Ethics
Research Topic
Language: English
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Research problems linked to this topic
- How should government encourage open data publication while minimising re-identification risks (the Mosaic Effect)?
- What risks to personal privacy are emerging from the increasing ability to identify data characteristics unique to a person?
- Improving victim and witness interactions with the police service, particularly in relation to violent crime and serious sexual offences
- How can we reduce bias when using AI?
- How will the use of generative AI to create ‘deepfakes’ that manipulate people’s likeness (face, body, voice) evolve? What is the psychological impact of being deepfaked, and what harmful uses (e.g. intimate image abuse, fraud, reputational damage) will develop and increase?
- What are the economics underlying the spread of mis/disinformation (i.e., what is the scale and nature of the for profit mis/disinformation)?
- How could machine learning and predictive analytics be used robustly and ethically to create claimant personas/segments for disability benefits?
- How can diversity in the cyber security workforce be improved? What can be done to have immediate impact and what should be done to affect long-term change?
- How should government maintain trust and accountability in using AI and machine learning? What is the public appetite for government making use of these in decision making?
- What are the potential criminal opportunities posed by emerging biometrics?
- How can we best communicate and understand the public’s perception of autonomous vehicles and drone usage in policing?
- What are the best practices for conducting pre-interview assessments to identify vulnerability or intimidation to determine appropriate ‘special measures’ and communication?
- How can front-line public services adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by automation? What are the benefits and risks of adopting new technologies to deliver services?
- What impact do abuse, threats and violence have on journalists in the UK? What is the most appropriate way to define ‘abuse’, particularly online abuse, of journalists? What are the perceived boundaries between abuse and valid criticism by different stakeholders? What are the potential triggers for journalist abuse in the UK and internationally, including through analysis of online abuse on social media platforms and publisher websites, and the online accounts posting this abuse and wider evidence gathering?
- How can policing demonstrate that algorithms are fair and unbiased in using policing data?
- How can the Civil Service attract and retain people of talent and experience from a range of sectors and all walks of life? What actions can the UK Civil Service take to be the most inclusive employer in the UK and how should this be assessed and tracked?
- What do we know about the public acceptability of necessary restrictions such as counter disease measures? What lessons are applicable from public acceptability of the coronavirus restrictions to the animal and plant health domain?
- How might technology shape the future requirements of, and services offered by, the legal profession and sector? How can LawTech and innovation support greater access to justice?
- How will AI affect existing kinds of harmful online content (e.g. online abuse, scams) and what new kinds of online harmful content might it give rise to?
- How can we ensure public attitudes to AI are positive, and maximise trust in safe AI?
- Reducing Cognitive Load - Greater access to data, information and services will challenge the cognitive loading on personnel. How can new technology help reduce this burden through, for example, autonomous software agents? Which functions could be carried out by machine and, conversely, what decisions will still need to be taken by human operators to ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards? How do we integrate these advances into our command and control systems?
- How do different individuals and groups perceive their experiences of legal aid services? How does this vary by the nature of their legal problem, advice and support acquired, jurisdiction and outcome?
- How can the UK design a flexible anticipatory approach to regulation while ensuring protection to consumers and environment? What are the ethical aspects of regulating future technology and how can these be incorporated into an anticipatory regulatory framework? Are there successful case studies we can draw lessons from?
- Trust and accountability in using AI and machine learning within policing
- How can policing co-develop useful predictive models with public debate and consent?
- What are the outcomes of receiving legal aid, and how do they vary by the type of service and time at which they were provided? What are the long-term outcomes for those who access and those who do not, but are eligible for legal aid?
- How can policing use advances in robotics to reduce or remove the need for police officers to enter hazardous environments e.g., water, fire, electrical, natural disaster, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear)? Further, how can a seamless and secure operation be enabled in such environments?
- How can policing improve our workforce vetting processes to mitigate organisational risk?
- What legal and ethical challenges does the use of autonomous systems in policing face as robots become more able to operate independently?
