The University of Glasgow is set to play host to leading figures from the UK’s artificial intelligence community at a three-day conference this week.

From October 2nd-4th, the Lovelace-Hodgkin Symposium will bring together academics, researchers and policymakers to tackle the complex ethical challenges posed by AI.

Speakers will include representatives from the Alan Turing Institute, the Scottish AI Alliance, the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and the European Network Against Racism, with the event set to be closed with an address from Clare Adamson MSP.

The first day of the symposium will examine the current state of AI, with a focus on higher education, culminating in a panel discussion on AI in research and teaching, with senior university figures as well as voices from the student body.

The second day will focus on approaches to tackle inequality and bias in AI, featuring discussions on AI and race, gender, the environment, children’s rights, and how AI is communicated and consumed.

The final day will involve participants creating an ethical framework for inclusive AI. They will outline a series of actionable steps and priorities for academic institutions, which will be used to underpin the development of a future online course for undergraduate students.

The event, at the University’s Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre, will inform the development of the new course on AI ethics, aiming to provide students with the skills required to think critically about how AI is developed, consumed, and communicated.

Professor Ana Basiri, director of the Centre for Data Science & AI, said: “Together, we will examine the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence across a wide range of perspectives, amplifying the voices of individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences.

“At the heart of all the discussions will be considerations of the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, tying into the Scottish Government’s commitment to provide inclusive, trustworthy and equitable AI to its citizens.”

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The Lovelace-Hodgkin Symposium was conceived as a response to the need for ethical literacy in emerging technologies, and has been organised with support from the University’s Centre for Data Science & AI, launched in September last year. 

The Centre brings together hundreds of academics from across the University’s four Colleges with the aim of tackling global challenges, and looks to find opportunity gaps or areas of growth in research agendas based on government strategies, including the Scottish Government’s AI Strategy.