European AI Week
Self-learning algorithms are increasingly a part of our lives. But what decisions can these algorithms make? A simple “computer says no” without transparency or objection? Many professionals working with AI find themselves on the borderline between IT, legislation and ethics, and have a lot of questions. To respond to this, the Knowledge Centre Data & Society (KDM) has opened a virtual helpdesk where AI professionals, and anyone who wants to work with AI, can find an answer to ethical and legal questions about AI and data-driven applications. KDM is a collaboration between three university research groups: imec-SMIT-VUB, CiTiP of KU Leuven and imec-MICT-UGent.
Prof Rob Heyman, KDM coordinator: “The helpdesk is there to answer questions about the ethical and legal aspects of working with AI. Questions like how to make an AI application GDPR-proof, how to make sure that an application does not discriminate, how to find a good balance between automation and human decision-making or how to make the diagnosis made by a medical AI application transparent. We give advice without obligation. If we cannot answer a question immediately, we will look within the Knowledge Centre to see if we can set up a study on the subject. This means we can gear our activities even more closely to the questions that exist in the field.”
The KDM is part of the Flemish Artificial Intelligence Policy Plan and receives support from the Flemish government’s department for economy, science and innovation.