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Public Interest AI

 

The use of artificial intelligence for the public interest is repeatedly formulated as a central goal in political AI strategies, guidelines and government funding measures, as well as in projects from commercial enterprises. However, it is still unclear whether and, above all, how the public interest orientation of AI applications can be realised and how it can be checked. The “Public Interest AI” research group is therefore developing an operationalisable analysis procedure that will allow Public Interest to be defined in an AI-specific way and tested in technical prototypes. With this practice-oriented research approach, the research group is developing an exemplary catalog of requirements for assessing to what extent socially oriented AI projects serve the public interest. As a result, this can function both as an important contribution to the discourse on AI development in Europe and as practical implementation guidelines for AI developers.

PhD projects

In three PhD projects, different aspects of the concept of AI for social good are being studied.

The first PhD project focuses on processes for the validation of public AI systems by public actors and related deliberative design processes. The format of design patterns is central to the project, which makes it possible to capture and make available transferable patterns for public good-oriented AI applications. Qualitative case studies will be conducted to shape the content of the design patterns.

The second project investigates the role of fact-checks in public discourse and how they can be supported by computer-based methods. To this end, a theoretical framework on claims that potentially contain disinformation and a machine learning model that automatically classifies these types of claims will be developed. In addition, it is planned to empirically investigate the reception and impact of fact checks.

The third PhD project deals with the automated simplification of German-language texts. Besides the purely scientific impact, the aim of the project is to minimise the exclusion factor for less literate citizens. The focus of the technical work is on individual sub-components that should contribute to the goal of full automation. The first sub-component in the project relates to the relationship between summaries and simplifications.

 

 

DurationOctober 2020 – September 2024
SponsorFederal Ministry of Education and Research | FKZ 01IS20058

Contact

Theresa Züger

Theresa Züger, Dr.

Research Group Lead: Public Interest AI | AI & Society Lab

Part of the reserach laboratory

AI & Society Lab

AI & Society Lab

New Open Talk Format

In our "Open Talk" series, we invite experts from the field of public good-oriented AI. With their different perspectives from research and practice, they help us to develop holistic answers on the use of artificial intelligence for the public interest.

Digital & Indiscipline: HIIG Explainer videos with English subtitles

Former employees

Journal articles and conference proceedings

Asghari, H., Stolberg-Larsen, J., & Züger, T. (2022). Approximating Accessibility of Regions from Incomplete Volunteered Data. CHI EA '22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, 1-6. DOI: 10.1145/3491101.3519706 Publication details

Züger, T., & Asghari, H. (2022). AI for the public. How public interest theory shifts the discourse on AI. AI & Society. DOI: 10.1007/s00146-022-01480-5 Publication details

Asghari, H. & Hewett, F. (2022). HIIG at GermEval 2022: Best of Both Worlds Ensemble for Automatic Text Complexity Assessment. GermEval, Proceedings of the GermEval 2022 Workshop on Text Complexity Assessment of German Text, 15-20. Publication details

Asghari, H., van Biemen, Thomas, & Warnier, Martijn (2021). Amplifying Privacy: Scaling Up Transparency Research Through Delegated Access Requests. 5th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro ’21). Publication details

Mahieu, R., Asghari, H., Parsons, C., van Hoboken, J., Crete-Nishihata, M., Hilts, A., & Anstis, S. (2021). Measuring the Brussels Effect through Access Requests: Has the European General Data Protection Regulation Influenced the Data Protection Rights of Canadian Citizens? Journal of Information Policy, 11, 301-349. DOI: 10.5325/jinfopoli.11.2021.0301 Publication details

Hewett, F., & Stede, M. (2021). Automatically evaluating the conceptual complexity of German texts. Proceedings of the 17th Conference on Natural Language Processing (KONVENS 2021), 228–234. Publication details

Book contributions and chapters

Züger, T. (2021). The world we think is the world we get. In T. Bazzichelli, Whistleblowing for Change. Exposing Systems of Power & Injustice. Berlin, Germany: transcript. Publication details

Working paper

Asghari, H., Birner, N., Burchardt, A., Dicks, D., Fassbender, J., Feldhus, N., Hewett, F., Hofmann, V., Kettemann, M. C., Schulz, W., Simon, J., Stolberg-Larsen, J., & Züger, T. (2022). What to explain when explaining is difficult. An interdisciplinary primer on XAI and meaningful information in automated decision-making. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6375784 Publication details

Other publications

Fassbender, J. (2022). Why explainable AI needs such a thing as Society. Digital society blog. Publication details

Nenno, S., & Richter, C. (2022). Sustainable AI – How environmentally friendly is AI really? Digital society blog. Publication details

Züger, T. (2022). A lion for sustainable AI: How to support a new standard for sustainability reporting? Digital society blog. Publication details

