AI Ethics: Policies of de-politicisation?

Abstract:

The intense attention on how AI technologies are increasingly permeating aspects of society as well as of people’s everyday life often ends in a call for ethics. The need for ethical AI, or responsible AI, or thrust-worthy AI, is put forward, by scholars as well as policymakers, as the answer to the potential risks that the implementation of different forms of AI technologies could bring.

In this talk, I will demonstrate the analytical merit of a governmentality framework when focusing on the political implications of the ethics discourse. Hence, I will focus on what ethics ‘does’ with and in policy, and what the political implications of these ‘doings’ are.

Bio:

Malin Rönnblom is a Professor in Political Science at Karlstad University and Affiliated Professor in Regional Studies at Umeå university. She has a longstanding interest in political and feminist theory, critical policy studies and in studies of democracy and governing. Rönnblom has developed critical research on the restructuring of the public sector with a focus on aspects of depoliticisation, democratic backsliding and the effects of the implementation of AI technologies such as automation. Her latest book is Trängd demokrati. Om politikens vardag och om att vara människa (2022).