Aimee Van Wynsberghe

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Aimee van Wynsberghe
Aimee Van Wynsberghe at AI for Good Global Summit 2018 (40320005560) (cropped).jpg
Born
London, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
Education University of Western Ontario, KU Leuven, University of Twente
Occupation AI ethicist
Employer University of Bonn
Known forPresident of Foundation for Responsible Robotics
Website https://www.aimeevanwynsberghe.com/

Aimee van Wynsberghe is the Alexander von Humboldt professor for "Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence" at the University of Bonn, Germany. [1] She is director of the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE) and founder of the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab. She is a member of the German Academy for Sciences and Literature, Mainz, Advisory Board member for the DAAD Konrad Zuse Schools of Excellence in AI and has served as a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI. Prof. van Wynsberghe is author of the book Healthcare Robots: Ethics, Design and Implementation and founding editor for the international peer-reviewed journal AI & Ethics (Springer Nature). She regularly appears in the media to promote awareness of the pressing ethical issues surrounding the design and use of robotics and AI in society. [2] Aimee van Wynsberghe hosts every two years the Sustainable AI Conference in Bonn, Germany. [3]

Contents

Education and career

Originally from London, Ontario, she received her bachelor's degree in cell biology from the University of Western Ontario, after which she obtained dual master's degrees in applied ethics and bioethics from KU Leuven in Belgium and the European Union's Erasmus Mundus program. She received her PhD from the University of Twente in 2012; her dissertation involved the creation of an ethical framework for the use of care robots in the medical field and was nominated for the Georges Giralt Award for best PhD thesis in Robotics.

Van Wynsberghe has been working in the field of robotics since 2004, beginning her career as a research assistant at CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advance Robotics). From 2014 to 2017 she was an assistant professor at the University of Twente, where her work focused on robot ethics, before serving as an associate professor in ethics and technology at Delft University of Technology. [4] She was the first woman to be awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for "Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence" in 2020 and moved to Bonn, Germany to take on the directorship of Bonn University's Institute of Science and Ethics and set up the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab [5] [1]

At the AI for Good Global Summit in 2018 AI for Good Global Summit 2018 (41406992634).jpg
At the AI for Good Global Summit in 2018

In 2015, van Wynsberghe and Noel Sharkey established the Foundation for Responsible Robotics (FRR), a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates for the ethical design and production of robots. In founding the FRR, van Wynsberghe and Sharkey cited the urgent need for a greater level of accountability and attention to ethics in the design of robots, especially those that complete jobs through automation. [6] She currently serves as the president of the foundation, organizing multi-stakeholder workshops; writing and disseminating consultation documents and reports; establishing public-private partnerships; and addressing legislative bodies within the European Union.

Van Wynsberghe is also a member of multiple organizations focusing on the ethics of technology. She has been appointed to the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLG) [7] and currently serves on the board of numerous NGOs, including the Institute for Accountability in the Digital Age [8] and the Netherlands Alliance for AI (ALLAI Netherlands). She also serves on the advisory board of the AI & Intelligent Automation Network. [9]

Academic contributions

According to Google Scholar, van Wynsberghe's work has been cited over 1200 times and currently holds an h-index of 24. [10] She is the author of the 2016 book Healthcare Robots: Ethics, Design and Implementation, which addresses the current and future role of robots in the healthcare sector and the urgent need to impose ethical guidelines on their use. [11]

Awards and honors

Van Wynsberghe was a 2015 recipient of an NWO Veni Personal Research Grant [12] to study the ethical design of care robots. In 2017, van Wynsberghe appeared on Robohub's "25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About" list. [13] In July 2018 she was listed among the British Interactive Media Association's "100 Ai Influencers Worth Following". [14] Van Wynsberghe was a 2018 recipient of the Dutch L’Oréal – UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship. [15] She was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in 2020. [16] Since 2022, Aimee van Wynsberghe is member of the Academy for Sciences and Literature in Mainz [17] and advisory board of the Konrad Zuse Schools of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (DAAD). [18] Her project „Desirable Digitalisation. Rethinking AI for Just and Sustainable Futures”, in collaboration with University of Cambridge, is funded by Stiftung Mercator with 3.8 million euro. [19]

Media

In January 2018, van Wynsberghe was interviewed for a Raddington Report article entitled “Robot Ethics, Robot Equality.” [20] In June 2018 she was featured on BBC's Today program [21] and was interviewed by Seth Adler at the Artificial Intelligence & Intelligent Automation Network. [22] Van Wynsberghe has spoken at major international events including Web Summit, [23] the European Investment Bank Global Investment Forum, [24] AI for Good's Global Summit, [25] and the Economist's Innovation Summit. [26] Van Wynsberghe was interviewed for the 2017 VPRO documentary Robo Sapiens, which discusses humankind's future with robots. [27] In 2019 she was interviewed by Forbes where she discussed the challenges of embedding ethical frameworks into artificial intelligence systems [28] . Aimee van Wynsberghe was featured in Forbes' 2020 list of women leading the 21st-century AI movement due to her significant contributions to the ethics of artificial intelligence [29] .

