NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--From battlefield robots and military drones to self-driving cars and so-called “love machines,” an international conference hosted by the University of Delaware will explore ethical issues involving information technology and artificial intelligence.
“Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry” will take place June 22-25 at the Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware. It will be the first international conference jointly sponsored by the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology and the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. The event will bring together philosophers and engineers to meet and share ideas.
A sampling of topics to be discussed:
Monday, June 22 — “On the Relation of Computing to the World,” “A Critique of Machine Ethics from the Perspective of Autonomy” and “Sex, Virtue and Robots,” a symposium led by John P. Sullins, an ethics professor at Sonoma State University and author of a paper titled “Robots, Love and Sex: The Ethics of Building a Love Machine.”
Tuesday, June 23 — “Self-Care, Patient Empowerment and the Virtue of Personal Health Technologies” and “Getting a Handle on Big Data Ethics,” a keynote address by Deborah Johnson, professor of applied ethics at the University of Virginia, who will begin by discussing recent research in which Facebook collaborated with scientists at Cornell to manipulate and analyze the emotions of the site’s users.
Wednesday, June 24 — “The Sentimental Robot: Soldiers, Metal Psychopaths and Artificial Intelligence,” “Problematics of Separation: The Case of Drones” and “Beyond Right and Wrong,” a discussion about the ethics of technology in relation to autonomous cars.
Thursday, June 25 — “Beyond Informed Consent: Investigating Ethical Justifications for Disclosing, Donating or Sharing Personal Data in Research” and “I Keep a Close Watch on This Child of Mine,” a discussion of the use of apps by which parents can track their children’s movements.
The full program for the conference is available at this website. Videos of select presentations will be available following the conference on this website.