly transformed the world into a digital village where digital interaction is now a ‘Compulsion’ rather than a mere ‘Option’. Digital Data is generated at almost twice the pace now than the pre-pandemic era. Data – the fuel for AI – has advanced AI itself ahead of its time. However, with more data, misuse and breaches of data have increased at an even higher rate! With the great power AI enjoys, it must thus have a greater ethical responsibility as well. In reality – when it comes to maintenance of Ethics in AI, there are multiple dimensions at play, including but not limited to: Risks, Safety, Governance, People, Processes, and Technology. This talk will be about these factors and how to maintain an ethical standard of AI usage considering the recent over digitization of industries and heightened risk and safety factors surrounding both humanity and technology. Also, it will provide a different view of AI Ethics by arguing for the responsibility of AI towards the betterment of humanity.
Prof. Frank A. Farris
Title: Leveraging Classical Mathematics for Computer Art and Design
Bio:
Frank A. Farris is Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Santa Clara University, where he has taught since 1984. His research combines geometry, mathematical art, and expository mathematics. In 2019, Farris was a Semester Visitor at ICERM (the Institute for Experimental and Computational Research in Mathematics). His book, Creating Symmetry, The Artful Mathematics of Wallpaper Patterns (Princeton, 2015), grew from his service as Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton College in 2011. From 2001 through 2005 and again in 2009, Farris was Editor of Mathematics Magazine. He has presented numerous exhibitions of his mathematical art and received the Award for Best Photograph, Painting, or Print in the Mathematical Art Exhibition at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in 2018.
A native Californian, Farris did his undergraduate work at Pomona College and received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1981. Awards include a Trevor Evans Award for his article “The Edge of the Universe” in Math Horizons (2002), the Award for Distinguished College and University Teaching from the Golden Section of the MAA (2018), and the David E. Logothetti Teaching Award at Santa Clara University (1997).
Abstract:
In the old days, computational limitations led people to make things out of straight lines. Once things like splines came along, the design process moved to specifying a set of control points. Now that computational power has grown so much, it’s time to recover some rather old tools for specifying objects. In this talk, I will explain how mathematical knowledge of such classics as complex numbers and Fourier series led me to create a large body of mathematical art. Listeners willing to expand their repertoire will be able to take home quite a collection of tools for making shapes.