Date: 16 April 2025 Time: 17:00 Venue: Aula Alpha in Building 24 (via Golgi 40).

Abstract: There is an overwhelming abundance of works in AI Ethics. This growth is chaotic because of how sudden it is, its volume, and its multidisciplinary nature. This makes it difficult to keep track of debates, and to systematically characterize goals, research questions, methods, and expertise required by AI ethicists. In this article, I show that the relation between ‘AI’ and ‘ethics’ can be characterized in at least three ways, which correspond to three well-represented kinds of AI ethics: ethics and AI; ethics in AI; ethics of AI. I elucidate the features of these three kinds of AI Ethics, characterize their research questions, and identify the kind of expertise that each kind needs. I also show how certain criticisms to AI ethics are misplaced, as being done from the point of view of one kind of AI ethics, to another kind with different goals. All in all, this work sheds light on the nature of AI ethics, and sets the groundwork for more informed discussions about the scope, methods, and training of AI ethicists.

Dr. Emanuele Ratti is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, and I work in Philosophy of Science and Technology, with a focus on contemporary biology and AI. I can supervise students for projects in Philosophy of Biology, and Philosophy and Ethics of AI. Before joining Bristol, Dr Ratti worked as non-tt assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Scientific Method at Johannes Kepler University Linz, at the University of Notre Dame as a postdoc and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. He holds a PhD in Ethics and Foundations of the Life Sciences from the European School of Molecular Medicine, a Master in philosophy of information from the University of Hertfordshire, where he was supervised by Luciano Floridi.