A conference on 26 May 2023 at Nishi-Chiba Campus, Chiba University, Japan
Program:
13:00-13:10 Opening Remarks
Koji Tachibana, PhD (Faculty of Humanities, Chiba University, Japan)
13:10-13:50 “Ethical challenges and opportunities related to the use of AI in health care”
Jan Deckers, PhD (Faculty of Medical Sciences, the University of Newcastle, UK)
Abstract: Health care decision-making is flawed as health care professionals and patients do not always know all the facts that are clinically relevant, may not be able to interpret facts, and may not be able to evaluate their moral significance. Whilst AI systems may help with health care decision-making by gathering more relevant facts and by helping with interpreting and evaluating data, health (care) may also be undermined by AI. This presentation sketches some significant hurdles that must be overcome to ensure that AI systems promote rather than undermine health (care). These hurdles include rational and emotional ontological confusion about the nature of AI, technological deficiencies, and problems related to how AI systems are being used.
13:50-14:30 “Ethical Issues regarding the application of AI to the healthcare Settings”
Eisuke Nakazawa, PhD (Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Japan)
Abstract: Implementation of artificial intelligence in psychiatric care will bring innovations that contribute to patient well-being by reducing the burden on physicians and other healthcare professionals and by improving the accuracies of diagnoses and risk predictions. On the other hand, from an ethical standpoint, AI development research needs to include efforts to review opt-out consent from the perspective of the right to control one’s own information, with dynamic consent in the scope to ensure the autonomy of research participants. Medical-technical communication in which consensus is formed in advance between research developers and health care providers and the public, including patients, is necessary, and this is prominently required for the issue of secondary, incidental findings. Issues such as the burden on research participants due to false positives, respect for the right of research participants not to be informed of their results, and the social risk of false positives converge with the issue of how to communicate secondary and incidental findings to research participants. It is not unreasonable to be cautious about returning secondary and incidental findings, especially when adequate communication cannot be ensured.
14:30-15:10 “Exploring the ethics of smart glasses: Navigating the future of wearable tech”
Semen Trygubenko, DPhil (Dodrotu Limited, UK)
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the ethical issues related to the use of smart glasses in order to facilitate decision-making and the formation of knowledge and norms. We identify a wide range of ethical issues, including privacy, safety, justice, change in human agency, accountability, responsibility, social interaction, power, and ideology. The use of smart glasses is expected to impact individual human identity and behavior as well as social interaction, which must be taken into account when developing, deliberating, deciding on, implementing, and using smart glasses. We consider the issues that are applicable generally as well as those that arise in the context of remote-calling functionality available in Ziru AV smart glasses prototype.
15:10-15:30 Tea/Coffee Break
15:30-16:10 “Can ChatGPT serve as a clinical ethics consultant?”
Yasuhiro Kadooka, MD, PhD (Faculty of Life-Sciences, Kumamoto University, Japan)
Abstract: Generally, healthcare professionals should make a well-balanced value judgment by consulting with colleagues or specialists when confronted by ethically uncertain situations. Currently, some professionals may ask a conversational large language model AI easily. This descriptive research aimed to explore the performance of ChatGPT on clinical ethics consultation, which is an advisory service to support healthcare professionals and patients in identifying, analyzing and resolving ethical dilemmas/issues of daily care. Human clinical ethics consultants participated and asked ChatGPT for advices on an ethically appropriate action in a hypothetical vignette. All conversations between the consultants and ChatGPT were recorded and analyzed qualitatively. Tentatively, this study emphasizes that the conversational large language model AI can instruct general principles/norms of clinical ethics, but may fail to make a holistic assessment of individual patients. The analysis is still ongoing. Detailed findings will be presented at the session.
16:10-16:50 “Upgrading feelings”
Jasmin Della Guardia, MS (Graduate School of Humanities, Chiba University, Japan)
Abstract: Fiction tells us stories about how AI can improve humans by taking humans to the next level, e.g. with Human Brain Interfaces like in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Iron Man or the Borgs in Star Trek. Such fictions portray an exaggerated duality of the AI, making us either superhuman or evil juggernauts. However, fiction meets reality, because every day AI merges more and more with our lives as tools (AI filters and art) or as (autonomous) operators (in cars, space travel, and robots; e.g. space robot “CIMON” whose should cheer up astronauts). The fears and dangers are also real and force a debate because this technology is changing the way we think about us and also contains human errors. But we are already cyborgs and AI is human too, so we need to discuss social, psychological, and ethical consequences. To avoid dystopian developments, we need to discuss how enhancing physical ability, attractiveness, creativity, and psychological well-being with AI can make us better people. As an example, we want to examine the influence of AI filters and interactions with AI as a social other on psychological well-being, the philosophical image of man and self-perception.
16:50-17:30 “What can humans learn from AI about creativity as an intellectual virtue?”
Ryo Uehara, PhD (Faculty of Informatics, Kansai University, Japan)
Abstract: Creativity has long been an object of consideration in philosophy, especially intellectual creativity as one of the intellectual virtues in virtue epistemology. On the other hand, recent artificial intelligence has shown remarkable creative abilities. Artificial intelligence, being an artifact, cannot be considered to have virtue. Nevertheless, it is expected that humans can learn something about the exercise of creativity as an intellectual virtue from artificial intelligence. This presentation will organize the debate on the creativity of artificial intelligence and clarify the differences from the creativity that can be demonstrated by humans. It will then examine how artificial intelligence can be used to help humans cultivate creativity as an intellectual virtue.
17:30-17:40 Closing Remarks & Announcements
18:20- Social Dinner (T.B.A)
Sponsors: The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation & JSPS KAKENHI (20H01178)
Organisers: Koji Tachibana and Jan Deckers