Professor Mike Wald from the University of Southampton has highlighted the urgent need for artificial intelligence to be designed and deployed in a manner that doesn't increase societal inequalities.
Speaking at a Couch Lesson of the international Goethe-Institut, the Turing Fellow insisted that proactive consideration is required for algorithmic systems to be designed in a manner that is fair, transparent and ethical.
He warned that these considerations for AI and inclusion were particularly vital when considering those with disabilities, otherwise an emerging 'AI divide' could compromise the equal treatment of people.
Professor Wald, of the Web and Internet Science Research Group, says: "Of the nine protected characteristics identified by the Equality Act 2010, disability is the least homogeneous and so techniques need to be developed to ensure algorithms work fairly for these edge 'cases' and 'outliers' by including disabled people at all stages.
"The design and deployment of AI to benefit disabled people will also help provide digital accessibility and inclusion for all members of society."
The Goethe-Institut event, which was held online this Wednesday, invited Professor Wald and Nnenna Nwakanma of the World Wide Web Foundation to discuss the opportunities and challenges of enabling equal access to AI technologies. The session was part of the Generation A=Algorithm project supported by the European AI Alliance.
Professor Wald's project with The Alan Turing Institute has explored the way AI has been used to automate web accessibility checkers to support those with disabilities. The project team has also worked closely with local assistive technology and service providers to conduct research into a decision support system related to workplace assessments for disabled people.
Recent work at Southampton has also led to the development of Synote, an award-winning tool for creating online and paper captions, transcripts and notes from lecture recordings.
Earlier this month, Professor Wald presented on AI and inclusion at an online Space and Astronomy Research Accessibility SARA2020 event hosted by the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). The workshop brought together expert speakers from around the world to help generate tools, programmes and schemes that can improve the access to data and training for researchers and young professionals with disabilities.
The Southampton fellowship will develop AI that could help people switch to greener forms of energy and transport.
AI systems will be re-designed to value people as more than passive providers of data in a prestigious new Turing Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Fellowship at the University of Southampton.
The novel research, led by Electronics and Computer Science's Dr Sebastian Stein, will create AI systems that are aware of citizens' preferences and act to maximise the benefit to society.
In these systems, citizens are supported by trusted personal software agents that learn an individual’s preferences. Importantly, rather than share this data with a centralised system, the AI agents keep it safe on private smart devices and only use it in their owners' interests.
Over the next five years, the £1.4m fellowship will develop and trial citizen-centric AI systems in a range of application areas, such as smart home energy management, on-demand mobility and disaster response, including for the provision of advice and medical support during epidemics like COVID-19.
Dr Stein, of the Agents, Interaction and Complexity (AIC) research group, says: "AI systems are increasingly used to support and often automate decision-making on an unprecedented scale. Such AI systems can draw on a vast range of data sources to make fast, efficient, data-driven decisions to address important societal challenges and potentially benefit millions of people.
"However, building AI systems on such a large and pervasive scale raises a range of important challenges. First, these systems may need access to relevant information from people, such as health-related data, which raises privacy issues and may also encourage people to misrepresent their requirements for personal benefit. Furthermore, the systems must be trusted to act in a manner that aligns with society’s ethical values. This includes the minimisation of discrimination and the need to make equitable decisions.
"Novel approaches are needed to build AI systems that are trusted by citizens, that are inclusive and that achieve their goals effectively. To enable this, citizens must be viewed as first-class agents at the centre of AI systems, rather than as passive data sources."
The new vision for AI systems will be achieved by developing techniques that learn the preferences, needs and constraints of individuals to provide personalised services, incentivise socially-beneficial behaviour changes, make choices that are fair, inclusive and equitable, and provide explanations for these decisions.
The Southampton team will draw upon a unique combination of research in multi-agent systems, mechanism design, human-agent interaction and responsible AI.
Dr Stein will work with a range of high-profile stakeholders over the duration of the fellowship. This will include citizen end-users, to ensure the research aligns with their needs and values, as well as industrial partners, to put the research into practice.
Specifically, collaboration with EA Technology and Energy Systems Catapult will generate incentive-aware smart charging mechanisms for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, work with partners including Siemens Mobility, Thales and Connected Places Catapult will develop new approaches for trusted on-demand mobility. Within the Southampton region, the fellowship will engage with the Fawley Waterside development to work on citizen-centric solutions to smart energy and transportation.
The team will also work with Dstl to create disaster response applications that use crowdsourced intelligence from citizens to provide situational awareness, track the spread of infectious diseases or issue guidance to citizens. Further studies with Dstl and Thales will explore applications in national security and policing, and joint work with UTU Technologies will investigate how citizens can share their preferences and recommendations with trusted peers while retaining control over what data is shared and with whom.
