The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought significant technological progress, but it has also raised urgent concerns about AI ethics.
AI ethics involves addressing the moral and social implications of AI systems. Key ethical considerations involve the impact on employment, potential bias and discrimination, privacy and data protection, and safety and accountability.
Without proper ethical frameworks, AI systems can lead to unintended consequences that harm individuals, perpetuate biases, erode privacy, or undermine social values.
Therefore, prioritizing AI ethics is crucial to guide AI’s responsible development, implementation, and usage. Interdisciplinary collaboration among technology experts, policymakers, ethics experts, ethics educators, and the community is necessary to address these issues.
Responding to the growing need for AI ethics, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took significant steps by issuing recommendations on AI ethics in 2021.
UNESCO’s recommendations emphasize the importance of ensuring that AI is developed, distributed, and used in ways that align with ethical principles and respect human rights.
The recommendations highlight the need to address bias, discrimination, privacy, and accountability in AI systems.
In collaboration with the UGM Faculty of Philosophy, UNESCO organized an AI Ethics Guideline Drafting Training for the faculty’s teaching staff. The training was held at the Faculty of Philosophy’s building and was attended by 50 lecturers.
Meyda Nento from UNESCO Indonesia mentioned that UNESCO has been conducting training courses since 2004, covering various fields of study, including bioethics, science, and technology.
“This activity aims to involve the faculty members and the academic community in discussing concerns and challenges related to the emergence of general AI, such as ChatGPT. Through this activity, we can engage in discussions,” she said.
Vice Dean for Research, Community Service, Collaboration, and Alumni Dr. Iva Ariani added that this joint effort will explore and seek information regarding suitable ethics or values for Indonesia in relation to technology development, especially AI technology.
“As we all know, discussing AI is not new, and it’s not just about the technology itself but also about its applications. It has entered various fields, including medicine, agriculture, socio-culture, education, basically all areas,” she explained.
She emphasized that technology’s development cannot be stopped, and what humans can do is become technology leaders. Therefore, concepts of awareness and humanity, especially in ethics, are necessary for technology to benefit humans and humanity.
“Benefiting many people is important. Therefore, in collaboration with UNESCO, the Faculty of Philosophy has initiated a program to establish the basics of ethics for artificial intelligence, discussing it further and leading to AI Training of Trainers (ToT),” the vice dean elaborated.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Photographer: Rahmat (UGM Faculty of Philosophy)