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The AI Ethics Fellow will be part of a team of researchers that will evaluate the ethical, legal, and social implications of edge computing leveraging next-generation networks during a one-year fellowship. This Fellow will contribute to a 5-year NSF research project, Athena, approximately 80% of the time. In this capacity the Fellow will work with the Athena teams to help embed ethical design and analysis in the major streams of work in the project. Additionally, the Fellow will contribute to the research and publications of the Science, Law, and Policy lab, directed by Dr. Nita Farahany, approximately 20% of the time. 

The Fellow will define the risks and taxonomy to be used across the Athena project in the areas of algorithmic bias, risks of discrimination, the value of transparency (through interpretable, explainable, and/or auditable AI solutions), the implications for workforce changes and potential for deskilling, and distributive justice concerns including with respect to cellular networks, computing resources and bandwidth allocation . Through a series of educational modules built through case studies on each of these issues, the Fellow will interview leaders, end-users, engineers, and other relevant stakeholders to develop video training for students, engineers, and the public on the ethical dilemmas posed by AI. The Fellow will establish an ethics consultation framework to meet regularly with the project teams through workshopping of potential societal risks of AI, cellar networks and computational tools to help to identify potential design solutions and/or guidelines, regulations, and policy strategies to maximize the benefits and mitigate the societal risks of development of these tools. Throughout the project, the Fellow will develop a series of recommendations and guidelines across each of these dimensions to guide and inform the research teams in their research, design, and distribution of their research, and to inform regulatory and policy decision-makers on ethical approaches to research deployment. 

Duke’s center, Athena, the NSF-funded AI Institute for edge computing leveraging next-generation networks, will support a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, statisticians, legal scholars, and psychologists from seven universities. The center aims to transform the design, operation, and service of future mobile systems and networks. 

SLAPLAB (Science, Law & Policy Lab) is a vertically-integrated, interdisciplinary laboratory directed by Dr. Nita Farahany (Professor of Law & Philosophy, Director of Duke Initiative for Science & Society). SLAPLAB is designed to bring science to bear on questions of law and policy. Faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergrads work together on shared research projects and publications.