Finally, with IBM Research, Dr Stein will develop new explainability and fairness tools, and integrate these with their existing open source frameworks.
Turing Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Fellowships, named after AI pioneer Alan Turing, are supported by a £20 million government investment in AI being delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), in partnership with the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Office for AI and the Alan Turing Institute.
Science Minister, Amanda Solloway, says: "The UK is the birthplace of artificial intelligence and we therefore have a duty to equip the next generation of Alan Turings, like Southampton's Dr Sebastian Stein, with the tools that will keep the UK at the forefront of this remarkable technological innovation.
"The inspiring AI project we are backing today to will help inform UK citizens in their decision making - from managing their energy needs to advising which mode of transport to take - transforming the way we live and work, while cementing the UK's status as a world leader in AI and data."
Digital Minister, Caroline Dinenage, says: "The UK is a nation of innovators and this government investment will help our talented academics use cutting-edge technology to improve people's daily lives - from delivering better disease diagnosis to managing our energy needs."
Michael Butler is a Professor of Computer Science in the Cyber Physical Systems group.
Computer scientist Professor Michael Butler has been announced as the next Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Professor Butler, an internationally-recognised leader in the area of mathematical methods for design and verification of safe and secure software-based systems, will take up his role on 1 January 2021.
A highly respected member of the Cyber Physical Systems research group, he leads the UKRI Digital Security by Design HD-Sec Project and works as part of the Southampton team supporting the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub.
Professor Butler says: "It is an honour to be entrusted with the role of Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. My work as Associate Dean has given me a great appreciation of the strength and breadth of the education, research and enterprise across our Faculty.
"I have seen how we responded to COVID-19 with impressive agility and creativity, highlighting our ability to work together to address the challenges we face as a community and a society. I look forward to working more closely with colleagues across the Faculty and University to ensure we continue to thrive."
Professor Butler joined the University of Southampton in 1995 as a lecturer, rising to Reader in 2000 and then Professor in the same year. He currently serves as the Faculty's Associate Dean for Academic Infrastructure within the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
He succeeds Professor Philip Nelson who has served as Interim Dean of the Faculty since the departure of Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi for King's College London earlier this year.
SmartT will seek to develop a drug-free, superbug-killing bandage
An international research collaboration led by the University of Southampton will unlock the potential of innovative smart textiles for use across a range of high growth industries.
The €5.5 million SmartT programme brings together specialists from the UK and France to advance functional inks for new applications in fashion, sport, safety ware, advertising and mapmaking.
SmartT aims to make over 100 smart inks that each emit different coloured light following electrical stimulation, creating a colour chart spanning the entire visible spectrum from red to violet, and beyond into the ultraviolet region.
Scientists will also work at the atomic level, aided by high-performance computation, to deliver a drug-free bandage that delivers superbug-killing UV irradiation. The prototype could represent a vital solution to growing the worldwide issue of antimicrobial resistance.
Professor Beeby, Head of the Smart Electronic Materials and Systems (SEMS) group, says: "This collaboration will enable us to develop some unique screen printable inks suitable for use on flexible and textile substrates. It is particularly relevant to our e-textiles research activities and this project will enable results to be rapidly evaluated in real applications."
Southampton's leadership in electronic textiles and energy harvesting was recently recognised in the award of a prestigious Chair in Emerging Technologies from the Royal Academy of Engineering. Professor Beeby is one of just eight UK-based researchers to share funding worth a total of £22 million to support disruptive innovations with the potential to considerably benefit society and the UK economy.
Smart e-textiles are produced by embedding pixels (OLECs) that emit light when stimulated electrically. Each pixel has a sandwich structure comprised of five layers.
The top and bottom layers are colourless polymer coatings designed to protect the functional inner layers from scratching, oxidation by air or leaching/corrosion on washing. The inner layers are composed of positive and negative electrical contacts separated by the functional ink which produces the light when live.
To maximise business opportunities and impact, SmartT has specialists in device fabrication working alongside experts with the skills needed to tune each layer of the pixel for a specified application.
Professor Harrowven, Head of Organic Chemistry: Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow, says: "Smart e-textiles are projected to grow from €100 million to €2 billion over the next decade and our goal is to help SMEs realise their potential in this rapidly emerging field through the cooperation of experts on both sides of the Channel.
"SmartT will help develop new products and services, ranging from dynamic fabric mapping products for the tourism and outdoor leisure market to a drug-free anti-infective bandage prototypes and eco-friendly anti-fouling surfaces."
Rebecca Mayrhofer, SmartT Project Manager, says: "Our aim is to bridge the gap between our academic innovators and industry, paving the way for new product developments and applications."
