Artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision-making, computational modeling, data analytics, and other digital tools are increasingly common in business and research. While this allows for greater insight and efficiency in some ways, it can lead to questionable societal outcomes – from hard-to-notice discrimination to non-consensual sentiment manipulation. We are faced with unique ethical questions that we are not prepared to address.
DigEthix is a public education and communications project aimed at enhancing the level of public discourse around issues involving technology and ethics. The goal of the podcast is to promote high-level, practical ethical analysis through conversations with scholars and industry experts, particularly through in-depth discussions of real-world case studies. While there are other podcasts that focus on technology, computer science, and social media trends, DigEthix is unique in its focus on cases. The podcast aims to discuss these cases in-depth, outlining how particular problems occurred and figuring out how to avoid those problems in the future. Because the topics discussed affect most of society, the podcast strives to be as accessible as possible in its presentation of ideas.
The Center for Mind and Culture (CMAC) is a non-profit organization in Boston, Massachusetts dedicated to non-partisan research. CMAC’s network of expert researchers tackles complex social problems such as social integration of immigrants and refugees, religious self-radicalization, spiraling suicide rates, illegal child trafficking, ethical risks of digital data and computer algorithms.
CMAC is unique in using interdisciplinary teams of experts. Teams employ computational models, data analytics, historical interpretation, philosophical analysis of concepts and other methods to generate practical answers to the host of challenges confronting us. CMAC researchers rely on extensive collaboration to implement this leading-edge research, training, and public education.
