July 5-6, 2022 │ BOZAR, 23 Rue Ravenstein, 1000 Bruxelles

FARI

Name: Ethics Washing & Artificial Intelligence
Start: 2022-02-22
End: 2022-02-22
Location: Online

FARI is an independent, not-for-profit Artificial Intelligence initiative led by two universities in Brussels: the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). This initiative will aim at helping citizens, politicians and companies as well as not-for-profit organizations to address local, every day or long-term challenges in the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium and Europe.

It brings world-leading and future researchers to the service of the city. It reinforces a virtuous circle: the city encounters problems that FARI can help address with projects that in their turn could lead to major scientific advances, especially in the field of AI (Explainable and Trustworthy), Data (Open) and Robotics (human-centric).

Download our presentation (PDF)

Values

We put human-centric AI research and innovation at the core of our activities. We will involve ethical and civic steering committees onboard, to actively participate, guarantee the applicability, acceptability and relevance of our projects. The initiative will be driven by AI and Data ethics. Beyond beautiful words, this means that for every potential project, partners will have to be aligned with the legal requirements of, for instance fairness, transparency and accountability, while respecting academic freedom and integrating ethical and societal concerns. We will ensure that all FARI projects consider the EU’s seven key requirements for responsible AI, both in the context of research and in the context of use. All FARI’s projects will respect the ground rules of the responsible research and innovation. We are also committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the OECD’s call for a new growth narrative. Finally, FARI does not promote technological solutionism and therefore does not promote AI as a systematic solution to every problem.

News

March 22, 2022

Round-up: European AI Week 2022

If you missed the European AI Week on March 14-18, 2022, you can still watch the full recordings of the events. Here's a round-up of all sessions supported and/or co-organised by FARI and its CLAIRE Brussels Office.

February 11, 2022

FARI celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science

February 11, 2022 marks the 7th International Day of Women and GIrls in Science. In celebration, we talked to some...

January 24, 2022

FARI officially launches AI for the Common Good projects under NexGenerationEU programme

Brussels – ULB and VUB vice-rectors Marius Gilbert and Hugo Thienpoint, officially announced on January 18, 2022 that FARI will...

In brief

Researchers

ULB and VUB Research Labs

Disciplines represented

Events

February 2022

22 February

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Ethics Washing & Artificial Intelligence

Register Here

Location

Online

More Info

Register Here

What is Ethics Washing in Artificial Intelligence? How to address and regulate it?

Just like in other technological domains, in recent years there has been a proliferation of ethical guidelines and declarations in Artificial Intelligence. Private companies, public organizations and researchers are increasingly expected to demonstrate their awareness of these standards and to show intentions and plans on how to apply them.

The main narrative is that, because of the ever increasing presence of AI systems in our daily lives, the ethical and societal risks of AI need to be addressed. This is why many organizations have now written their own charters of values, codes of conduct in AI, and declaration of principles.

However, in line with what has been observed with Sustainability (and other domains), some organizations and individuals in the field of AI might pretend having an interest in Ethics for various reasons. This practice, called “ethics washing”, can often occur in the absence of strong regulation – but not only. Ethics can be used as a non-binding tool to publicly demonstrate good intentions – while not necessarily meeting these claimed commitments. Beyond the virtue-signaling efforts and potential marketing strategies, this event will take a closer look at this phenomenon, especially questioning how to address this issue from a regulatory, scientific and societal point of view.

This event is organized by FARI – AI for the Common Goood Institute (ULB-VUB, Brussels), jointly with the Law Science Technology and Society Group (VUB). It will be animated by Simone Casiraghi (LSTS). Our panel of experts:

Dominic Martin, Professor in Applied Ethics, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Pr Sylvie Delacroix, The Alan Turing Institute, United Kingdom

Dr Katherine O’Keefe, Castlebridge, Ireland

Register here.

