Dear All,
We are happy to announce that LUMI, our series of seminars on the foundations and ethics
of AI, is back. The series, whenever possible, will take place in a hybrid format (both
in-presence and online). Here below are the informations concerning the first talk.
*Title:
Limiting the user’s good life while aiming to increase well-being. An overlooked ethical
issue of digital well-being technologies
*Abstract:
Digital well-being technologies (DWTs) are systems aiming to increase an aspect of
well-being (e.g., mental health, physical wellness) of users by means of personalised
outputs. In this talk, I will deal with an ethical issue of two types of DWTs –
recommendation systems significantly influencing one’s life and digital well-being apps
for healthy adults – that so far has been overlooked: their impact on the user’s good
life, namely, a life that is good for the user. I will show that since these DWTs are
mainly based on the user’s narrowly defined utility function and past or similar users’
preferences, they impoverish the diversity and novelty of the user’s digital environment
in terms of stimuli and opportunities. Then, I will contend that a homogeneous and
immutable environment limits the individual’s good life because in such an environment,
some factors that are essential to any good life are reduced: life experience,
self-knowledge, and authenticity. Finally, I will outline the user’s right to an open
present, which is a moral requirement for DWTs that protects the user’s good life from the
negative effects of DWTs.
*Speaker:
Eleonora Viganò is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and
History of Medicine at the University of Zurich and Executive Manager of the ELSI Task
Force of the Swiss National Research Program 75 “Big Data”. She is currently working on
the moral aspects of socially acceptable AI. Her research interests are one’s
moral relationship with oneself, the neuroscientific basis of moral decision-making, and
the ethical issues of digital technologies for well-being improvement.
*Date:
Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 14:00 (2pm) CET
*Location:
Room D1.01, Sector D, first floor, Campus Est, USI-SUPSI, Lugano-Viganello
*Link zoom and passcode
https://supsi.zoom.us/j/63504148454?pwd=UVZtYnEwd3ZOTUhTZ2x2dHdEbEljZz09
Meeting ID: 635 0414 8454
Passcode: e_vigano