Ethics in the Age of Information and AI with John Basl

Episode 120: John Basl, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, tells us why we need to think of ethics as currency in all areas including business, technology, and machine learning.

Guest Biography

John received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2011. His work focuses on issues in ethics, especially applied ethics, and in the philosophy of biology. In ethics, much of his work has focused on issues of moral status. Within environmental ethics, John has focused on the question of whether non-sentient organisms and collectives can be said to have interests and whether such interests are morally relevant. Within bioethics, his focus has been on whether and how the moral status of non-human research subjects might be altered. In addition to issues of moral status, he is also interested in the ethics of environmental restoration and the ethics of biotechnology more generally. In the philosophy of biology, John's work has primarily been concerned with the levels of selection where his focus has been on whether collectives, such as biotic communities and ecosystems, might be units of selection distinct from the individuals that compose them.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Learn how philosophers approach their research
• How to apply philosophy and ethics to technology including Artificial Intelligence
• Why we need to think about the benefits of AI and information technologies while avoiding the ethical costs

Show notes: http://www.inspiredmoney.fm/120

Find more from our guest:

• www.johnbasl.net
• https://cssh.northeastern.edu/people/faculty/john-basl/
• LinkedIn.com
• Twitter
• https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/john-basl

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ethics in the Age of Information and AI (Presentation at Inbound)
• The Death of the Ethic of Life by John Basl
• Kay Mathiesen
• The Great Hack documentary
• Whole Foods Market: 5-Step Animal Welfare Certification
• Fairphone | The phone that cares for people and planet
• Building Data and AI Ethics Committees by John Basl and Ron Sandler in collaboration with Accenture [pdf]

Runnymede Money Tip of the Week

• The Union Bank Holiday Spending Survey
• The Best Sites for Discounted Gift Cards

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Special thanks to Jim Kimo West for the music.