Event Details

Title: Who cares what the public think? Public participation in data & AI policy & practice

Abstract: Data and AI driven systems increasingly affect people who have little say or control in how those systems are designed, deployed, and governed. When the effects of these systems aren’t aligned with people’s hopes or expectations, or are downright harmful to individuals and/or society, it erodes the public trust in these systems and the social license they need to operate. The Ada Lovelace Institute aims to ensure data and AI work for people and society. The Public Engagement team at Ada aims to put people at the heart of data and AI policy and practice by enabling them to meaningfully participate in research, deliberation, and dialogue. In this talk, I’ll share some examples of the projects we have been doing in the Public Engagement team at Ada and what they tell us about making data and AI more trustworthy.

Bio: Aidan is a Senior Researcher at the Ada Lovelace Institute. He leads on public attitudes and engagement research projects like the Citizens’ Biometrics Council, and a survey on digital health inequalities. Before joining Ada in August 2019, Aidan worked at the Wellcome Trust on the social and ethical issues of health data and technology. His background is in social science approaches to understanding relationships between people and tech – from bridges and bikes to nuclear power and AI. His first degree was in Drama, where he studied how the stories we tell about science and tech can have profound effects on how we perceive and design them.