Plenary Speaker Ulrike Reisach – Artificial Intelligence – How Ethics and Governance Could Contain the Manipulation of Societies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this plenary comprises machine learning systems for tracking, profiling, forecasting and making recommendations. Due to their ability to learn and evolve dynamically, they are much faster and more powerful than previous digital tools. This can facilitate both intended and unintended outcomes. It particularly applies to search engines and social media, where a broad public is addressed and where bots can multiply the effects. For example, the Brexit referendum, and the presidential elections in the USA and Brazil, have started a discussion about whether and how machine learning techniques could influence citizens’ decisions.
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The potential impact of machine learning algorithms on the choices and opinions of users of search engines and online media, within and across borders, is discussed in this plenary. Endogenous and exogenous factors, which have the potential to influence the process, quality and outcomes of decision making are explained. Examples will show how organizations and their designers, architects and developers can ensure compliance with ethical and social norms, and create trust in their systems among users and other stakeholders who might be directly or indirectly affected. Ethics codes and governance approaches will be discussed, as well as their perception and effectiveness in cyber systems, within the political frameworks of the EU, the USA and China.
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The plenary concludes by exhorting the operational research community to make the public more aware of the power of Artificial Intelligence, and how understanding it can help societies protect themselves from societal and political manipulation.