Applied Ethics/New Publication/Technology Ethics

New publication on Algorithmic Fairness and LA-based interventions to reduce “Social Identity Threat“

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It took quite some time, but I am happy to announce that a new article, co-authored with Laura Fröhlich, was published (Early Access) in the Journal for Learning Analytics. It is on “Adaptive Interventions Reducing Social Identity Threat to Increase Equity in Higher Distance Education: A Use Case and Ethical Considerations on Algorithmic Fairness”. The article was published as open access and the abstract reads like this:

Educational disparities between traditional and non-traditional student groups in higher distance education can potentially be reduced by alleviating social identity threat and strengthening students’ sense of belonging in the academic context. We present a use case of how Learning Analytics and Machine Learning can be applied to develop and implement an algorithm to classify students as at-risk of experiencing social identity threat. These students would be presented with an intervention fostering a sense of belonging. We systematically analyze the intervention’s intended positive consequences to reduce structural discrimination and increase educational equity, as well as potential risks based on privacy, data protection, and algorithmic fairness considerations. Finally, we provide recommendations for Higher Education Institutions to mitigate risk of bias and unintended consequences during algorithm development and implementation from an ethical perspective.

https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2024.8301

Froehlich, Laura; Sebastian Weydner-Volkmann (2024): “Adaptive Interventions Reducing Social Identity Threat to Increase Equity in Higher Distance Education: A Use Case and Ethical Considerations on Algorithmic Fairness.” In: Journal of Learning Analytics, Early Access Articles, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2024.8301

Seminars & Lectures

Colloquium Digitale Lectures Winter 2023/24

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I am happy to announce three lectures as part of the Colloquium Digitale lecture series at the Ruhr-University Bochum for the winter term 2023/24. The lectures will be held in person on the RUB campus (Room GA3 / 143). Hybrid participation is possible. Please register by sending an email to philosophie-cd@ruhr-uni-bochum.de.

31 October 2023, 4-6 pm:
PROF. DR. SABINE ROESER – DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHN.
Emotional deliberation on the risks of digitalization and AI

28 November 2023, 4-6 pm:
PROF. PETER KÖNIGS – TU DORTMUND
In defence of ‘surveillance capitalism’
This is a pre-read session! You will receive access to the text after registration.

16 January 2024, 4-6 pm:
JUN.-PROF. KAROLINE REINHARDT – UNIVERSITY OF PASSAU
Eine Frage des Vertrauens? Ethische Perspektiven auf KI

The Poster announcement of the lectures can be found here.

Applied Ethics/New Publication/Technology Ethics

New publication on the Ethics of IT-Security

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A new German language article, co-authored with Kaya Cassing, was published on “Forschende in der Angriffsrolle: Zum besonderen forschungsethischen Bedarf in der IT-Sicherheit”. Kaya Cassing is part of the EDMT research team and her contribution is part of a PhD thesis. The was published as open access in Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie The abstract reads like this:

As a result of the proliferation of digital technology in our lifeworld, a societal need for protection of computer systems against ever new forms of attacks has emerged. In this contribution, we show that IT security research plays a central role in addressing this need, but also that this role raises certain problems from a research ethical perspective. IT security risks raise structurally new challenges for the societal production of security, which imply that researchers take on the role of attackers. When researchers make their findings on viable forms of attacks public, this increases the threat to IT systems. At the same time, the scientific publishing is normatively guided by the goal of strengthening societal security: the vulnerabilities are meant to be closed and the robustness of IT systems strengthened.

What becomes visible here are conflicts in dealing with IT security risks that imply a need for ethical orientation. In our contribution, we explore the beginnings of systematic ethical reflection that have emerged in the field and been institutionalized in an effort to answer this need. However, since the challenges have not been adequately addressed so far, we propose that IT security research should become a new field in applied ethics so as to provide more adequate orientation to researchers and to discuss its socio-political role at large.

Weydner-Volkmann, Sebastian; Kaya Cassing (2023): “Forschende in der Angriffsrolle: Zum besonderen forschungsethischen Bedarf in der IT-Sicherheit.” In: Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie 10 (1): 79–104.
DOI: 10.22613/zfpp/10.1.3. (Open access)

Conferences & Presentations

Meeting report for the workshop “Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion und Informationsdarstellung”

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On 20–21 April 2023, Martina Philippi and I have organized a philosophical workshop on the topic „Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion und Informationsdarstellung – Philosophische Perspektiven auf KI-Anwendungen”. The conference program (German) can be found here.

After the workshop, Philipp Zimmermann, Sarah Becker and Isabel Wrobel have written a meeting report for the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice (TATuP). The German language report has been published open access and can be found here.

Knowledge transfer & public outreach

Podcast on Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

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As part of the student podcasting project “Hömma KI” at the Ruhr University Bochum, I was approached to be interviewed on Ethics of AI. The German language interview discussed some of my background, but mostly my current research on Ethics of AI in Higher Education.

The interview is number 4 of the series: #4 Ethik – Stark oder schwach? Zwischen Subjekt und Objekt.

This was my first podcasting experience and it was quite interesting to peek into the creation process, which is a lot more involved as it seems at first glance. I am impressed by the work done in this student project and am happy and proud to see such projects exist at the RUB.

Thanks to Chiara Oppedisano and Joana Koczy for the kind invitation and for hosting me on the podcast!

New Publication/Privacy & Data Protection/Security Ethics/Technology Ethics

Two recent articles published

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Two new articles were published in the last months, one is an English language contribution on the same set of topics a previous article and is titled “Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers and Shared Experience.” The article resulted from a presentation on an international Pragmatism conference in Warsaw and was published in the Polish philosophy journal Ruch Filozoficzny. The abstract reads like this:

This article explores what John Dewey’s political philosophy can offer in regard to the current crisis in digital democracy. It focuses on two digital mechanisms, the “filter bubble” and the “echo chamber”. While there is a prominent, Dewey-inspired debate on “digital publics” in the literature, a reconstruction of the Deweyan concepts of the public and of shared experience shows that it does not adequately reflect the aspect of situated and embodied experience. Based on this, it is shown that digital media offerings must also be rooted in local contexts of experience in order to answer the challenge of those two problematic mechanisms.

The article was published as open access here: Weydner-Volkmann, Sebastian (2023) “Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers and Shared Experience.” In: Ruch Filozoficzny 79 (4): 29–47. DOI: 10.12775/RF.2022.029.

In another article, I reviewed some of my research conducted in the TRESSPASS project on Open Source Intelligence in the context of EU border control. The abstract reads like this:

This article explores the use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques as part of data-driven border checks in the EU. While the idea to group travelers into risk categories in order to differentiate the intensity of border checks has been criticized for its likely impact on privacy and other fundamental rights, the exclusive use of “open,” “public” data was proposed as an alternative that mitigates these issues. However, OSINT remains a rather vague term, as it is unclear what constitutes “open” or “public” data, how the use of such techniques would contribute to the production of security, and whether its use actually mitigates most ethical issues. The goal of this article is to contribute toward a situated answer to these questions. It will provide groundwork by clarifying what OSINT practices could entail in the context of the European border checks regime and by developing an ethical perspective on these practices. I will show that the impact depends not so much on the public availability of the analyzed data, but on the specifics of the implementation of OSINT techniques. Thus, certain uses of OSINT continue to raise severe privacy and fundamental rights issues.

This article, too, was published as open access and can be found here: Weydner-Volkmann, Sebastian (2023): “Using Open, Public Data for Security Provision: Ethical Perspectives on Risk-Based Border Checks in the EU.” In: European Journal for Security Research, June. DOI: 10.1007/s41125-023-00092-4.