March 2022

10 March

All Day

icity Lab Talks: digital research solutions

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Location

Online

More Info

The current data economy pushes companies to increase the intangible asset portion of their balance sheets, but this requires more digital innovation than ever before, with the high-risk level typically associated with it. An effective way for companies to de-risk digital innovation is collaboration with universities, from consultancy to structured consortia for subsidized innovation projects.

However, finding the right lab with the specific R&D expertise required is no easy task. This is why icity.brussels(*) launches a series of webinars dedicated to the ULB and VUB research units active in the digital domains, to highlight the value they can bring to you through their knowledge, services, technology and skills.

These webinars will be organized around three main topics:

DAY 1 | The Digital Process – Focus on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things
DAY 2 | The Digital Value Chain – Boosting digital innovation in Cybersecurity, Information Systems and Industry 4.0
DAY 3 | Smart Living and Life Balance – Human-focused digital innovation: Smart City, Mobility, Sustainability, e-Health and Well-Being.

For more details and registration, visit https://icity.brussels/icity-lab-talks-2022/

14 - 18 March

8:00 am - 6:00 pm

FARI events @ European AI Week 2022

June 2022

24 June

3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Vision AI Open Day

Organizer

Marianne Willaert

Email

marianne.willaert@inria.fr

Website

https://www.vision4ai.eu/ai-open-day2022/

Location

AI Experience Center

Pleinlaan 9 1050 Brussel

Live – Real – Interactive

Learn something new in a dynamic and entertaining way.
Join the insightful discussions with main personalities on AI.
Get to know what stays behind “AI made in Europe: Trustworthy, Human-centred & Ethical AI

The Event is Designed for

All people with an interest in new technologies
University Students
General Public
High-school students and pupils

Register here: https://www.vision4ai.eu/ai-open-day2022/

July 2022

05 - 06 July

8:00 am - 6:00 pm

FARI Brussels Conference: AI, Data, and Robotics for the Common Good

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Location

Bozar

Brussels

More Info

On its mission to strengthen dialogues between stakeholders that drive innovations on artificial intelligence (AI), data, and robotics, FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute is set to hold its very first International Conference on “AI, Data, and Robotics for the Common Good”.

In recent years, researchers, international organizations, policy makers, and NGOs have published many reports advocating for a responsible use of Artificial Intelligence, Data or Robotics. Numerous organizations were created to promote AI (or Data) for Good, for Society, for Humanity, etc. Beyond nice intentions and beautiful words: how does it actually translate into practice? How should these technologies be implemented to address pressing challenges (like the climate crisis, humanitarian conflicts, and health crisis) while respecting fundamental rights and ethical safeguards? This international conference will seek to spark essential conversation in defining “AI for Common Good” and in how this can be realized in the current realities of Brussels, Belgium, and beyond.

During this two-day activity, world-leading AI/Data/Robotics researchers, experts, policy-makers, and advocates will gather to showcase promising local and international projects, and discuss current technical trends and challenges. Through this, we aim to inspire and stir actionable response from institutions in creating a Brussels AI framework that is sustainable, inclusive, and comprehensive.

For more information, visit: conference.fari.brussels/

No event found!

Activities

It combines VUB and ULB strengths: their multi-disciplinary research teams in AI, Robotics and related disciplines, including legal, ethical research and social sciences. They will provide a high level of expertise in fundamental and applied research, as well as an international network of academic and business partners.

It is an independent non-profit think-tank, acting at the Regional, National, European levels. Its goal is to work on the real-world impact of AI-applications and to inform decision-makers on the most-needed changes to guarantee ethical, lawful and responsible uses of AI and data sciences. It will involve leading influencers, thinkers, foundations and scientific organizations.

It will serve as an innovation asset building on existing VUB and ULB structures (e.g. VUB’s AI Experience Center or ULB’s Smart Campus). It will showcase the successes and accomplishments, organize events, and as such offer living labs platforms and a co-creation place for all stakeholders of the “quadruple helix”. It will moreover facilitate several education programs for the different stakeholders and general public in the domain of AI, Data and Robotics. Finally, it will host test and innovation activities of innovators from both academia, private sector, as well as non-for-profit organizations and the public sector.