Rethinking AI for Just and Sustainable Futures.
We investigate how to design AI (artificial intelligence) and other digital technologies in a responsible way, placing the questions of social justice and environmental sustainability at the very heart of our work.
Our research program is a collaboration between the Universities of Cambridge and Bonn and numerous international partners, and is funded by Stiftung Mercator.
Our research.
As the European Commission negotiates its Artificial Intelligence Act that will require AI systems to be assessed for their impact on fundamental rights and values, our teams in the UK and in Germany collaboratively investigate the many questions that arise from these plans:
How can we meaningfully assess whether and how AI systems violate fundamental rights and values?
How does AI development impact the environment and how can we foster truly sustainable approaches to technology production?
What does desirable tech development look like? And who gets to determine what counts as ‘desirable’?
-
In this part of the project, we will investigate foundational, anthropological questions concerning the human in the digital age, such as: how do different ideas of ‘the human’ shape different cultures’ views of desirable digitalization? Our team at Bonn will work with colleagues across Europe and with partners in Asia and Africa.
-
Drawing on lessons from history, political science, and cultural studies, in this part of the project our team at Cambridge will investigate how structural injustices of the past influence today’s technologies, and how new, AI-based solutions impact fundamental rights.
-
In this part of the project, researchers from Bonn and Cambridge will work with the AI industry to develop design and education resources that put environmental sustainability and social justice at the heart of technology production.
Images by: Rens Dimmendaal & Johann Siemens / Better Images of AI