Master Class Webinar Program
Ethics of Governance in Science: How relevant is its application to AI?
Homo sapiens is probably the most complex entity which has been observed in the universe.
Our species is complex physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
One of the most important characteristics of homo sapiens is curiosity.
It has been argued that curiosity is one of the primary drivers which is responsible for the progress that has been made throughout former eons (Rovelli, 2016, p.233). It is being aware about, and sensitive to, our context – but more than that, ‘the key to true curiosity is pausing to ponder the causes’ (Isaacson, 2021, p.5). Deep down, it is about being conscious about the limits of our knowledge.
However, curiosity need not always be a “good thing”. There is a saying which declares that curiosity killed the cat.
In science fiction, creating a device that will deliver super-intelligence (one that is even more complex than the human) gives its developers extraordinary or even unnatural powers with respect to other humans, but in the real world that is not even the worst-case scenario.
The serious threat is what happens in the case that super-intelligence arrives and those that have summoned it lose power over it?
In this webinar, we shall see that AI in its machine learning form poses threats to society of a magnitude that has never been experienced by the human species, including the exacerbation of the impact of other boundary stretching sciences such as nuclear power and human gene editing.
Nevertheless, curiosity must not be abated, and AI’s development cannot be stopped because it also has the potential to transform human life in a positive manner, including the understanding of consciousness and how the human mind works.
For all the above, AI in its machine learning form, more than any other technology, needs to develop under the most sophisticated governance standards and these need to be defined now.
What are the ethical implications?
Where do we start to define those governance standards?
Speaker: Paul David Richard GRIFFITHS, BSc, MEng, DBA, A.Dip.C
Professor of Banking, Finance and Fintech
EM Normandie Business School – Metis Lab.
Paul is a philosophy enthusiast that strongly believes that the progress of science needs to be counterbalanced by conscience (ethics).
Discover more about Paul below.
May 5th 2021
Guest Speaker: Paul Griffiths
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Discover more about your Speaker
Prior to becoming a full-time academic Paul spent many years in leadership positions at global management consulting firms, serving Boards of blue-chip companies, particularly in the financial services sector.
He specialises in management of intangible assets such as intellectual capital and his research bridges across the fields of banking, Fintech, corporate governance and the knowledge economy.
Paul is a philosophy enthusiast that strongly believes that the progress of science needs to be counterbalanced by conscience (ethics).
Paul holds a Master’s degree in engineering; he has been a Humphrey Fellow (Fulbright Commission) at the University of Minnesota; and holds a doctorate in business administration (i.e., strategy-technology alignment in banking) as well as an advanced postgrad diploma in management consulting.
He is a prolific writer in professional and academic publications and a renowned speaker at conferences and seminars.
His contribution to P.D.R. Griffiths (2020) The Fintech industry: Crowdfunding in context, in Shneor, R., Zhao, L. & Flaten, B-T, ‘Advances in Crowdfunding Research and Practice’, Palgrave-Macmillan this research and practice (you can access it here for free) was downloaded 20,000 times in the first two months after publication.
He has forthcoming in April P.D.R. Griffiths (2021) Fintech and its Historical Perspective, in Pompella, M & Matousek, R ‘The Palgrave Handbook of Fintech and Blockchain’, Palgrave-Macmillan. His authored book Griffiths, P.D.R. (2021) Getting corporate governance right in the Knowledge Economy: Lessons from case studies in Finance, Palgrave-Macmillan (forthcoming May 2021) and his co-authored paper Enabling Responsible Banking through the application of Blockchain will inform the webinar and are recommended as pre-reading for the event.
Having lived in nine and worked in 16 countries Paul defines himself as multicultural.
