Self-driving cars, care robots, apps, software for recruitment procedures, or for use in complex medical diagnostic processes such as MRI scans — it has long been clear that many new technologies in the field of informatics bring both benefits and risks. Today, almost all of us are personally affected by phishing emails and spam, and the adverse effects of social media, such as loneliness and the associated mental illnesses, are widely known. A much greater scope becomes apparent when considering the possibilities of modern surveillance systems, facial recognition technologies, and big data algorithms in socio-global contexts, where they can, as seen in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, undermine political elections and even entire political systems.

This ambivalence of new technologies also raises the question of responsibility for the consequences associated with them. It would certainly be too simplistic to place the responsibility solely on individual computer scientists; after all, this is a broader societal issue involving, for example, political actors and companies, a situation made even more complex by the often global scale of cooperative projects in the IT sector. However, computer scientists are often the first to confront ethical problems. In order to develop one’s own position in this context, it is important to learn how to navigate confidently, through argumentation, the gray areas typical of ethical questions (where there is often no clear right or wrong).

The aim of this lecture series is to contribute to this effort by discussing fundamental and application-oriented ethical questions in informatics together with relevant experts. An open discourse is particularly important to us, one in which all arguments surrounding often controversial topics can be heard and evaluated.

Program

13.05. Alexander Bagattini & Simon Derpmann: Introduction

10.06. Davide Taibi (University of Southern Denmark): Software Engineers Are Dead—Long Live the AI-Augmented Software Engineers!"

17.06. Maike Schwammberger (KIT): Break or Drive? Conflict Management for Autonomous Traffic Agents

24.06. Alexander Bagattini (KIT) and Ingrid Stapf (Tübingen University): Digital Well‑Being of Children in AI Ethics

01.07. Hadeel Naeem (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg): Epistemic virtues in the age AI.

08.07. Christos Tsironis (Aristoteles University Thessaloniki): Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Ethical Implications.

22.07. Colloquium/ Poster Presentations

08.07. Christos Tsironis (Aristoteles University Thessaloniki): Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Ethical Implications.

Short CV: Professor in the School of Theology, Dep. of Ethics and Sociology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (“Social Theory of Contemporary Culture and Christianity”). He is a member of scientific associations in Greece and abroad and has served as a coordinator and board member of research projects. He is the Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Culture and Religion and member of the Laboratory of Medical Law and Bioethics at AUTH.
His research focuses on Late Modernity. Since 2001, C.N. Tsironis has been working in the fields of Social Theory and Religion/Theology, with an emphasis on developing interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to social and ethical issues including cultural and technological transformation in Late Modernity, technological changes and their socio-ethical challenges, climate change, social, religious, and political identity, and Human Rights. He holds degrees in Philosophy and Theology. He has published monographs and articles in edited volumes in both Greek and international publications, with a particular focus in recent years on the ethical and social assessment of Artificial Intelligence. He is the Scientific Director of the AUTH Lifelong Learning Center (KEDIVIM) program “Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Dilemmas and Social Challenges.”
He served as a Fellow at the CHS-CCS, Harvard University (2018–2019) in Comparative Cultural Studies in Greece.