’How we question the ethics of AI is a very political issue’

In advance of the AI & Ethics Week conference, co-organized by EPFL's College of Humanities and Center for Digital Trust, ethics expert Johan Rochel talks about the importance of international and cross-sector debate on the impacts of artificial intelligence. The AI & Ethics Week conference, to be held online from February 7-11, will welcome experts from Asia, Europe, and the US, and feature speakers from research, industry, media, and policy. "This conference is an important opportunity to have a focused discussion that brings together researchers, companies, and members of the broader public to see where we stand on the AI and ethics debate," says College of Humanities ( CDH ) researcher Johan Rochel , who will moderate Tuesday's session on Culture and Ethics. Rochel says that the sheer ubiquity of artificial intelligence today makes bringing together voices from different cultures and disciplines essential. "AI is a general-purpose technology. It is used everywhere and it impacts how we work, or use social media, or watch television. Even the term 'artificial intelligence' is part of the broader ethical discussion we need to have; when you say 'AI', you are implying that human intelligence is in competition with machine intelligence.