MCB19: Can algorithms make ethical decisions?

Directions, financial calculations or people you may know – on a daily basis, algorithms make billions of decisions which we leave up to them, both consciously and unconsciously. However, with the expansion into new realms, the decision-making power of algorithms is becoming increasingly intransparent. 

One thing is clear: Algorithms impact our lives. At the same time, it is people who can program and monitor algorithmic processes according to their own value systems. This entails responsibility, since algorithms can only make ethical decisions if their basic structure is coded to follow ethical standards.  

So how can ethical aspects be integrated into simple and self-learning algorithms? What happens when differing ethical frameworks collide within an algorithm? And how can billions of transactions be evaluated according to moral and ethical criteria? 

On the panel “Ethics for billions: Can ethical principles be scaled using technologies?”, Sarah Spiekermann, head of the Management Information Systems Institute of the University of Vienna, and Sandra Wachter, Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and expert for data ethics and AI, will provide insights into the fundamentals of algorithm ethics with their keynotes. In the subsequent discussion, they will be speaking about the compatibility of ethics and technology with Lorena Jaume-Palasí, founder of the Ethical Tech Society, and presenter Christian Clawien, Director Digital Strategy at fischerAppelt.

More information about the sessions and speakers of the MCB19