FXB Center Work in Progress Seminar: In Search of Accountability: A Human Rights Critique of Guidelines for “Ethical AI”

Scores of actors from industry, government, professional associations and civil society, have issued voluntary guidelines on ‘ethical practices’ for the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies, in recognition of their potentially harmful consequences to society. Many claim to address the protection of human rights. This FXB Center work in progress (WIP) seminar draws from a study, co-authored with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr of the New School and published in Global Policy, which examined a subset of these guidelines, using a framework of international human rights law and principles of equality/non-discrimination, participation, and accountability; the analysis also reviewed how the right to privacy was addressed in the selected guidelines. The WIP will present the methodology, findings and policy implications of this study, as a means for opening discussion of feasible next steps in ensuring accountability for potential harms caused by AI’s deployment in society.

Speaker: Elizabeth D. Gibbons, Instructor

Elizabeth D. Gibbons, Instructor, is a key advisor on FXB Child Protection initiatives including its cross-graduate school Child Protection Certificate program and G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training program. One of FXB’s child protection experts, she advises students on case studies, presents her work and engagement across child protection systems, including at FXB’s monthly Work-In-Progress seminar series, and engages with HU graduate students and executive education students on issues relating to child protection. In her prior capacity of Director of the Child Protection Certificate Program, Liz led development of the cross-disciplinary child protection curriculum for Harvard graduate students, an online HarvardX course and the Executive Education course for child protection professionals. She further participates in FXB initiatives which leverage her expertise in advancing the human rights of children and adolescents. Since 2014, she has been engaged in the exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on human rights, with particular attention to the potential for these technologies to affect inequality within and between global societies.

Moderator: Jacqueline Bhabha, JD, MSc, FXB Director of Research

Jacqueline Bhabha is a Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also the Director of Research at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. She received a first class honors degree and an M.Sc. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from the College of Law in London.

Attendance is possible via Zoom and in person. To attend in person, please email Claire Street at cstreet@hsph.harvard.edu before March 29, 2023.

To attend either virtually or in person, please email Claire Street at cstreet@hsph.harvard.edubefore March 29, 2023.