INESC TEC Open Talks on Research Ethics and Defence - 2nd Talk

1^st October, 2024

17h00-18h00 (WEST)

Catherine Tessier

My facial recognition system is 100% accurate, is it good news?

Abstract:

Digital research has applications in many fields including military applications. Furthermore, a given technique, e.g. facial recognition, may be used for different purposes for instance to unlock your smartphone, for tracking people in the streets or for targeting people automatically.

The talk will focus on the necessary ethical deliberation researchers should put in place alongside their scientific work in order to go further than a mere acceptance or objection: what are my own personal values, do they conflict with one another, with professional values, with my country’s values? What are the different arguments that can be put forward to participate or not in this research, to publish it or not, according to which ethical reference frameworks? How to integrate ethical thoughts in research dissemination?

Short bio:

Dr. Catherine Tessier is a Director of Research at ONERA in Toulouse, France, and ONERA's Research Integrity and Ethics Officer. Her research focuses on the modeling of ethical frameworks and on ethical issues related to the "autonomy" of robots. She is a member of the French National Committee for Digital Ethics and a member of the French Defense Ethics Committee. She was a member of the UNESCO ad hoc Expert Group for the elaboration of the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.