Algorithmic ethics to be the focus of Marquette University’s sixth annual Ethics of Big Data Symposium, Nov. 4

MILWAUKEE — Marquette University will host the sixth annual Ethics of Big Data Symposium, titled “Applied Algorithmic Ethics—A Roadmap,” as a virtual event on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 12:30 p.m. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, director of machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability at Twitter, will deliver a keynote address about how businesses can apply algorithmic ethics successfully.

The symposium is organized by the Department of Computer Science and the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. Registration for the virtual event is free and available online.

As algorithms increasingly automate decision-making processes, filter information flows, and mediate our social interactions, ethical concerns immediately follow. Questions of fairness, accountability and transparency permeate the growing set of concerns around the social and ethical implications of algorithms. As a growing community of scholars grapples with the ethics of algorithms, how can their findings be applied by technologists engaged in machine learning and the cutting edge of AI development in order to minimize unintended bias and the risk of harm?

Chowdhury is a pioneer in the field of applied algorithmic ethics, creating cutting-edge socio-technical solutions for ethical, explainable and transparent AI. At Twitter, she leads a team of applied researchers and engineers to identify and mitigate algorithmic harms on the platform. Previously, she was CEO and founder of Parity, an enterprise algorithmic audit platform company. She formerly served as Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. In her work as Accenture’s Responsible AI lead, she led the design of the Fairness Tool, a first-in-industry algorithmic tool to identify and mitigate bias in AI systems.

The plenary address will be followed by reactions, conversations, and a question-and-answer session with Dr. Luke Stark, assistant professor of information and media studies at Western University in London, Ontario, and Dr. Ranjit Singh, postdoctoral scholar at the AI on the Ground Initiative of the Data and Society Research Institute.

For more information on the symposium and previous topic, visit the event page.

The Ethics of Big Data Symposium was started in 2016 to address the shifting focus of computer science from computing intensive operations to data intensive operations, and the ethical concerns surrounding who is generating data, what this data is being used for, and how enterprises use this data to promote their own growth. The symposium brings together multi-disciplinary voices from areas such as computer science, sociology, business, health sciences, law and philosophy, for discussions on data security, awakening to the privacy risks and the ethical and legal considerations for practitioners.

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