IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - August 2021 - 3

President's
Message
Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier
CNRS-Sorbonne Université,
FRANCE
CIS Society Officers
President - Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier,
Sorbonne Université, FRANCE
President Elect - Jim Keller, University of
Missouri, USA
Ethics, Diversity and Consciousness in AI
E
thics in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is discussed everywhere,
in governmental circles as well as scientific forums. It is very
often associated with the two widely used concepts of
diversity and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). The latter
was promoted by DARPA1, and it is expected to propose methods
preserving the rights of users to understand how the AI systems
work and why decisions are made. Computational
Intelligence methods have much to contribute to this effort to ensure that AI systems
are ethical.
In July 2020, the European Union has published an Assessment List for Trustworthy
Artificial Intelligence (ALTAI)2 covering a wide range of ethical issues. Among the
requirements listed, we find transparency, that encompasses the traceability of the data
and model used to make a decision, the explainability of decisions and the communication
with the user. Transparency mainly corresponds to the general approach of XAI
and Computational Intelligence has much to do to participate in the effort of transparency
of XAI, by means of the various methods of automatic generation of explanations,
the use of counterfactuals, the help of visualization or the construction of fuzzy
systems providing interpretability and expressiveness, for example.
Another ALTAI requirement sounds familiar to us, dealing with diversity, non-discrimination
and avoidance of unfair bias. Such concerns are at the heart of the IEEE
Computational Intelligence's actions, which is very committed to their respect in its
scientific and associative life. It is therefore natural to also consider these properties as
essential for all algorithms and products that are parts of AI systems, not only in the
collection of data and choice of attributes leading to a decision, but also in the ability
of all categories of users to interact with the AI system regardless of their characteristics.
Privacy and data protection is another aspect of the respect of human users.
Other requirements focus more on the cognitive components of the construction
of AI systems, the effect they can have on human users, the possible governance of
human agents in AI systems and the integration of AI systems in the human society.
The technical robustness of the AI system, its reliability, its security and its capacity to
identify and mitigate risks in a transparent way are not less important.
Machine ethics and the notions of responsibility of AI systems or artificial moral
agents3 are also topics of research that deserve a lot of attention. Consciousness in
AI has been debated for a long time4 and it can take a form different from human
consciousness5. Multidisciplinarity, and in particular the cooperation with cognitive
1https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~alanwags/DLAI2016/(Gunning)%20IJCAI-16%20DLAI%20WS.pdf
2https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai
3https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-ai/#MachEthi
4McCarthy, John (1996). Making robots conscious of their mental states. In S. Muggleton (ed.), _Machine Intelligence 15_.
Oxford University Press.
5Pitrat, Jacques (2009). Artificial Beings : The Conscience of a Conscious Machine. Wiley, 2009
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2021.3084388
Date of current version: 15 July 2021
Vice President - Conferences - Marley M. B. R.
Vellasco, Pontifical Catholic University of
Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Vice President - Education - Pau-Choo (Julia)
Chung, National Cheng Kung University, TAIWAN
Vice President - Finances - Pablo A. Estévez,
University of Chile, CHILE
Vice President - Members Activities - Sanaz
Mostaghim, Otto von Guericke University of
Magdeburg, GERMANY
Vice President - Publications - Kay Chen Tan,
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HONG KONG
Vice President - Technical Activities -
Luis Magdalena, Universidad Politecnica
de Madrid, SPAIN
Publication Editors
IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
and Learning Systems
Haibo He, University of Rhode Island, USA
IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
Jon Garibaldi, University of Nottingham, UK
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Carlos A. Coello Coello, CINVESTAV-IPN,
MEXICO
IEEE Transactions on Games
Julian Togelius, New York University, USA
IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and
Developmental Systems
Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in
Computational Intelligence
Yew Soon Ong, Nanyang Technological University,
SINGAPORE
IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
Hussein Abbass, University of New South Wales,
AUSTRALIA
Administrative Committee
Term ending in 2021:
David Fogel, Natural Selection, Inc., USA
Barbara Hammer, Bielefeld University,
GERMANY
Yonghong (Catherine) Huang,
McAfee LLC, USA
Xin Yao, Southern University of Science
and Technology, CHINA
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
Term ending in 2022:
Cesare Alippi, Politecnico di Milano, ITALY
James C. Bezdek, USA
Gary Fogel, Natural Selection, Inc., USA
Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, UK
Alice E. Smith, Auburn University, USA
Term ending in 2023:
Piero P. Bonissone, Piero P Bonissone Analytics
LLC, USA
Oscar Cordón, University of Granada, SPAIN
Pauline Haddow, Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, NORWAY
Haibo He, University of Rhode Island, USA
Hisao Ishibuchi, Southern University of Science
and Technology, CHINA
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2021.3056261
AUGUST 2021 | IEEE COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 3

https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~alanwags/DLAI2016/(Gunning)%20IJCAI-16%20DLAI%20WS.pdf https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai 3https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-ai/#MachEthi

IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine - August 2021