ISTA Lecture Young Lounge: Alena Buyx

Titel:

Between hope and hype – ethical aspects of generative AI

Abstract:

Generative AI (ChatGPT, Midjourney, etc.) has exploded into the world and suddenly, both – doom scenarios as well as utopian visions – are being hotly discussed in talk shows, on the news and at dinner tables. While ethicists are delighted that the implications of wider AI use have found their way into wider public debate, these discussions should benefit from longstanding work on the ethical and social aspects of AI. Ethics and other related fields have long discussed ways to use and integrate AI into individual lifeworlds and society responsively. This talk offers an overview of ethical issues and discusses advantages, risks and ways forward in using AI for individual and social good.

Biographie:

Alena Buyx is Professor of Ethics in Medicine and Health Technologies and Director of the Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine at the Technical University of Munich. She has previously held appointments at the University of Kiel, University of Münster, Harvard University, and University College London; and she was Assistant Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, London.

Professor Buyx is a medical doctor with postgraduate degrees in philosophy and sociology. Her research spans the whole field of biomedical and public health ethics, with a particular focus on ethics of medical innovation and health technologies, research ethics, questions of solidarity and justice, and novel participatory approaches in biomedicine and beyond. In addition to research and teaching, Professor Buyx is active in the political and regulatory aspects of biomedical ethics. She has been the chair of the German Ethics Council since 2020.