Responsible AI – IA Responsable

The chair project will be incorporated into the framework of the European Union's policy on the ethics of artificial intelligence. The European Commission believes that the challenges for Europe in the field of AI are above all ethical and that guidelines should be set to gain the trust of citizens. Europe wants to become a world leader in the AI development and use by promoting an ethical approach, respectful to human rights. It is up to designers, manufacturers, companies and user administrations to design, develop and use an AI product or system "ethical by design" throughout its life cycle. In an Ethical Guide published in April 2019, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, appointed by the European Commission, provided the keys to help these stakeholders to engage in the path of ethical AI. They proposed, in particular, a method of self-evaluation of the IA tool or system in order to check/test if it is ethical by design and make operational the trust in the AI.

This “Responsible AI” chair project responds to the European Union's encouragement to set up an ethics by design of AI products and systems. AI developments are now intimately associated with legal and ethical issues. In order to circumscribe the project, three research axes are targeted : 1st area : "Health & Healthcare of the future"; 2nd area : "Industry 4.0 & Innovative Production Systems"; 3th area: " Administration 2.0 & Smart Territories".

The objectives of this chair will be threefold:
Firstly, in the "research" component, the chair will aim to conduct interdisciplinary research to meet the current needs of an AI responsible and respectful of human rights. This important questioning remains too little known by French and European law researchers. Moreover, this situation is further aggravated because the legal researchers rarely work with scientists, so their understanding of the real ethical and legal issues is greatly reduced. The project aims to fill these gaps, with an innovative and interdisciplinary approach. The chair will organise three international symposia, as well as national regular events, and will encourage researchers to publish their work, articles and books in the three target axes. The lack of Humanities and Social Sciences researchers will be offset by the creation of a team of PhD and post-docs.
Regarding the "Teaching" section, the chair will set up the university degree "Technologies, Ethics & Law in Artificial Intelligence". It is an unprecedented course, available for students with the equivalent of five years studies after the bachelor degree. This degree is designed to train science and law students in AI, law and ethics in order to develop a common language, to encourage interdisciplinarity and to meet the European objectives of an AI ethical designing and using.
Lastly, in the “Valorization & knowledges transfer” section, the chair will aim to design an unprecedented AI Ethical Compliance Tool to respond to European and French incentives to ensure that AI products and systems can be tested in terms of respect for law and ethics. Once the tool is created, businesses partners and french administrations could have access to a beta release.