Ai and ethics going hand in hand? Ambitious, but not impossible
SOLARIS project teaches how to use AI consciously
A European project that includes several international partners and aims at an ethical and positive use of artificial intelligence. Angelo Tumminelli, Researcher in Moral Philosophy at the Department of Human Sciences at LUMSA University, Calogero Caltagirone, Professor of Moral Philosophy at LUMSA University and SOLARIS Team Coordinator for LUMSA, and Federica Russo, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Technosciences at Utrecht University and General Coordinator of SOLARIS explained why a constructive relationship with AI is possible and the roadmap to achieve it.
Professor Tumminelli, how would you summaries the SOLARIS Project and what are its objectives?
SOLARIS is a European project that involves several international partners, including news agencies such as ANSA, various European universities, and diplomatic institutions, such as the Embassy of Albania. It is a cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional consortium. The project aims to analyze and study the geopolitical effects of digital technologies, particularly generative artificial intelligence (GAN, Generative Adversarial Networks). This type of artificial intelligence is highly innovative and increasingly pervasive in our daily lives. As such, the SOLARIS project seeks to examine the impact of generative AI both on a geopolitical level—affecting state relationships—and with regard to the exercise of responsible digital citizenship.
How does one learn to use Artificial Intelligence in a positive way?
First of all, it must be emphasized that artificial intelligence is the result of a hybrid evolution between human beings and technology. It is not extrinsic to human evolution; rather, it is the latest development in it. As a philosopher and anthropologist, I offer my expertise for this interdisciplinary project. Generative artificial intelligence is part of human evolution and can be used either to promote humanity or to destroy it. It can foster human growth or lead to the loss of identity. Therefore, caution is required in using artificial intelligence to allow our humanity to flourish. Institutions, schools, and universities play a crucial role in digital education. Universities, in particular, are key in training future professionals. Lifelong learning must involve every professional field, and every institution should prepare its practitioners for responsible digital citizenship. Cooperation between schools, universities, and professional organizations is essential for the positive and ethical use of artificial intelligence.
Professor Caltagirone, how can the academic and business worlds contribute to the correct use of AI?
As far as academia is concerned, since technology is not neutral, the choices made in the creation of various technological artifacts have social, cultural, political, and institutional implications. There is a need to develop a common and shared ethical framework as a reference for all actors in the field of technology. The objective is to identify, develop, and apply the best tools to address ethical issues related to the development of information and communication technologies, particularly their distorted use, which influences visions and behavior. The role of the university, as a place of research, teaching, and third mission, is strategic for developing a meta-ethical reflection on technology. This reflection must correlate the ethics applied to different technological fields, inspiring convictions, attitudes, and practices that respect human dignity under all conditions and at any age.
What about businesses?
The massive development of technologies is bringing new solutions to social and environmental challenges, significantly improving people's personal and collective lives. As agents of innovation, technologies take the form of process tools that lead to the development of new ideas, tools, or methods to promote the common good. This is realized in life practices, such as the provision of new and efficient ways of transforming material reality, the creation of rules and sanctions formalized in legislative devices, and the identification of shared social values through new practices. Profit and non-profit entrepreneurship play a specific role, not only in building and implementing products, but also in creating the conditions for institutions, organizations, and services that promote inclusiveness, justice, and solidarity for the well-being of people and the environment.
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How can academia and business work together?
To make artificial intelligence a reference infrastructure for the well-being of citizens and the environment, project synergies and coordinated actions are needed between academic institutions and the business world. These efforts must create public spaces for discussion to avoid wasting human, social, cultural, economic, and professional resources. The university, through research, teaching, and public engagement, must provide the theoretical foundations, techniques, and methodologies for applying artificial intelligence, contributing to the advancement of knowledge and skills. This includes training professionals with profiles that can be utilized in the workforce, promoting technological innovation, and supporting economic and social development. The business world must become a key player in the implementation of AI technologies, improving people's daily lives, automating repetitive activities, and reorganizing time for interpersonal relationships and services. An organizational model that enhances relationships between people can generate ethical governance, ensuring the safe and responsible use of technologies, as well as providing advantages for the social and institutional organization of human communities.
Professor Russo, the last question is yours. Is it possible, in your opinion, to establish an international protocol that establishes the limits of an ethical use of Artificial Intelligence?
Absolutely. A protocol for the ethical use of AI can be established. Similar protocols already exist for fundamental research in biomedicine and in the life and cognitive sciences. Of course, we need to agree on the underlying principles and practical matters to decide what is permissible and what is not. There is clearly some difficulty in distinguishing between the 'development' and the 'use' of an AI system, but these are issues to address, not fundamental obstacles
