Talk on "Morality for Machines and Their Creators!"
Speaker: Dr. Ardhendu Pathak
Title: Morality for Machines (and Their Creators!).
Abstract:What is the role of ethics in engineering? What ethics, an ancient branch of philosophy- and apparently a soft, squishy subject- got to do with engineering, a 'hard - practical- and numbers-driven’ field? Why should engineering students bother with such esoteric topics meant for 'arty-types'? The answer, it turns out, is that with a host of new technologies ranging from AI to CRISPR, the potential to do good as well as harm is very high. The affected entities can be the society at large, or companies where you may work or even your career! The questions that will have to be faced by the engineers entering the profession now are vastly more important- and grey-than any generation since perhaps the dawn of the nuclear age.
This talk will focus on ethical implications of a host of technologies ranging from autonomous cars to predictive policing. In the process, we will see, among other things, what one can learn from the Criminal Tribes Act of British India 1871, how tightly coupled algorithms can lead to price manipulation and worse, and why face recognition- the poster boy of AI success- can be a double edged sword.
Speaker Bio: 
Event Date: 12th March, 2019(Tuseday)
Event Time: 10:20 AM to 11:20 AM
Venue:
IIT Dharwad, Karnataka