Blog

While recent innovations in the machine learning domain have enabled significant improvements in a variety of computer-aided tasks, machine learning systems present us with new challenges, new risks, and new avenues for attackers. As such, researchers should consider how machine learning may shape our environment in ways that could be harmful. Our SHERPA project partners […]

On 5 March 2020, the SHERPA Project hosted it’s second advocacy private lunch. The lunch was organised by the European Business Summits at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. SHERPA Coordinator and Director for the Centre of Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montford University, Bernd Stahl presented to a group of 14 participants working in […]

On February 25, 2020,  60 students at the Practical University of Rotterdam (HRO) started an 8-week long ‘design challenge’ in which they will create interactive installations. Guided by SHERPA artist Tijmen Schep, twelve teams will critically reflect on the power of machine learning and automated decision making. To help them iterate quickly, students will be […]

How do we embed ethics in innovation? As innovations do not follow a fixed recipe, they might turn out how one least expects and cause controversy. A successful innovation must at an early stage, address ethical impacts. Further, how do you embed ethics in your organization? An ethics committee and an ethics impact assessment will […]

Do you ever hesitate to click on a link because you think “that might be remembered, and that could come back to me later”? This question was put forward by SHERPA partner Tijmen Schep at the Unfreezing Freedom Symposium in Rotterdam last week. The goal of the event was to put the rise of data-driven […]

While AI and machine learning are enabling definite advances in the digital world, these technologies are also raising privacy and ethical concerns. What does AI mean for personal privacy, and is it being exploited unethically? Are these concerns being addressed, or will AI spell disaster for society? The SHERPA project coordinator, Bernd Stahl, was invited […]

Candle – the privacy-friendly smart home demonstrator – has won a Dutch Privacy Award! It was handed to Sherpa’s artist Tijmen Schep by Kees Verhoeven, a member of Dutch house of representatives who often speaks on issues of privacy and ethics. The jury hopes this award pushes Candle from a prototype into becoming a real […]

On 11 March at 11 CEST, Andrew Patel, a researcher from F-Secure, will talk about things that can go wrong when implementing AI systems, how AI can be attacked, and how AI might be used for malicious purposes. This webinar will offer the opportunity for you to learn and ask questions about the intersection of […]

How can we convince the privacy industry to explore a more ethical direction?  Artist Tijmen Schep (Pineapple Jazz) believes that one way is to translate SHERPA’s insights and suggestions into practical examples. In his experience as a teacher, building prototypes is a great way to quickly explore and convey ideas since many people are practical […]

The SHERPA project has published the first draft of its guidelines for ethical development and use of smart information systems (SIS) in our online workbook. These build on recent documents, such as the report by the AI Higher Level Expert Group of the European Parliament, but go further. In particular, the guidelines are operationalised, meaning […]

The SHERPA project presented a paper at the IEEE Smart World Conference in August 2019. Comparing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the findings of the SHERPA project’s own case studies, the project found that the use of smart information systems (SIS – the combination of AI and Big Data) offers great potential for […]

SHERPA Coordinator, Professor Bernd Stahl presented the SHERPA Project as a part of a 2-day event focused on Equitable AI in Public Health on the 7 – 8 November in Toronto (Canada).  The keynote presentation was aimed to suggest ways of classifying ethical issues arising from AI and applying this classification to public health. Professor […]

On 26 November 2019, the SIENNA and SHERPA projects were invited to organize an interactive workshop for the European Unions’ different research funding schemes. The workshop is called “Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Foreseeing the Impact and Shaping the Future” and presented findings from both projects. The focus is on the different ethical dimensions and impact […]

Candle, the privacy-friendly smart home project, was launched at the Dutch Design Week (70000 visitors) a few weeks ago. The project’s local voice control features were made possible with Sherpa’s support, and the ethical design reflects the AI guidelines the SHERPA project has been working on (and which will be released at a future date). The […]

SHERPA is assessing the potential of standardising good practices or quality criteria to ensure ethics and human rights in Smart Information Systems. The Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations recently published a toolbox for ethical responsible innovation. The toolbox includes many references to practical guidelines on how to implement innovation in an ethically responsible […]

On 7 November 2019, the SHERPA project kicked off the advocacy mandate with a private lunch for policymakers. The lunch was organised by the European Business Summits as a part of the Think Digital conference at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium.  Laurence Brooks, Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at De Montford University, and […]

On 6 November 2019, SHERPA participated in the 4th Technology Assessment Conference in Bratislava. During the session on value-driven innovation approaches: theory and practice, organised by  Rathenau Institute (the Netherlands), our partner Marlou Bijlsma from NEN shared the findings from the SHERPA smart grids and ethics case study and standardisation efforts in the sector to […]

Every project has its blind spots and limits of knowledge. Therefore it is essential to work together with independent stakeholders who bring in their expertise and contribute to all activities of the project. This is primarily done by the SHERPA stakeholder board which is a permanent body throughout the project. We have gathered 30 experts […]

We are delighted to announce that the PREFET project is organising the Trendington event, that will take place in Madrid, Spain, on November 13 and 14, 2019. The PREFET activities will be held back-to-back alongside the “Spanish National Innovation Days”. The Trendington is a biannual event convening researchers and other stakeholders around prioritised long-term technology […]

