Next generation AI and Human Behaviour: promoting an ethical approach

• February 16, 2024
• admin

Current developments and learning in the field of AI come from a strong collaboration of multidisciplinary teams working together to acquire further knowledge on human cognition and behaviour in order to understand, predict and impact human behaviour. To develop effective AI systems, researchers aim to improve their understanding of the way the human brain learns and transfers knowledge.

Potentially, this understanding will help to build explainable, trustworthy, and human-centric AI systems and processes. However, while systems for automatic emotion recognition and sentiment analysis can be facilitators of enormous progress, they are also enablers of considerable risks. In addition to ensuring the protection of research participants, research ethics review plays a pivotal role in facilitating the integration of ethical concerns into research projects and protocols from the conception phase.

In order to promote a responsible, trustworthy, and human-centric design and development of the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI), the proposed projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• The operationalisation of available general guidance on the ethics of AI into practical specific guidelines. These guidelines will focus on the impact of AI on human cognition and behaviour. The guidelines must also address the ethics dimension of the study of human behaviour and cognition in developing and improving AI systems. The guidelines should incorporate ethics into the relevant research and development processes and take into account strategies for ensuring adequate participation of all those affected by the development, deployment and use of the relevant applications;
• Develop and validate education and training material reflecting the produced guidelines. This should be based on participatory processes involving all relevant stakeholders, including citizen groups and industry.

Due to the scope of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, proposals must include at least two participants from Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and/or African countries non-associated to Horizon Europe. Participants from countries, which are not eligible for funding according to the General Annexes, may take part in the project as associated partners.