What do we need Ethical and Responsible AI and also why for the Earth Sciences?

This class is focused on ethical and responsible AI specifically for the Earth Sciences.  However, ethical and responsible AI matters across all applications of AI and this module will examine our motivation for ethical and responsible AI in general as well as why we want it for the Earth Sciences.

We will start by examining broad implications of widespread use of AI across society in general.  This will involve diving into the effects of automation and AI on jobs as well as on many behind the scenes applications of AI, where it can be affecting your daily life but you may not even be aware AI is being used.

Our second part of this module will examine applications of AI for the Earth Sciences and why we need ethical and responsible AI for these applications as well.  The movie graphics on the right are a bit of a tongue-in-cheek answer to this, as provided by Hollywood (I don’t think these are particularly realistic, which is why I say tongue-in-cheek but they do get one thinking!).

Hollywood’s views of our future

View of the Earth from Wall-E

View of the Earth from The Day After Tomorrow