Max Van Kleek - Is it time that machines showed a little respect? Exploring respect as a normative lens for ethical interactive systems

Max Van Kleek
Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction
University of Oxford

max.van.kleek@cs.ox.ac.uk

Is it time that machines showed a little respect? Exploring respect as a normative lens for ethical interactive systems

Biography

Max Van Kleek is Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science of the University of Oxford, Governing Body Fellow of Kellogg College, and Research Fellow of Ethical Web and Data Architectures (EWADA) at the Oxford Martin School. Max co-leads the Human Centered AI research group, focusing on the design of humane and ethical architectures and applications, ranging from everyday information management to cybersecurity. He teaches both masters courses on Interaction Design and undergraduate classes on AI Ethics and Responsible Innovation. Max completed his studies at MIT (PhD, CS 2011; MEng EECS 2003; SB 2001), and has worked at PARC, IBM Research, Nokia Research, Sun Microsystems Labs, the MIT AI Lab, and the MIT Media Lab.

Abstract

Visions of AI from the early 20th century portrayed a life of increased leisure, creativity and meaning, supported by cadres of automated systems able to take care of all the menial and labour-intensive work. Instead, people today are more stressed, over-stretched and less supported than ever before, while being consistently tricked, cajoled, surveilled, harassed, and even blackmailed by apps and interactive systems. What happened? While researchers have decried the rise of so-called “dark patterns”, we believe there is a far broader and more problematic lack of consideration of how systems are treating people, which is becoming even more of a problem as systems become more capable (e.g. mixed initiative, and social), as well as pervasive. In this talk, we attempt a simple idea: to apply the philosophy of respect to the design of systems, demonstrating that respect is an incredibly versatile and useful construct for thinking about many different ways individuals should, and indeed deserve, to be treated.