As much as we love AI, we share the broader concerns related to this science, such as privacy infringement, workplace displacement, algorithmic bias against minoritized groups, equitable access to education technology and tech weaponization.

We use our ethical imaginations at the Institute to consider what AI should do rather than what it can do in our work so we can avoid any potential harmful consequences of AI. We also work with our partners every step of the way to address ethical considerations of their technologies.  

Ethics and Equity

Equity is our guiding principle in all of our research practices. We believe that AI researchers must develop equity-focused practices, which include noticing, decoding and deconstructing bias and discrimination – including algorithmic bias. This is why we are working with a diverse group of 5,000 students and teachers to train our AI. We also participated in the Racial Equity Challenge for Institutes 2021 to learn more about how we can be anti-racist when developing our work. 

Ethics and Equality

We seek to disrupt forms of systemic inequality by being fully accountable to historically marginalized communities. We include the voices of contributors from historically underrepresented groups throughout the research process so that they shape the agenda of our inquiry. This is done through the development and maintenance of long-term partnerships with grassroots organizations who specialize in drawing out diverse community perspectives on a range of social issues

Our Culture of Ethics

We recognize that best practices in AI ethics is an evolving subject. That’s why we require our team to participate in ethics training workshops.

The ethics training of our Institute will not only develop knowledge about ethics in AI, but also foster a scientific culture in which ethics is central and not an afterthought. Our approach combines both formal training in ethics with steps that foster the culture of ethics within our Institute.