Inleiding op een themanummer van British Journal of Social Work over sociaal werk in de digitale samenleving.
The Dutch national platform for artistic research organised a day of talks and discussion regarding the topic of ethics, care, and code of conduct for researchers. The introduction laid out several of the key topics and themes for the day, along with the social contexts (#MeToo, BLM, environmental crisis, Corona pandemic, GDPR, and further topics) that make it necessary to explicitly focus on ethics in our work.
In the context of the designers responsibility for the impact of technology, ethical considerations are important. However, these considerations are often seen as limiting innovation and the freedom of the designer. Is it possible, on the contrary, that ethics can also foster creativity in design? The research project Tech-Wise is about a practice oriented approach in ethics; developing tools to engage people with ethical deliberation on the impact of technology. One result of the project is a workshop format for stimulating ethical deliberation that can be tailored to particular technologies and design disciplines. We argue from the results of one particular instance of this workshop format that such an approach to ethics has a fruitful reciprocal effect. It can stimulate creativity in design by enriching the question about the purpose of an innovation, and the other way around enrich ethical reasoning by opening up to often surprising impacts of technologies.
MULTIFILE
The IMPULS-2020 project DIGIREAL (BUas, 2021) aims to significantly strengthen BUAS’ Research and Development (R&D) on Digital Realities for the benefit of innovation in our sectoral industries. The project will furthermore help BUas to position itself in the emerging innovation ecosystems on Human Interaction, AI and Interactive Technologies. The pandemic has had a tremendous negative impact on BUas industrial sectors of research: Tourism, Leisure and Events, Hospitality and Facility, Built Environment and Logistics. Our partner industries are in great need of innovative responses to the crises. Data, AI combined with Interactive and Immersive Technologies (Games, VR/AR) can provide a partial solution, in line with the key-enabling technologies of the Smart Industry agenda. DIGIREAL builds upon our well-established expertise and capacity in entertainment and serious games and digital media (VR/AR). It furthermore strengthens our initial plans to venture into Data and Applied AI. Digital Realities offer great opportunities for sectoral industry research and innovation, such as experience measurement in Leisure and Hospitality, data-driven decision-making for (sustainable) tourism, geo-data simulations for Logistics and Digital Twins for Spatial Planning. Although BUas already has successful R&D projects in these areas, the synergy can and should significantly be improved. We propose a coherent one-year Impuls funded package to develop (in 2021): 1. A multi-year R&D program on Digital Realities, that leads to, 2. Strategic R&D proposals, in particular a SPRONG/sleuteltechnologie proposal; 3. Partnerships in the regional and national innovation ecosystem, in particular Mind Labs and Data Development Lab (DDL); 4. A shared Digital Realities Lab infrastructure, in particular hardware/software/peopleware for Augmented and Mixed Reality; 5. Leadership, support and operational capacity to achieve and support the above. The proposal presents a work program and management structure, with external partners in an advisory role.
Steeds meer organisaties vinden het belangrijk om ‘ethisch verantwoorde’ AI-toepassingen te ontwikkelen. Maar wat is precies ethisch verantwoord? En hoe ontwerp je AI-systemen die aan ethische richtlijnen voldoen? In dit coöperatieve spel ontwerp je samen, op basis van de ethische principes opgesteld door de EU, ethisch verantwoorde AI-toepassingen.Doel In het spel worden de spelers benaderd door de startup ‘Ethics Inc.’ om een betrouwbare AI-toepassing te ontwikkelen die voldoet aan Europese richtlijnen. De spelers vormen samen een denktank om de startup te adviseren over hoe zij deze toepassing het best kunnen ontwikkelen. Het spel eindigt als er consensus is bereikt na één of meer rondes. Samen maak je een vertaalslag van abstracte waarden naar de specifieke gebruikerscontext. Het spel is gebaseerd op de EU Ethics Guidelines For Trustworthy AI welke ook ten grondslag ligt aan de aankomende EU-wetgeving rondom AI. Resultaten Een coöperatief spel waarin er samen ethisch verantwoorde AI-toepassingen ontworpen worden (3 tot 8 spelers, 75 minuten). Je kunt een fysiek exemplaar bestellen door een mail te sturen naar info@stt.nl. De kaarten zijn ook als PDF te downloaden om zelf uit te printen. Er is ook een digitale versie van het spel gemaakt, deze wordt op het moment getest en doorontwikkeld. Het gedachtegoed achter het ontwerpspel is verder uitgediept in het paper An Agile Framework for Trustworthy AI welke is geaccepteerd voor de ECAI-2020 Workshop “New Foundations for Human-Centered AI”. Looptijd 01 maart 2020 - 31 december 2022 Aanpak De Stichting Toekomstbeeld der Techniek STT heeft het fysieke spel samen met het lectoraat Artificial Intelligence (HU) ontwikkeld, waarbij een grafisch vormgever een aansprekende stijl heeft neergezet. Daarnaast is de Stichting Koninklijk Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut (NEN) betrokken als partner. In 2021 en verder ligt de focus van dit project op een digitale versie van het spel, waarmee het breder ingezet kan worden in de praktijk. Impact voor het onderwijs Voor studenten is Ethics Inc. een tool om van begin af aan AI-toepassingen te ontwerpen die de Europese AI richtlijnen meenemen (Ethics by design). Er lopen pilots bij verschillende opleidingen om de inzet van het spel ook daar te testen.
GAMING HORIZONS is a multidisciplinary project that aims to expand the research and innovation agenda on serious gaming and gamification. The project is particularly interested in the use of games for learning and cultural development. Gamification - and gaming more broadly – are very important from a socio-economic point of view, but over the past few years they have been at the centre of critical and challenging debates, which highlighted issues such as gender and minority representation, and exploitative game mechanics. Our project’s key contention is that it is important for the European ICT community to engage with design trends and social themes that have affected profoundly the mainstream and ‘independent’ game development cultures over the past few years, especially because the boundaries between leisure and serious games are increasingly blurred. GAMING HORIZONS is a direct response to the official recognition by the H2020 programme of work that multidisciplinary research can help to advance the integration between Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). The project’s objective is to enable a higher uptake of socially responsible ICT-related research in relation to gaming. This objective will be achieved through a research-based exchange between communities of developers, policy makers, users and researchers. The methodology will involve innovative data collection activities and consultations with a range of stakeholders over a period of 14 months. We will interrogate the official ‘H2020 discourse’ on gamification – with a particular focus on ‘gamified learning’ - whilst engaging with experts, developers and critical commentators through interviews, events, workshops and systematic dialogue with an Advisory Board. Ultimately, GAMING HORIZONS will help identify future directions at the intersection of ethics, social research, and both the digital entertainment and serious games industries.EU FundingThe 14-month research project 'Gaming Horizons' was funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.