Building Bridges: AI Ethics for Oceans (Part 1)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful and disruptive tool across industries, and there are many diverse applications for it for people working in oceans in government, research and academia, NGOs, community organizations, and industry. But with the opportunities AI can offer to people and organizations across these contexts comes an ocean of ethical issues. And it can be hard to know where to start.

This is an introduction to AI ethics for people working in ocean sectors, particularly in not-for-profit contexts, and particularly in Canada. Part 1 covers the introduction to the course and AI ethics, its intersections with oceans work, and identifying stakeholders and rights-holders in ocean scenarios; data governance and stewardship; and bias, fairness and representation; while in Part 2 we’ll explore transparency, reliability, and trust; human agency, the environmental costs of AI, and conflicting values; and accountability, governance, and legal considerations.

This course builds upon the basic mechanics of AI tools and systems introduced in the first Building Bridges course, with ethics as an important part of developing AI literacy. Learners will explore ocean AI scenarios and the ethical issues that arise from them, via lectures, external resources, exercises, and practical guidance. What discoveries can be made, if we can just connect the dots – safely, responsibly, and ethically?

Course image: “Distorted Fish School” by Lone Thomasky & Bits&Bäume / Better Images of AI / Licensed by CC-BY 4.0