Mar 12, 2025
Keynote confirmed by Dr Marie Oldfield on AI and Ethics
AI is a rapidly developing discipline that requires a foundation of academic methodology and a professional basis for it to work ethically and robustly. Dr Oldfield speaks about regulation, standards and legislation as well as what we need to do to move forward in an ethical and safe manner when building and using AI.
Citizen literacy plays a large part in this and some questions were ‘ how can get shoehorn this into the curriculum. It is clear that during the school day currently there is very little time and it is hard enough to get enough maths into the timetable but there is a lot of good practice coming out of countries around the world that guides us to introduce philosophy and ethics into STEM subjects. STEM without ethics, context and awareness of societal impacts is a dangerous world. Citizens must be aware of their rights and the channels for recompense and challenge when dealign with companies deploying AI that may not have been robustly or ethically developed.
The QAA have a very large role in this and must look to re-evaluate and fundamentally change the Maths/Stats/OR benchmark statements to align with academic methodology in ethics and robust development so that teaching and assessment formalisation can start top happen across the UK (see the Institute of Science and Technology academic methodology).
For more on AI assurance and professional accreditation please visit istonline.org.uk