Bringing Meaning into Technology Deployment: MIT Symposium Highlights Ethical Computing Research

MIT faculty recently convened to discuss pioneering research integrating social, ethical, and technical expertise in 15 TED Talk-style presentations. These projects were supported by seed grants from the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), an initiative of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The symposium highlighted the breadth and depth of research shaping the future of ethical computing, inviting community participation.

Nikos Trichakis, co-associate dean of SERC, emphasized SERC’s commitment to driving progress at the intersection of computing, ethics, and society. Caspar Hare, also co-associate dean of SERC, noted the collective community judgment on the most exciting work in the social and ethical responsibilities of computing at MIT.

The full-day symposium, held on May 1, revolved around responsible health-care technology, AI governance and ethics, technology in society and civic engagement, and digital inclusion and social justice. Presentations covered algorithmic bias, data privacy, and the evolving human-machine relationship. A poster session showcased projects by SERC Scholars.

Highlights from the symposium included:

Making the kidney transplant system fairer

Dimitris Bertsimas presented his work in analytics for fair kidney transplant allocation. His new algorithm significantly reduces the evaluation time for policy scenarios from months to seconds, aiding the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in improving the transplant system.

The ethics of AI-generated social media content

Adam Berinsky and Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski explored the implications of disclosing AI-generated content on social media. Their research indicated that labeling AI-generated images with a process-oriented label reduces belief in both false and true posts, suggesting the need for labels combining process and veracity.

Using AI to increase civil discourse online

Lily Tsai discussed experiments in generative AI and the future of digital democracy. Her team developed DELiberation.io, an AI-integrated platform for deliberative democracy, aiming to enhance online spaces for deliberation and ensure technologies are assessed for positive downstream outcomes.

A public think tank that considers all aspects of AI

Catherine D’Ignazio and Nikko Stevens created Liberatory AI, a public think tank examining all aspects of AI. They gathered diverse researchers to contest the status quo and reorganize resources for societal transformation.