- From what other sources can police enrich their own analytical data where it is legal and proportionate to do so?
- What are people’s experiences of dealing with justice problems? How can they be supported to access and navigate the justice system, enforce their rights, and achieve the best outcomes? How does this vary by problem type, level of legal capability, and awareness of support?
- What are the public needs for explanability in AI?
- Which harmful online uses of AI are likely to increase? What could be the impact of AI-generated content on attitudes, beliefs, behaviours or psychological wellbeing?
- How will AI impact societal cohesion, including through trust in institutions and the government and through factionalism?
- What emerging biological or behavioural measurements and calculations can be used to ascertain or impersonate a person’s identity?
- What are the best ways to ensure that AI is used safely, ethically, and in ways that protect the data and interests of children, young people, teachers, and schools and colleges? What forms of regulation and enforcement may be appropriate?
- Public expectations and trust in relation to the capture and use of data within law enforcement
- What are the potential investigative opportunities for policing through the use of emerging biometrics, including the current limits of biometrics to identify and trace individuals?
- Nature and prevalence of links between SOC and drug trafficking / modern slavery Understanding when and where criminal or terrorist behavior is likely to occur, how to deter it, and associated ethical questions.
- How can AI be used to identify harmful content?
- How can we attribute the role that AI had in causing a particular harm, rather than something else?
- How do we design public-serving autonomous systems to be fair and inclusive?
- Statistics representing society: How well or poorly do statistics represent society, and what are the impacts of this on how they are used and valued?
- What are the key factors regarding public trust on autonomous systems?
- What are the potential harms and wellbeing risks that can impact consumers? How do we best measure and quantify these harms taking into account different online markets? How do different markets and tools engage in terms of reach and impact on individuals, for example to what extent does advertising follow and adversely impact consumers?
- What is the role of the consumer in delivering net zero and how can changes be achieved equitably? What are the potential market responses to such changes and how do we avoid unintended consequences?
- What are the potential risks or unintended consequences of counter-disinformation interventions?
- What human systems are resilient to impacts from AI and which are less so?
- What behavioural and attitudinal considerations can be mapped in this area and how do we encourage good behaviours across organisations?
- How can AI and other emerging technologies be implemented in education settings so that they do not widen existing inequalities or create new inequalities?
- The ongoing role for ethics in relation to the police application of technological advances
- What, if any, are the emerging risks to personal privacy and victim intrusion from new digital forensic technologies?
- How might the growth in innovative uses of location data impact public attitudes on the responsible use of location data, for example population movement data?
- What are the long-term impacts on children’s developmental outcomes because of placements made under public law orders in care proceedings? Including care orders, placement orders, and special guardianship orders?
- How can we ensure use of AI is ethical?
- How does case progression, case timeliness, cost-to-access (where appropriate), and eventual outcome vary by jurisdiction and case type? What works, at which stage, and for whom, to improve the efficiency of case progression?
- How can policing best communicate our ambitions, decisions and use of science and technology to improve public awareness and understanding?
- How does mis/disinformation spread between social media platforms, particularly primary and secondary platforms? How can it be identified and contained?
- What methods and policies could policing use to identify deepfakes rapidly and automatically, while retaining victim privacy?
- What computational and analytical techniques can deliver accurate, large scale, automated image capture, processing, and amalgamation, while maintaining privacy and proportionality?
- What are the public’s perceptions, beliefs, and concerns about policing’s existing and emerging science and technology capabilities?
- How can policing measure and demonstrate the level of accuracy in predictive algorithms?
- What are the ethical considerations of LawTech and the enhanced usage of technology within the legal sector? What, if any, regulatory framework or guidelines are required to ensure the fair use and application of LawTech?
- How do online bystanders respond to viewing perceived online mis/disinformation (e.g. report, share, ignore), and how could their behaviours be influenced?
- How can we define and measure procedural justice and (subjective) fairness? How does this vary by jurisdiction, and protected characteristics?