Actions Panel
Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence: European & American Perspectives
Date and time
Location
Dentons
1900 K Street Northwest Washington, DC 20006Description
The Goethe-Institut Washington and the Friends of the Aspen Germany are pleased to invite you to a discussion on:
Ethical Principles and Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence: European and American Perspectives
Date and Time:
June 28, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.
Registration and Coffee at 8:30 a.m.
Location:
Dentons LLP
1900 K St NW, Washington, DC 20006
Washington, DC 20036
The rapid development of AI across the developed world has raised serious questions of what ethical principles, if any, should guide its development. Two months ago an independent High-level Expert Group on AI, set up by the European Commission, issued ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI. A few weeks later, OECD, the Paris-based organization of developed countries, issued its own set of AI principles which include the recommendation that “AI systems should be designed in a way that respects the rule of law, human rights, democratic values and diversity.” The abstract nature of this commitment to moral and legal values seems to align with the U.S. government’s February 2019 declaration emphasizing a ”flexible, light-touch policy environment to encourage AI innovation.” The question remains whether the European policy approach to AI will likewise be aligned with that of the U.S. or whether the two approaches will diverge in a way that mirrors the initial handling of the privacy concerns twenty years ago.
Please join us on June 28 when we will discuss the importance of an ethical framework for AI. A presentation and critique of the basic findings of the EU Ethical Guidelines by Thomas Metzinger, will be followed by a U.S. perspective on the issue of AI ethics and regulation by Anupam Chander.
Discussants:
Thomas Metzinger, Professor, University of Mainz; Member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI
Anupam Chander is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and an expert in the global regulation of new technologies
Moderator:
Kim Larsen, Board member of the Friends of Aspen Germany, Washington, DC and a Principal at Bressler, Amery & Ross
Welcome Remarks:
Lena Jöhnk, Director of Cultural Programs, North America, Goethe-Institut
Thomas Metzinger is currently Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and an adjunct fellow and director of the MIND Group at the Frankfurt Institute for Advance Study (FIAS). Metzinger is past president of the German Cognitive Science Society (2005-2007) and the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (2009-2011). His research focuses on the philosophy of mind and cognitive science as well on connections between ethics, philosophy of mind and anthropology. He has received several awards and fellowships, the last one being a 5-year GRC fellowship by the Gutenberg Research College (204-2019). Metzinger was appointed as a member of the European Commission’s High-level Expert Group on AI.
Anupam Chander is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. The author of the widely-reviewed book, The Electronic Silk Road (Yale University Press), he is an expert on the global regulation of new technologies. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he clerked for Chief Judge Jon O. Newman of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge William A. Norris of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He practiced law in New York and Hong Kong with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He has been a visiting law professor at Yale, the University of Chicago, Stanford, Cornell, and Tsinghua. He previously served as the Director of the California International Law Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis. A member of the American Law Institute, he has also served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, where he co-founded the International Law and Technology Interest Group. He serves as a judge of the Stanford Junior International Faculty Forum. A recipient of Google Research Awards and an Andrew Mellon grant on the topic of surveillance, he has served on ICTSD/World Economic Forum expert groups on the digital economy. He serves as an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Policy, faculty advisor to Georgetown’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy, and faculty affiliate of Yale’s Information Society Project.
Kim Larsen is on the Board of Friends of Aspen Germany and is a Principal of Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. with a practice in transactional work in intellectual property, fintech, telecom and mergers and acquisitions. Kim has a background in intellectual property and represents companies active in artificial intelligence both as suppliers and users. He was lead outside transactional counsel for Deutsche Telekom in the purchase of a twenty percent interest in Sprint and in the formation of a joint venture with France Telecom and Sprint. Kim co-founded Ciena Corporation, Corvis Corporation and was general counsel, head of corporate development and Co-CEO of Broadwing Corporation, a national interexchange carrier. Kim led the Mayer Brown office in Germany. Kim is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Brigham Young University.
Lena Jöhnk is the Director of Cultural Programs for the Goethe-Institut in North America.
Organized by
The Goethe-Institut Washington organizes and supports cultural events that present German culture abroad and that further intercultural exchange.
Friends of Aspen Germany, Inc. was founded in the United States in 2014. It is its goal to support the implementation of the mission and aims of the Aspen Institute Germany.