Our work seeks to catalyze and advance AI in the public interest, with the aim of including the broadest possible set of voices in the discussions around understanding and addressing the human impacts of AI. The Berkman Klein Center and the MIT Media Lab will act as a collaborative platform where stakeholders working across disciplines, sectors, and geographies can meet, engage, learn, and share. This set of related resources features a sample of the significant work already being conducted within the broader community. Our continued work will build on previous and existing collaborations, and we are excited to establish new connection points with others in the field.
Knight Foundation
- The Knight Foundation issued a press release on January 10, 2017, announcing the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund.
- Frequently Asked Questions about the Fund
- A blogpost from the Knight Foundation and video interview with President Alberto Ibargüen details the new initiative.
MIT Media Lab
- The Media Lab's announcement
- MIT News coverage
- Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, published blog posts on "Society in the Loop Artificial Intelligence" and on the "Future of Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence."
- President Barack Obama met with Joi Ito and Scott Dadich in the White House to discuss "the hope, the hypes, and the fear around AI" in an interview for Wired.
- The Moral Machine provides a platform for building a crowd-sourced picture of human opinion on how machines should make decisions when faced with moral dilemmas, and crowd-sourcing the assembly and discussion of potential scenarios of moral consequence. Iyad Rahwan, AT&T Career Development Professor and an Associate Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, is a principal architect of Moral Machine and co-author of the associated paper, "The Social Dilemma of Autonomous Vehicles."
AI 100
AI Now
- AI Now has published a summary of the AI Now public symposium hosted by the White House and New York University's Information Law Institution, held in July 2016, on the "Social and Economic Implication of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in the Near-Term."
Computer Science at Harvard
- The Harvard Computer Science Department is pursuing ground-breaking work in the area of artificial intelligence, including the work at the intersection of AI and economics, research on the Turing test, and autonomous systems (among many other things).
- Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, taught a course during the Fall 2016-7 semester on "Intelligent Systems: Design and Ethical Challenges."
Data & Society Research Institute
Data & Society's Intelligence and Autonomy Initiative develops policy research connecting the dots between robots, algorithms and automation.
In an AI Pattern Language paper, D&S presents a taxonomy of social challenges that emerged from interviews with a range of practitioners working in the intelligent systems and AI industry.
In another paper, D&S employs the concept of “moral crumple zones” within human-machine systems as a lens through which to think about the limitations of current frameworks for accountability in human-machine or robot systems.
- The Algorithms and Publics project at Data & Society aims to map how the public sphere is currently understood, controlled, and manipulated in order to spark a richer conversation about what interventions should be considered to support the ideal of an informed and engaged citizenry.
- The Data & Society workshop "Who Controls the Public Sphere in an Era of Algorithms?" was informed by and produced a set of documents for understanding what's at stake:
Mediation, Automation, Power, a contemporary issues primer; Assumptions and Questions, a background primer; Case Studies, a complement to the contemporary issues primer; Executive Summary for Workshop; and Workshop Summary, extended notes from the workshop.
Digital Asia Hub
- The Digital Asia Hub has released a number of articles on artificial intelligence in Asia, including reflections from the in inaugural "AI in Asia" conference, with additional reports from a AI in Asia workshop series forthcoming.
Partnership on AI
- The Partnership on AI was established to study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society.
White House
- The "Administration’s Report on the Future of Artificial Intelligence" published in October 2016 focuses on the opportunities, considerations, and challenges of artificial intelligence.
- The Obama administration announced a series of workshops and interagency working groups to learn more about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence.
Additional Resources