In the ITeG Ring Lecture "Digital society - a design task", Prof. Dr. Bettina Berendt will provide insights on the topic "Bias in data and algorithms "at work": old problems, new approaches" on February 8, 2023.

Bettina Berendt is Professor of Internet and Society at Technische Universität Berlin since 2019, Director of the Weizenbaum Institute and Visiting Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her current research includes Data Science and Critical Data Science, especially regarding privacy/data protection, discrimination and fairness, and AI and ethics, with a focus on textual and web-related data.

Summary of her talk:
In current discussions, one often hears that Artificial Intelligence can have "bias", that there can be "discrimination" through the use of AI. Even laws and draft laws such as the GDPR and the draft AI Regulation mention these risks and aim to mitigate them. But what do we actually mean when we talk about "algorithmic bias" (and the like), and what can computer scientists and other stakeholders do about it? In this talk, I will use already observed and (somewhat) fictional examples and an interdisciplinary perspective to show how AI and other technology can systematically disadvantage people. I present structural patterns of discrimination and outline principles of countermeasures. In doing so, it turns out that many of the apparently "new" problems that are so "technology-driven" are already familiar "old problems" and that human and machine decisions are intertwined. Finally, I provide a perspective on how such an understanding can also help use technology to reduce discrimination and disadvantage.

The lectures will take place online (via Zoom). The Zoom meeting link and meeting ID can be found at the following website: www.uni-kassel.de/go/iteg-lectures