The sixth AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (AIES) took place in Montreal, Canada, from 8-10 August 2023. The three-day event included keynote talks, contributed talks and poster sessions. There were also two panel discussions. The session was moderated by Alex John London (Carnegie Mellon University), and the panellists were: Roxana Daneshjou (Stanford), Atoosa Kasirzadeh (University of Edinburgh), Kate Larson (University of Waterloo) and Gary Marchant (Arizona State University). The panellists began by talking about some of their hopes for large languages models.

Computer scientists at Google have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can describe what something will smell like by its chemical structure. It uses an'odour map' to visualise the indicative scents of a particular molecule, building on work from 2019 where the technology described scents using words. Points that represent similar odours appear close together on the map, which can be used to predict what a substance will smell like before humans have a sniff. 'The model is as reliable as a human in describing odor quality,' the researchers from Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA wrote. They hope that the AI model could be used to identify new scents for fragrances, or flavour profiles in food formulation.

This perspective piece came about through the Generative Adversarial Collaboration (GAC) series of workshops organized by the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) conference in 2020. We brought together a number of experts from the field of theoretical neuroscience to debate emerging issues in our understanding of how learning is implemented in biological recurrent neural networks. Here, we will give a brief review of the common assumptions about biological learning and the corresponding findings from experimental neuroscience and contrast them with the efficiency of gradient-based learning in recurrent neural networks commonly used in artificial intelligence. We will then outline the key issues discussed in the workshop: synaptic plasticity, neural circuits, theory-experiment divide, and objective functions. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for both theoretical and experimental neuroscientists when designing new studies that could help to bring clarity to these issues.

As the field of robotics matures, our community must grapple with the multifaceted impact of our research; in this article, we describe two previous workshops hosting robotics debates and advocate for formal debates to become an integral, standalone part of major international conferences, whether as a plenary session or as a parallel conference track. As roboticists build increasingly complex systems for applications spanning manufacturing, personal assistive technologies, transportation and others, we face not only technical challenges, but also the need to critically assess how our work can advance societal good. Our rapidly growing and uniquely multidisciplinary field naturally cultivates diverse perspectives, and informal dialogues about our impact, ethical responsibilities, and technologies. Indeed, such discussions have become a cornerstone of the conference experience, but there has been relatively little formal programming in this direction at major technical conferences like the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference. To fill this void, we organized two workshops entitled "Debates on the Future of Robotics Research" at ICRA 2019 and 2020, inspired by a similar workshop at the 2018 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML).

On 9th April 2020, Queensland AI hosted a special online panel, exploring a very topical question, "Can AI help in the fight against COVID-19?" During the hour-long webinar discussion, Nicholas Therkelsen-Terry, CEO of Max Kelsen and Head of Queensland AI, hosted a multi-disciplinary panel of medical and AI experts directly involved in the COVID-19 response. Over the hour, the panellists discussed the role of artificial intelligence and data science in the fight against COVID-19. The panellists brought a range of perspectives and a wealth of experience to the discussion, creating a balanced conversation that considered both the clinical and technical sides of the equation. A shift away from classic statistical analysis using P-value confidence indicators and a movement towards a more precautionary, cost-benefit analysis approach for guiding health policy is key to gaining control of the pandemic.

Cars are becoming increasingly automated. Drivers already benefit from a wide range of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), such as lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, collision warning, and blind spot warning, which are gradually becoming standard features on most vehicles. Today's automated systems are taking over an increasing amount of responsibility for the driving task. It is expected that soon, sensors will take the place of human impulse, and artificial intelligence will substitute for human intelligence. This process is defined through various level steps, from low levels of automation where the driver retains overall control of the vehicle in level 1, to a fully-autonomous system in level 5.

SINGAPORE - The use of artificial intelligence (AI) will not make soldiers obsolete, but it might redefine their roles in the future, said expert panellists at a technology summit on Thursday (June 27). In fact, soldiers could become more proficient if they are technically skilled and are able to make use of AI systems to their advantage, they added. Speaking at the second Singapore Defence Technology Summit, Israeli computer scientist Yaniv Altshuler said it is "not so unlikely" to foresee a future where soldiers operate a swarm of armoured, autonomous, or semi-autonomous vehicles remotely. "Now, you see soldiers or pilots actually graduating from flying academies and they are flying drones. Do you call them pilots, or are pilots now redundant?... I think the same would be with soldiers," he said.

The report shows that digital technologies are likely to further reduce trade costs and boost trade significantly, especially in services and for developing countries. Global trade is projected to grow by an additional 2 percentage points annually between 2016 and 2030 as a result of digitalization, falling trade costs and the increased use of services. The share of services in global trade is projected to grow from 21 per cent in 2016 to 25 per cent in 2030. The report also finds that the reduction in trade costs could be especially beneficial for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) and firms from developing countries, provided they have the ability to keep up with the adoption of digital technologies. In the best scenario, developing and least-developed economies' share in global trade is predicted to grow to 57 per cent by 2030, from 46 per cent in 2015, whereas if they cannot keep up, this share is predicted to rise to 51 per cent.

Artificial intelligence in banking and personal finance is marching on, and it's taking lessons from institutional adoption of advanced technologies, said panellists at the AI expo in London. There are several ways that AI pops up in retail: predicting customer behaviours from big data, customer interaction with chatbots, or customized experiences based on how users are interacting with the system. Ash Booth, HSBC's head of Artificial Intelligence for the bank's Digital Assets Technology unit, explained that AI can be defined as "this idea of learning, planning, reasoning. Things we associate with human intelligence embedded in our technology." For Wells Fargo, it's about AI's ability to sift through a huge amount of data the bank has collected over the years.

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to be one of the most significant technological developments of the 21st century. However, it is far from clear precisely what impact it will have on the future of the economy and the workplace in particular. That is why the Young Professionals Group of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce, co-chaired by Isabelle Fatton, an associate in the company/commercial department of the firm, held a seminar on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Future of the Workplace on Thursday 8 March 2018. Jean Lehmann, CEO of Cyber Capital Partners, led the discussion between panellists, Lean Chauhan of RiselQ, Eddie George of new Finance and James Dixon, Change Analyst Specialist from Irwin Mitchell. Amongst the major focuses of the debates around AI have been ethical issues, the fast pace of its development and whether it is too late to control it, as well as its potentially negative impact on employment, mental health and the addictive nature of constant connectivity.