Related Research Articles

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The ethics of artificial intelligence covers a broad range of topics within the field that are considered to have particular ethical stakes. This includes algorithmic biases, fairness, automated decision-making, accountability, privacy, and regulation. It also covers various emerging or potential future challenges such as machine ethics, lethal autonomous weapon systems, arms race dynamics, AI safety and alignment, technological unemployment, AI-enabled misinformation, how to treat certain AI systems if they have a moral status, artificial superintelligence and existential risks.

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Value sensitive design (VSD) is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner. VSD originated within the field of information systems design and human-computer interaction to address design issues within the fields by emphasizing the ethical values of direct and indirect stakeholders. It was developed by Batya Friedman and Peter Kahn at the University of Washington starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, in 2019, Batya Friedman and David Hendry wrote a book on this topic called "Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination". Value Sensitive Design takes human values into account in a well-defined matter throughout the whole process. Designs are developed using an investigation consisting of three phases: conceptual, empirical and technological. These investigations are intended to be iterative, allowing the designer to modify the design continuously.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Coeckelbergh</span> Belgian philosopher of technology

Mark Coeckelbergh is a Belgian philosopher of technology. He is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna and former President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. He was previously Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, Managing Director of the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology, and a member of the Philosophy Department of the University of Twente. Before moving to Austria, he has lived and worked in Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands. He is the author of several books, including Growing Moral Relations (2012), Human Being @ Risk (2013), Environmental Skill (2015), Money Machines (2015), New Romantic Cyborgs (2017), Moved by Machines (2019), the textbook Introduction to Philosophy of Technology (2019), and AI Ethics (2020). He has written many articles and is an expert in ethics of artificial intelligence. He is best known for his work in philosophy of technology and ethics of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), he has also published in the areas of moral philosophy and environmental philosophy.

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The Foundation for Responsible Robotics (FRR) is a not for profit non-government organization that advocates for the ethical design and production of robots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary-Anne Williams</span> Australian professor at UNSW founded Artificial Intelligence programs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna Bryson</span> Researcher and Professor of Ethics and Technology

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Dignum</span> Computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher

Maria Virgínia Ferreira de Almeida Júdice Gamito Dignum is a Professor of Computer Science at Umeå University, and an Associated Professor at Delft University of Technology. She leads the Social and Ethical Artificial Intelligence research group. Her research and writing considers responsible AI and the development evaluation of human-agent team work, thereby aligning with Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence themes.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Roboter-Ethikerin kommt an die Universität Bonn". University of Bonn homepage. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe". IWE. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  3. ↑ "Home — Sustainable AI Conference". www.sustainable-ai-conference.eu. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  4. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe". IWE. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  5. ↑ "Alumna leads the world in robot ethics". news.westernu.ca. 9 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Russon, Mary-Ann (2015-12-11). "Scientists launch AI advocacy group to tackle urgent ethical issues". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  7. ↑ "High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence". Digital Single Market. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  8. ↑ "Institute for Accountability and Internet Democracy – The Internet of Values". i4ada.org. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  9. ↑ "AiiA". AiiA. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  10. ↑ "Aimee van Wynsberghe - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  11. ↑ "Healthcare Robots: Ethics, Design and Implementation (Hardback) - Routledge". Routledge.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  12. ↑ "News | Veni grant for four young UT students | University of Twente - Enschede". Universiteit Twente. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  13. ↑ "25 women in robotics you need to know about – 2017 | Robohub". robohub.org. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  14. ↑ "100 Ai Influencers Worth Following". BIMA. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  15. ↑ "Aimee van Wynsberghe in diverse media over women in science beurs". TU Delft (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  16. ↑ "Roboter-Ethikerin kommt an die Universität Bonn". University of Bonn homepage. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  17. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Aimee Wynsberghe : Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz". www.adwmainz.de. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  18. ↑ "Advisory Board". www.daad.de. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  19. ↑ "Stiftung Mercator fördert Forschung zu ethischer KI an den Universitäten Bonn und Cambridge". Stiftung Mercator (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  20. ↑ "Robot Ethics, Robot Equality | Raddington Report". Raddington Report. 2018-01-09. Archived from the original on 2018-08-30. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  21. ↑ "07/06/2018, Today - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  22. ↑ "The bottom line of ethics and governance in AI". AiiA. June 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  23. ↑ Web Summit (2018-03-21), A robot in every room? , retrieved 2018-08-27
  24. ↑ "FT - EIB Global Investment Forum organised by FT Live". FT Live. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  25. ↑ "AI for Good 2018 Speaker Biographies". www.itu.int. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  26. ↑ "Innovation Summit 2018 Europe". The Economist Events. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  27. ↑ "Robotregels - Robo Sapiens". VPRO (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  28. ↑ Team, Insights. "Forbes Insights: Can We Teach Machines A Code Of Ethics?". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-01-13.
  29. ↑ Minevich, Mark. "The Women Defining The 21st Century AI Movement: Part 2 Of 2". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-01-13.
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