Nenno, S. (2021). Siri’s evil sister. When the Dutch public service steals your data. Digital society blog. Publication details

Hewett, F., & Stede, M. (2021). Lexica corpus, . Publication details

Hewett, F., & Nenno, S. (2021). How to identify bias in Natural Language Processing. Digital society blog. Publication details

Nenno, S. (2021). How to find the right survey tool:problems and proposals. Elephant in the Lab. Publication details

Lectures and presentations

Seminar: Programmatische Autonomie: Künstliche Intelligenz und selbstfahrende Autos (Session: Lecture: Künstliche Intelligenz?). University of Potsdam: Prof. Dr. Jan Distelmeyer. Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany: 03.05.2022

Theresa Züger

PhD Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research and Democracy
PhD Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research and Democracy. University of Tübingen. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany: 02.04.2022 Further information

Judith Fassbender

AI in the public interest: What does this mean and how can be build it?
Gesellschaft für Informatik: #KICamp21. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. online, Berlin, Germany: 24.02.2022 Further information

Theresa Züger, Hadi Asghari, Freya Hewett, Judith Fassbender, Jakob Stolberg-Larsen

Particles of a whole: design patterns for transparent and auditable AI-systems
UbiComp '21: The 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (Session: Particles of a whole: design patterns for transparent and auditable AI-systems). UbiComp. Online, New York, USA: 25.09.2021 Further information

Judith Faßbender

Automatically evaluating the conceptual complexity of German texts
KONVENS 2021 (Session: Automatically evaluating the conceptual complexity of German texts). German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology, the Special Interest Group on Computational Linguistics of the German Linguistic Society and the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany: 09.09.2021 Further information

Freya Hewett

AI with Volunteering Communities
The 3rd Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Social Good (Session: AI with Volunteering Communities). International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence, Montreal, Canada: 21.08.2021 Further information

Stolberg-Larsen, J.

Amplifying Privacy: Scaling Up Transparency Research Through Delegated Access Requests
5th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro ’21) (Session: Amplifying Privacy: Scaling Up Transparency Research Through Delegated Access Requests). ConPro ’21. Online, San Francisco, USA: 27.05.2021 Further information

Hadi Asghari

Panels

The Future of War: Drone Surveillance, Killer Robots & Lethal AI Weapons
DNL26: The Kill Cloud: Networked Warfare, Drone & AI. Disruption Network Lab. Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany: 25.03.2022 Further information

Theresa Züger

Wie vermitteln wir Wissen über KI an die Bevölkerung?
Auftaktveranstaltung: Zentrum für vertrauenswürdige Künstliche Intelligenz. iRights.Lab, Berlin, Germany: 07.12.2021 Further information

Theresa Züger

Young activists & human rights in a digital age
Fundamental Rights Forum. Online, Fundamental Rights Forum, Warsaw, Poland: 11.10.2021 Further information

Theresa Züger

Gemeinwohlorientiert = Gemeinnützig? Unternehmen und gemeinwohlorientierte KI
re:publica 21. Im Internet, Berlin, Germany: 21.05.2021 Further information

Theresa Züger

Organisation of events

Workshop: Sustainable AI II
with attending Vip: Lynn Kaack. 14.06.2022. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (National)

Sami Nenno, Theresa Züger

AI and the Public Interest Workshop
13.06.2022. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Hadi Asghari, Sami Nenno, Freya Hewett, Judith Faßbender, Theresa Züger

AI & Society Lab
Lecture in the course of the study week of the ZHAW: "Der Mensch im digitalen Zeitalter". 05.05.2022. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany. Co-Organised by: ZHAW (International)

Sami Nenno, Judith Faßbender, Theresa Züger

Sustainable AI
with attending Vip: Friederike Rohde. 29.04.2022. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (National)

Sami Nenno, Theresa Züger

Open Talk with Alex C. Engler: Algorithmic Services in the German Government
Open Talk. with attending Vip: Alex C. Engler. 01.04.2022. online, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Open Talk with Anna Mätzener: Automatic Decision Making Systems
Open Talk Series. with attending Vip: Anna Mätzener. 20.03.2022. online, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Open Talk with Dr. Stephan Dreyer: Public Service media & Public Value
Open Talk Series. with attending Vip: Dr. Stephan Dreyer. 11.03.2022. online, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Open Talk with Julia Gundlach: Algorithms for the common good
Open Talk Series. with attending Vip: Julia Gundlach. 10.02.2022. online, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Research Clinic: Explainable AI
From 08.09.2021 to 12.09.2021. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany (National) Further information

Digitaler Salon: KI – Die Letzte räumt das Internet auf
31.03.2021. Livestream, Berlin, Deutschland (National) Further information

Natasha Vukajlovic, Philip Meier, Christian Grauvogel

Nominations

Think Tank School of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Hadi Asghari, Theresa Züger