PHD STUDENTS IN AI ETHICS
What We Do
How we connect
Our primary purpose is to connect doctoral and postdoctoral researchers that are investigating the ethics of AI.
We connect through a variety of events: reading groups, discussions, workshops, and mini-conferences.
As we are located all over the globe, we rotate timeslots for our events to ensure that people in all timezones can attend some events.
All of our internal events are organised via our SLACK workspace. Our Linkedin Page is open to the public but our Slack space is for members only. Requests for membership are through this site via an application form and will be reviewed by the board. Membership is restricted to: PhD students, research students (i.e. Master’s by Research or Philosophy where >80% of the degree is by dissertation), Post-Doctorates, recent PhD graduates (within 5 years), and early career researchers who hold a research degree.
In December 2021 we held our one-year anniversary planning meeting to celebrate our growth to 300 members and to brainstorm what we would like to see in 2022. In January 2022 we held some strategy and planning meetings to set our direction for our second year. As we grew so quickly, some of the core organizing members are currently working on some more formal guidance documents for our group going forward. We will be hosting elections for board members in September 2022.
Reading Groups
Topics are all focussed on the ethics of AI and are selected by the group. Members are encouraged to suggest academic papers or book chapters in the field of AI Ethics. Members are also encouraged to volunteer to host reading groups. As we are scattered across many timezones, it is helpful to have members from various geographic regions contribute to this core function of our group.
Masterclasses
New this year we are including fireside chats with established and leading scholars in the field. Each of these will be hosted by one of our members. After the initial chat between our guest and our hosting member we open the discussion to attendees.
Conferences
Once a year we host an external-facing conference. At this event, members will present some of their work in 5 minute vignettes. Only members and invited keynote experts are able to present, but attendance is open to everyone.
Guiding aspiring PhD candidates
We frequently hear from people who were looking at getting into a PhD program in AI Ethics. Whilst our membership criteria restricts acceptance to those who have already enrolled or graduated from a research higher degree, we strongly encourage those to follow us on LinkedIn and attend some of the public facing events. You may also pose questions to our members through the LinkedIn page. As soon as you are accepted to a higher degree by research please apply for membership to this group.
Internal – research in progress presentations
These workshops are for members to practice their research pitch and ideas to their peers to gain real-time feedback. These workshops are called “Thinking out loud”. They are spaces to share methodologies in their research, especially if their methods are novel, different, or even controversial! These workshops are a safe environment to get feedback from your fellow PhD colleagues.
Specialty sub-groups
We have a group that is focussed on health-related AI Ethics issues which meets to discuss papers related to that field. New in 2022 a new sub group is being formed to focus on legal issues. We are also looking at setting up a sub-group forwork around Large Language Models, as well as one around discource and ethics in the field of AI Ethics and associated fields.
Members share resources, job opportunities, and their successes on this platform. LinkedIn is also a well as a way to explore in more depth the expertise of each member. Aspiring PhD students are encouraged to join the LinkedIn page.
Our group’s LinkedIn page is here.
SLACK
Our Slack workspace is for organising our group and informal discussions about the ethics of AI and the PhD journey. It is where networks are grown, collaborations seeded, and friendships bloom! Being a part of the Slack space is essential for members that wish to get the most out of this group. Our SLACK site is for members only