SHERPA
The SHERPA project is made up of a consortium of 11 partners from six countries. project will investigate, analyze and synthesize our understanding of smart information systems (SIS; the combination of artificial intelligence and big data analytics) impact ethics and human rights issues. SHERPA would benefit from direct contact with the leading scientists in the HBP that are likely to move forward AI and big data analytics.
Project Description and Objectives
In collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders, the SHERPA project will investigate, analyse and synthesise our understanding of how smart information systems (SIS; the combination of artificial intelligence and big data analytics) impact ethics and human rights issues. It will develop novel ways of understanding and addressing SIS challenges, evaluate with stakeholders, and advocate the most desirable and sustainable solutions. SHERPA will:
- represent and visualise the ethical and human rights challenges of SIS through case studies, scenarios and artistic representations,
- work with a range of stakeholders to identify their concerns and preferred solutions (via interviews, a large-scale online survey, a Delphi study, a stakeholder board),
- develop and publish a workbook on responsible development of SIS,
- present technical and regulatory options (e.g., terms of reference for a regulator),
- validate and prioritise the proposals through multi-stakeholder focus groups, and
- advocate, promote and implement the most promising solutions through targeted dissemination and communication activities
The SHERPA consortium includes partners representing academia, industry, civil society, standards bodies, ethics committees, art from six countries in Europe.
SHERPA is a research project focusing on smart information systems, i.e. those technologies building on AI and big data. It will undertake a number of case studies of such SIS and would like to use the HBP as one case to better understand how they are developed and utilised.
Collaboration with HBP
At present, the SHERPA is using the HBP as one of the 10 case studies that will be used to understand the ethical and human rights issues that arise from the use of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data (smart information systems). The SHERPA project is developing insights from the case studies. The insights from the case studies will inform the guidelines which are being developed by SHERPA on the ethical use and development of smart information systems. Going forward, the SHERPA project aims to see if these guidelines will apply to the groundbreaking technologies that are being developed and used in human brain research. As a result, the expected outcome of the collaboration will be ethical guidelines for smart information systems which could be used in human brain research. Collaboration with the HBP is instrumental to the outcome because it will facilitate access for SHERPA to explore ethical and human rights issues relating to the groundbreaking technologies that are being developed and used in the HBP.
Biography
Bernd Carsten Stahl (Project Coordinator)
Professor Bernd Carsten Stahl is a leading scholar in the field of ethics of computing and responsibility research and innovation in ICT. He is the director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University in Leicester. He has coordinated three EU projects (ETICA, CONSIDER, Responsible-Industry), is the principal investigator of the ORBIT project, was co-investigator (with Marina Jirotka, Oxford) of the UK EPSRC Framework for RRI in ICT and currently serves as Ethics Director of the EU FET Flagship Human Brain Project. Through the ORBIT project, he is part of the advisory board of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence
Publications
Trilateral, 2018, When AI, big data, ethics and human rights converge, SHERPA Project Press Release [Online] available on https://www.project-sherpa.eu/when-ai-big-data-ethics-and-human-rights-converge/
Stahl, B.C. and Wright, D., 2018. Proactive Engagement with Ethics and Privacy in AI and Big Data-Implementing responsible research and innovation in AI-related projects.
Stahl, B.C. and Wright, D., Ethics and Privacy in AI and Big Data.
Key facts
Time frame: 2018 to 2021
Origin: Spontanous Application
Funding: European Commission
