London Turing Talk 2019

Dr Krishna Gummadi, will explain why machine (data-driven learning-based algorithmic) decision making is increasingly being used to assist or replace human decision making in a variety of domains ranging from banking (rating user credit) and recruiting (ranking applicants) to judiciary (profiling criminals) and journalism (recommending news-stories). Recently concerns have been raised about the potential for bias and unfairness in such algorithmic decisions. Against this background, in this talk, we will attempt to tackle the following foundational questions about man-machine decision making:

(a) How do machines learn to make biased or unfair decisions?

(b) How can we quantify (measure) and control (mitigate) bias or unfairness in machine decision making?

(c) Can machine decisions be engineered to help humans control (mitigate) bias or unfairness in their own decisions?

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OUR SPEAKERS

Headline Speaker: Dr Krishna Gummadi,

Insight Speaker: Nadia Abouayoub

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AGENDA

18:00 - Registration

18:30 - Insight talk – Nadia Abouayoub

18:45 - Turing talk – Dr Krishna Gummadi

20:00 - Drinks reception

21:00 - Close

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SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Headline Speaker: Dr Krishna Gummadi

Krishna Gummadi is the head of the Networked Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) and a professor at the University of Saarland in Germany. His research interests lie in understanding and building social computing systems.  His current projects focus on enhancing fairness, accountability, transparency, and explainability of automated (particularly, data-driven and learning-based) decision making systems. His work has been recognized by numerous awards including the ACM SIGCOMM Test-of-Time. He also received an ERC Advanced Grant in 2017 to investigate "Foundations for Fair Social Computing".

Insight Speaker: Nadia Abouayoub

Nadia Abouayoub is a member of the BCS's Artificial Intelligence Specialist Group (S.G.A.I.) and BCS Women’s Group. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). She has an MSc. in Computing and DESS in A.I. and Databases from the University of Dijon, and an MSc. in Formal Methods and the Security of Systems from Royal Holloway, University of London. She had been a member of several committees aiming to empower youth and women, most especially in the finance and new technology sectors. One such initiative saw her organise a VISIO conference with NASA for the World Youth Congress in 2004 to enable participants experience the intricacies of robot navigation and the exploration of Mars. She is the organiser of the Machine Intelligence Competition, run by the S.G.A.I., and has organised several workshops and lectures aimed at educating the general public about Artificial Intelligence. She has a personal interest in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for which she has organised many volunteer workshops. She wrote articles focusing on the impact of AI in the financial sector. She launched her graduate career with JP Morgan and has accrued more than 15 years’ experience within the investment banking sector in such fields as Risk Management, Product Control and Technology in Trading Applications. She is currently a Strategist and Improvement Lead.

Title: “AI and us”: the presence of AI in our day to day life

In the recent years, Artificial Intelligence algorithms have been more widely used in companies’ business processes, decision making, and in our day to day life. Key concerns and questions were raised, such as the ethical debate related to AI, the bias in algorithms, finally the understanding of our data and its treatments.

The aim of this talk is to assess the current status of our relationship with AI and its impact on our society. We will cover the following topics:

• The current status regarding our interaction with AI algorithms
• The importance of Ethics in AI
• AI and industries: Transformation of industries business models and its evolution
• The importance of debating on Ethics in AI, and the unbiased algorithms