Recent advances in AI, Machine learning and Robotics have significantly enhanced the capabilities of machines. Machine intelligence is now able to support human decision making, augment human capabilities, and, in some cases, take over control from humans and act fully autonomously. Machines are becoming more tightly embedded into systems alongside humans, interacting and influencing each other in a number of ways. Such human-AI partnerships are a new form of socio-technical system in which the potential synergies between humans and machines are much more fully utilised. Designing, building, and deploying human-AI partnerships present a number of new challenges as we begin to understand their impact on our physical and mental well-being, our personal freedoms, and those of the wider society. In this talk I will focus on the challenges in designing trustworthy human-AI partnerships. I will detail the multiple elements of trust in human-AI partnerships and discuss the associated research challenges. I will also aim to identify the risks associated with human-AI partnerships and therefore determine the associated measures to mitigate these risks. I will conclude by giving a brief overview of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme (www.tas.ac.uk), a £33m programme launched in 2020 involving over 20 universities, 100+ industry partners, and over 200 researchers.
Speaker Biography
Prof. Sarvapali Ramchurn is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Turing Fellow, and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is the Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems hub (www.tas.ac.uk) and Co-Director of the Shell- Southampton Centre for Maritime Futures. He is also a Co-CEO of Empati Ltd, an AI startup working on decentralised green hydrogen technologies. His research is about the design of Responsible Artificial Intelligence for socio-technical applications including energy systems and disaster management. He has won multiple best paper awards for his research in multi-agent systems, energy management, and disaster response, and is a winner of the AXA Research Fund Award (2018) for his work on Responsible Artificial Intelligence.