Voice control systems such as Alexa and Siri have been in the news lately, as it turned out that unbeknownst to many, voice recordings were listened to by outside contractors. Companies like Google, Amazon and Apple claimed this practice is necessary to improve the quality of their voice assistants. But to what extent is this […]

The 4th SHERPA General Assembly meeting was hosted by UClanCY (University of Central Lancashire-Cyprus), and was held in Larnaca (Cyprus) on the 10th and 11th October 2019. The meeting provided an opportunity for partners to reflect on the current progress of the SHERPA project. This included presentations around the findings of completed deliverables and discussion of key insights. […]

Does surveillance and data collection mean an erosion of privacy? What formal regulation and policy is required as smart cities develop? To what extent should private companies lead urban transformation? Is involving the public from an early stage the key to technological innovation? These are but some of the questions to be discussed in the Panel […]

The SHERPA Project, now in its 17th month, has entered the advocacy phase. The European Business Summit (EBS), a Brussels-based event organizer, will lead the work and advocate the SHERPA project deliverables towards the EU and national decision-makers. The SHERPA advocacy objective is to achieve a lasting impact, facilitating effective policy actions and paving the way […]

Currently, the SHERPA project is working on identifying and analysing regulatory options for smart information systems . The SHERPA regulatory options analysis team would like to solicit your help to answer the following questions: Has our preliminary research identified all the regulatory options relevant to smart information systems (AI and big data) for further analysis […]

In an effort to assist policymakers in the struggle to assess the ethical, legal and human rights impacts of IT systems, the PANELFIT, SHERPA and SIENNA projects are collaborating on how to improve ethical, human rights and legal frameworks for information and communication technologies (ICT), big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.  The PANELFIT, SHERPA […]

Les chercheurs du projet SHERPA invitent le public à commenter les cinq scénarios sur l’avenir de l’intelligence artificielle en 2025 L’intelligence Artificielle détientdès aujourd’hui un impact majeur sur nos vies, notre société et notre économie. Amnesty International a soulevéde nombreuses questions relatives à la protection de la vie privée, à la protection des données, à […]

Researchers invite public comment on five artificial intelligence scenarios set in the year 2025 Artificial intelligence is already having a major impact on our lives, society and economy. AI has raised many issues related to privacy, data protection, discrimination, autonomy, power asymmetries, and fairness, among others, but what will AI be doing in six years […]

Part of the 4TU.Ethics Biannual Conference ‘The Ethics of Disruptive Technologies’ TU/Eindhoven, The Netherlands, November 7th – 8th 2019 Deadline for submission: June 15th, 2019   Notification:  July 5th, 2019 Co-Chairs Prof. Dr. Philip Brey University of Twente, coordinator of the SIENNA project Prof. Dr. Bernd Carsten Stahl, De Montfort University, coordinator of the SHERPA project […]

  Welcome to the SHERPA Project’s Third Newsletter! SHERPA is well underway! We have been busy researching and writing case studies and scenarios, and are onto the second phase of the project: ethical guidelines, the workbook and advocacy. Recent Publications: Understanding Ethics and Human Rights in Smart Information Systems by Macnish, Ryan and Stahl in […]

With more than 70,000 attendees over a four-day period, the Web Summit in Lisbon brought together politicians, technologists, and NGOs to think together, exchange views and set priorities. With more than 70 dedicated discussions and panels, AI was one of the hot topics on the summit’s agenda and high on everyone’s priority list. A wide […]

Welcome to the SHERPA project’s first newsletter SHERPA is a Horizon 2020 project (EU grant number 786641). Looking towards the future of technology, the SHERPA project will investigate, analyse and synthesise our understanding of the ways in which Smart Information Systems impact ethics and human rights issues. “Artificial intelligence and big data analytics bring a […]

We are proud to announce that the SHERPA Project will be presenting at the ETSI IoT Week running from the 23rd to 26th of October. The talk entitled: ‘Standards for the ethical and societal impact of new technologies’ will take place on the Friday the 26th of October at 9:00 in Valbonne near Nice, France. Presented […]

Scenarios form a crucial element of  the SHERPA project as they demonstrate future projections and applications of SIS technologies in the next 5 years. In order to carry out this foresight research, scenario workshops will be critical to gaining the expertise necessary. The upcoming scenario workshops are listed as follows: AI in Defence in Brussels, Belgium […]

Prepared by Trilateral Research Ltd on behalf of the SHERPA consortium On 3 July 2018, the first SHERPA scenario planning workshop took place at Innovate UK, in Brussels, with 22 representatives from 8 European countries and 17 different organisations (from academia, industry, civil society, standards bodies, and ethics committees), as well as policy officer, Albena […]

Prepared by Trilateral Research Ltd on behalf of the SHERPA consortium “Artificial intelligence and big data analytics bring a variety of benefits to society, but at the same time have the potential to disrupt society, ethical values and human rights, and life as we know it”, says Bernd Stahl, Director of the Centre for Computing […]