Junior Research Group in AI Ethics

Aims and research of the Junior Research Group in AI Ethics

The Junior Research Group in AI Ethics (Nachwuchsgruppe in der Ethik der Künstlichen Intelligenz) is based at the Professorship of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and is funded by the Munich Center for Machine Learning (itself funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research). The group conducts research into fundamental and application-related ethical questions about AI and machine learning.

In harmony with the Professorship of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the group deals with fundamental and practical issues in AI ethics from an analytic-philosophical point of view. The group investigates questions such as:

• What risks and opportunities do particular forms of artificial intelligence come with?
• How can these risks be most reliably minimized by political frameworks, corporate structures, and audit and testing procedures?
• What is the best way to put AI ethics into practice (Responsible Innovation, Ethics-by-Design)?
• What effects does the increasing use of AI have on areas of life such as democratic structures?
• What moral consequences result from our increasingly intimate relationships with AI systems (advanced AI assistants)?

In addition to basic research, one of the main goals of the Junior Research Group is to educate young researchers in the fields of AI ethics. Starting in 2024, two PhD projects are being developed and supervised in the group.

By organising conferences, workshops, and panel discussions, the group strives to enter into an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas with researchers in philosophy and other disciplines. An important focus here is also communication with the wider public about the moral and societal aspects of artificial intelligence.

Last but not least, another important task of the Junior Research Group lies in transferring philosophical-ethical knowledge and results to practical applications of AI, for example through collaborations and exchanges with industry and society.

For any queries you may have, get in touch at AIEthics@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Members of the Junior Research Group

• Dr. Benjamin Lange (group leader)

• Anna-Maria Brandtner (doctoral fellow)

• Jess de Jesus de Pinho Pinhal (doctoral fellow)