All SSIT members are invited to submit brief reports and updates about upcoming and completed presentations and activities you are part of that are relevant to SSIT!

We are delighted to announce that the conference proceedings for IEEE ISTAS 2023, “Technology and Analytics for Global Development” (which took place in Swansea University, Wales from 13 - 15 September 2023) are now available through IEEE Xplore!

In addition to full papers, the proceedings includes write-ups of co-located events:

• The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Pre-Conference Event,
• The Public Interest Technology (PIT) for Innovation in Global Development Virtual Workshop,
• And several Professional Development Workshops

Many thanks to the ISTAS 2023 conference committee, especially to Proceedings Chair, Fabio Caraffini, for your work preparing the publication.

Note that proceedings for all previous IEEE ISTAS conferences are also available on IEEE Xplore; click HERE to browse.

This is the third installment of a new column introducing SSIT members to our Standards Committee. Previous newsletters featured Ruth Lewis (Chair, SSIT Standards Committee) and Peter Reid (Working Group Chair, P7011 Standard for the Process of Identifying and Rating the Trustworthiness of News Sources).

Ben Bland, IEEE SSIT Standards Committee Working Group Chair (P7014)

What is this standard?
The IEEE P7014 Standard for Ethical Considerations in Emulated Empathy in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems.

Why is it important?
Empathic AI, also often referred to as affective computing and emotion AI, has been transitioning out of the lab and into the mainstream over the past decade. It involves computing systems that use many different modes of data, including facial images, voice audio, physiological metrics (e.g. heart rate) and text sentiment, to infer how people are feeling. It also involves the increasing prevalence of systems that appear to have their own affective (e.g. emotional) states, such as avatars that smile or frown, or text interfaces that state things like, “I am sorry I could not answer your question”.

Autonomous and intelligent systems that pertain to such emulations of empathy entail a great range of potential benefits and harms.

Potential benefits include:

• Improved user interaction, by dynamically adjusting the system in response to the user’s current mood.
• Healthcare systems that support physical and mental health efforts.
• Richer, more realistic and more emotive media content and experiences.

Potential harms include:

• Manipulation, exploitation and coercion of people by interacting with them at an emotional level.
• Invasion of privacy by processing data such as physiological metrics, which can be highly intimate.
• Surveillance and predictive policing of individuals and groups by estimating their moods and intentions.

Our group has attempted to draft a standard that provides any stakeholder involved with the development, deployment or decommission of empathic systems with an extensive set of steps for building autonomous systems that not only aim to mitigate potential harms, such as those listed above, but also to maximize positive outcomes for people, society and our planet.

This has not been an easy task.

From the outset, we have grappled with trying to find a balance between a standard that is so strict or specific that it is potentially infeasible, or becomes irrelevant with the evolving technology, versus one that is so soft or open to interpretation that it bears no teeth.

The new IEEE P7000 series is engaged in helping to pioneer ethical standards in the poorly charted space of AI. Complex, emerging systems, such as AI, present equally complex, emerging challenges for humanity; we don't yet know how the world will take to development, application, and enforcement of recommended ethical practices

Empathy is at the heart of what it is to be human. Now we are teaching it to our machines. It is time for all of us to think about what this could mean, and what we should do about it.

What is a real-world example/case study of how this might help?
You’re driving on the highway, relaxed listening to the radio, when an old memory pops into your head. A memory you would rather not have. It evokes an old sense of regret mixed with anger. You frown. Your heart rate increases. Your breath quickens. Then the radio switches off and a robotic voice fills the cabin.

“I sense that you are feeling stressed. Reducing speed and engaging auto-pilot in three seconds.”

“No!” You yell. “Cancel that! Let me drive. I’m fine!”

From the passenger seat, your partner says, “Hey, calm down!”

Now you actually are stressed, and more than a little angry.

This is a hypothetical case of the kind of user interaction that is currently being tested by technology companies as they attempt to upgrade AI with what could soon become its killer feature – empathy. The potential consequences of training autonomous systems to sense and simulate human emotions and mental states run from the trivial to the catastrophic. This is why we have been developing a standard for the ethics and responsible use of empathic AI.

What stage is it at?
The IEEE P7014 Standard for Ethical Considerations in Emulated Empathy in Autonomous and Intelligent Systems finally reached the ballot stage in October 2023, after over four years of debate and drafting by our working group. Now, we urge you, the Newsletter readership, to consider this potential milestone in our socio-technological history and get involved in adopting and raising awareness about the new standard.

What is the current geographical or disciplinary spread of your working members?
Since the outset, we have had the fortune of a decent spread of membership, but we would have liked more. Most are from academia, industry or governance, with a relatively even balance across those sectors. Most are from North America and Europe, with only a handful from South America, Africa and eastern countries. This has always been an issue for us, and we have yet to discover a method of maintaining inclusivity across disparate time zones and geographies that works well.

What type of people might be interested or well suited for this standards group?
While the subject matter – and our membership – is typically addressed by those with expertise in AI, software engineering, psychology, sociology, and policy, the impact of empathic AI is universal, and of interest to anyone. Thus, we have always sought input from people of diverse backgrounds and varied levels of expertise.

What triggered your own interest in this area?
While I have worked with innovative digital technologies through my whole career so far, I spent five years at a startup in Belfast, trying to build a groundbreaking empathic AI system to measure human emotions and cognitive states from the fusion of a wide range of data modes (e.g. body, face, voice, etc.) in order to make human-computer interaction more natural and effective. The ethical challenges around the technology we were building were profound and fascinating, and I jumped at the chance to help get a standard off the ground, even though the sector had not yet, and still has not, matured.

Call to action
IEEE P7014 is in the final stages of refinement before publication so it’s time to shout about it. We invite you to help the standard on its way into the hands of technologists, policy makers, and other stakeholders, including the general public, and provide feedback so that we can improve it in future versions. We hope that the standard will be available for free via the IEEE GET Program, to increase its accessibility.

Submitted by Ketra Schmitt

The Centre for Engineering in Society (CES) at Concordia University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the broad areas of Technology, Sustainable Innovation, and Society as they relate to engineering. The application deadline is 15 January 2024.

For full details, please see the job posting on Concordia’s website.

Thanks to a generous offer from an anonymous donor, all donations made to SSIT through the IEEE Foundation between now and 31 December 2023, will be matched, up to a total of US$5000. Donate now to double your impact!

SSIT brings together interdisciplinary communities to support and inform our understanding of:

• Sustainable Development & Humanitarian Technology
• Ethics and Human Values
• Technology Access
• Societal Impact of Technological Innovation
• Protecting the Planet
• Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

We work within the technology community, but draw our ideas from practitioners, researchers, inventors, policy makers, professionals and students across many fields. We also influence the direction of technology adoption and development, from awareness and concepts, to standards and professional practice.

These programs are making a difference! Funds will be invested in further strengthening and expanding:

• Standards development related to social impacts of AI, ethical design, human-robot interaction, and more
• International Chapter, Young Professional and Student Activities
• Conference and Distinguished Lecturer Programs addressing society’s most pressing issues
• related to technology
• Online Publishing and Education Programs

Ways to Contribute
Donate to SSIT online at https://ieeefoundation.org/ieee_ssit
You can make a gift to SSIT in honor or memory of someone who has touched your life

Note that donations to SSIT are managed by the IEEE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of IEEE. IEEE and the IEEE Foundation are U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organizations. For more information contact: [email protected] or +1 732 465 5871.