AI Ethics: Setting the AI Agenda – Evidence from Sweden in the ChatGPT Era

Abstract:

In this seminar I will start by giving an introduction to the AI debate since the release of ChatGPT: the increased focus on risks, ranging from immediate and real concerns already affecting people today, to apocalyptic visions with no grounding in existing or soon-to-come technology.

I will then present some results from a recent pilot study in Sweden, where we take a perspective from agenda-setting theory and propose that it is an elite outside of party politics that is leading the debate – i.e. that the politicians are relatively silent when it comes to this rapid development.

We also suggest that the debate has become more substantive and risk-oriented in recent years. To investigate this claim, we draw on an original dataset of elite-level documents from the early 2010s to the present, using op-eds published in a number of leading Swedish newspapers. By conducting a qualitative content analysis of these materials, our preliminary findings lend support to the expectation that an academic, rather than a political elite is steering the debate.

This is joint work with Bastiaan Bruinsma, Annika Fredén, Kajsa Hansson, Pasko Kisic Merino and Denitsa Saynova.

Bio:

Moa Johansson is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers, where she also serves as co-director of the Information and Communication Technology Area of Advance.