Preparing for the ethical dilemmas of the AI era

The world is experiencing extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence. There are new applications in finance, defense, health care, criminal justice, and education, among other areas. Algorithms are improving spell-checkers, voice recognition systems, ad targeting, and fraud detection. Yet at the same time, there is concern regarding the ethical values embedded within AI and the extent to which algorithms respect basic human values. Ethicists worry about a lack of transparency, poor accountability, unfairness, and bias in automated tools.

On Friday, Sept. 14, the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion on the ethics of AI and how society should handle various ethical dilemmas of the automated age. After the session, speakers took questions from the audience.