SAP sponsored event: The Ethics of Persuasive Technologies

This workshop focuses on the ethics of interaction with digital technologies, and in particular on the use of so-called persuasive technologies, which include recommender systems, bottom-less news feeds, and micro-targeted advertising. These technologies have in common that they exert forms of a‑rational, manipulative, or nudging-related influences on human users. To explore the ethics of persuasive technologies, the presentations will consider the implications of different conceptions of personal autonomy for this digital sphere, the various forms of manipulation and deception online, and the increasing spread of responsibility for harmful outcomes.

The workshop is supported by The Society for Applied Philosophy and The Leverhulme Trust.

Programme

09.00 Welcome and Registration

9.30–10.30 Thomas Douglas (Oxford): The Scope of the Right Against Mental Interference

10.45–11.45 Susanne Boll (Oldenburg): Human Centered AI — What if an AI tells you what (not) to do?

12.00–13.00 Michael Kolain (Berlin) & Paul Seeliger (Speyer): Legal remedies to address persuasive and manipulative design patterns in digital services and products

13.00–14.00 Lunch

14.00–15.00 Emily Sullivan (Eindhoven): Manipulative explanations in ML

15.15–16.15 Silvia Milano (Exeter): Epistemic obstacles to the governance of algorithmic systems

16.15–17.45 Coffee break

16.45–17.45 Carina Prunkl (Oxford): Autonomy and AI: a closer look at choice architectures

18.30 Conference Dinner (location TBC)