Legal Cheek reports…
Clifford Chance today announced the launch of a new bursary scheme to encourage greater diversity among those studying computer science at Oxford University.
The magic circle firm has teamed up with Hertford College, Oxford, to support students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers within the technology sector, and in doing so, help “reduce the tech bias and prejudice” that led to this summer’s A-Level algorithm debacle.
The firm — which in 2018 launched a training contract specifically geared towards tech-savvy students — says it will provide three means-tested bursaries for undergraduate students to study computer science at the prestigious Oxford college. The inaugural trio of students commence their studies this year.
“Leaders in computer science have not traditionally reflected the societies they work within”, according to the firm, and the “social inequalities that technology can create or perpetuate without meaningful intervention is becoming clearer every day”.
Clifford Chance also confirmed it is part funding the research of author and data ethicist, Dr Carissa Véliz, who this month joined the academic team of Oxford’s newly formed Ethics in AI Institute. Véliz’s research explores the positive and negative implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for society as well as issues such as digital ethics.
Jonathan Kewley, partner and co-head of the tech group at Clifford Chance, commented:
“Ethics in tech can’t just be an aim, it requires positive action from each of us. This has to start with education. It is vital that those studying and teaching computer science represent the views and experiences of the society we live in. Through providing bursaries for underrepresented and less privileged students to study computer science, we aim to help ensure that the best candidates are placed at the core of tech development and research.”
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Oxford Launches Institute for Ethics in AI with Team of Philosophers
Oxford University is bringing on three philosophy professors, two philosophy postdoctoral fellows, and two philosophy graduate students to comprise the initial academic team for its new Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence.
The Institute is part of the Oxford’s Philosophy Faculty, and its creation was part of an agreement reached with businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman when he donated £150,000,000 to the university last year. “The Institute aims to tackle major ethical challenges posed by AI, from face recognition to voter profiling, brain machine interfaces to weaponised drones, and the ongoing discourse about how AI will impact employment on a global scale,” according the university. Some of its work will concern the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it.
John Tasioulas, currently director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law at King’s College London, will become the inaugural Director of the Institute in October.
Carissa Véliz, formerly a research fellow at Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, has joined the Institute as an associate professor in philosophy and is a tutorial fellow at Hertford College.
Milo Phillips-Brown, currently a fellow in ethics and technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and senior research fellow in digital ethics and governance at the Jain Family Institute, will be an associate professor in philosophy at the Institute and a tutorial fellow at Jesus College.
Two Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Carina Prunkl and Ted Lechterman, will join as postdoctoral research fellows from Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, respectively.
You can learn more about the Institute here.
