This Anthro Life

Contemporary AI systems are typically created by many different people, each working on separate parts or “modules.” This can make it difficult to determine who is responsible for considering the ethical implications of an AI system as a whole — a problem compounded by the fact that many AI engineers already don’t consider it their job to ensure the AI systems they work on are ethical.In their latest paper, “Dislocated Accountabilities in the AI Supply Chain: Modularity and Developers’ Notions of Responsibility,” technology ethics researcher David Gray Widder and research scientist Dawn Nafus attempt to better understand the multifaceted challenges of responsible AI development and implementation, exploring how responsible AI labor is currently divided and how it could be improved.In this episode, David and Dawn join This Anthro Life host Adam Gamwell to talk about the AI “supply chain,” modularity in software development as both ideology and technical practice, how we might reimagine responsible AI, and more