Meet Our Keynote Speakers
The conference will feature keynote speakers of international prominence.
Sanmay Das, Professor of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Associate Director for Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics of the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing, will deliver a talk entitled On AI Alignment in the Provision of Social Services: Opportunities and Challenges. In this presentation, Das will focus on the use of AI in decision-making processes related to the allocation of scarce social resources, with particular attention to services for people experiencing homelessness, and will reflect on how theories of local justice and “street-level bureaucracy” can influence our use of AI in decision-making.
Francesca Rossi, IBM Fellow and IBM AI Ethics Global Leader, who works at the T.J. Watson IBM Research Lab in New York, will present a talk entitled AI Ethics and Governance: An Evolving Landscape with a Clear ROI, in which she will outline the main issues related to AI ethics and safety and analyze how these have evolved over the years alongside advances in AI capabilities.
Daniel Innerarity, Professor of Political and Social Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country and holder of the “Artificial Intelligence and Democracy” Chair at the European University Institute in Florence, will present a talk entitled People in AI. In this contribution, he will reflect on the fact that digital technologies seem to be technologies that bypass people, while noting that, for AI to be truly democratic, people should be involved throughout its life cycle at different moments, in different ways, and depending on what is at stake.
Mariarosaria Taddeo, Full Professor of Digital Ethics and Defence Technologies at the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford, will deliver a talk entitled The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Defence. In this presentation, Taddeo will offer an analysis of the issues arising from the use of AI in national defence, highlighting in particular how its potential is accompanied by significant ethical, social, and legal risks.
Finally, the conference will feature Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life, with which he promoted, in February 2020, the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a document signed by the Pontifical Academy for Life, Microsoft, IBM, FAO, and the Italian Ministry for Innovation to promote an ethical approach to artificial intelligence. Paglia will present a talk entitled The Human in the Age of AI: Responsibility, Dignity, and the Common Good.