ADAPT Radio The ADAPT Centre

You cannot move an inch these days without encountering takes on the future of AI and technology, and concerns about how it may impact our lives for better or worse.

Today we're talking about new ways to approach the ethics of AI and digital technologies and what research is being done to answer the questions and the dilemmas these new technologies raise.

Our experts today are from the ADAPT Centre and are researching alternative methods of ethical and critical thinking in the design of digital technologies and AI.

They are Assistant Professor at the School of Information and Communication Studies in University College Dublin (UCD), Dr Marguerite Barry and postdoctoral researcher at the School of Information and Communication Studies at UCD, Dr Paul O’Neill.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● Critical thinking and ethical design in AI
● Incorporating ethics at the research stage
● The importance of public engagement on future uses of digital technologies
● Beta Festival: Using art to encourage engagement and critical thinking
● Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research

GUEST DETAILS

Prof Marguerite Barry is Assistant Professor at the School of Information and Communication Studies in University College Dublin (UCD). Her research area is human-computer interaction (HCI) and digital media communication studies with a focus on ethical design and development in policy and practice. She is a funded investigator with ADAPT on the Transparent Data Governance strand where she is working on the Autonomy & Responsibility challenge. This involves interdisciplinary projects to support multi-stakeholder engagement in AI technologies from design to deployment.

Dr. Paul O’ Neill is an artist and researcher whose practice and research are concerned with the implications of our collective dependency on networked technologies and infrastructures. Paul is a postdoctoral research fellow at the ADAPT Centre for AI-driven Media Technologies at University College Dublin where he is focusing on the ethics and design of Artificial Intelligence systems. He is also a co-curator of the Dublin Art and Technology Association (D.A.T.A).

MORE INFORMATION

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

KEYWORDS
#technology #ethics #data #research #ai #art

The Irish language is an important part of Ireland's culture, but it is a minority language and like many ‘at risk’ languages around the world, Irish needs to be protected.

Today we're talking about how AI can help to boost the Irish language and the importance of diverse data collection in building robust translation systems. We also hear how researchers are using natural language processing and other tools to help maintain the richness of the language and make it more accessible and available to those who use it.

Our experts today are passionate about protecting minority languages and are working on technology to improve machine translation of the Irish language with the Adapt Centre. They are postdoctoral researcher, Dr Abigail Walsh and research assistant with eSTÓR, Gráinne Caulfield, both from Dublin City University.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● Protecting minority languages with AI
● The limitations of data collection and the need for more diversity
● Using Natural Language Processing to collect the complexities of a language
● AI’s role in encouraging more use of an at risk language
● Getting social media platforms on board to make language more accessible

GUEST DETAILS

Abigail Walsh is a PhD student at the ADAPT Centre in Dublin City University. Her research focuses on improving NLP for Irish language, focusing on the treatment and automatic processing of Multiword Expressions (MWEs). Abigail’s interests include Irish language technology, MWEs, NLP for low-resource languages, linguistic analysis, data processing, Machine Translation, and Machine Learning.

Gráinne Caulfield is a recent graduate of Irish & French from Trinity College Dublin, currently working as a Research Assistant on the eSTÓR project. In this role, she executes the project’s outreach activities- carrying out site visits to relevant stakeholders, managing the social media platforms, newsletter writing etc, as well as translation and data processing duties.

MORE INFORMATION

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

KEYWORDS
#irish #language #data #translation #machinetranslation #technology #ai

The pace of change in AI is beyond rapid and it's an exciting time for research in Ireland.

Professor John Keller is now leading the way in research as the new director of ADAPT, the SFI Research Center for AI Driven Digital Content Technology.

Today we hear about John’s ambitions in his new appointment including his thoughts on current developments in AI, how he plans to lead ADAPT and prepare for the future and why supporting multidisciplinary research will be a key focus for the centre.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● Keeping up with the pace of AI as it enters the mainstream
● SignON: Making AI accessible
● ADAPT’s role in mitigating the harms of AI
● Integrating multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research
● Mentoring and resourcing new researchers and culture
● Preparing for future challenges across different industries

GUEST DETAILS

Prof John D. Kelleher is the newly appointed director of the ADAPT Centre and Chair of Artificial Intelligence at Trinity College, Dublin. John’s core research expertise is in the areas machine/deep learning and natural language processing. Previously, he was the TU Dublin lead in the ADAPT centre and the scientific lead for the Digital Content Transformation Strand.

Within the ADAPT Centre he leads research projects on language modelling, lexical semantics, machine translation, novelty detection, image captioning, dialog systems, and making AI more environmentally sustainable.

John has been the academic lead on numerous industry projects across a range of topics and domains, including: anomaly detection, transfer learning, customer segmentation and propensity modelling, dialog systems and chat bots, and information retrieval and natural language processing.

MORE INFORMATION

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

QUOTES

The impact and penetration of AI into people's lives means that there's so much interest from industry in artificial intelligence, and that's really driving the pace. - John Kelleher

When these types of technologies are prevalent throughout society it's important that the people in that society understand what they are and how they work. - John Kelleher

The most important aspect, or the foundations we need to build in order for interdisciplinary research to flourish, is that we can communicate across disciplines. So we need to spend time with each other as researchers, understanding each other's language. And at the core of that is a willingness to listen. - John Kelleher

Exciting things often happen at the margins, between disciplines, for people to come together in a complementary team, where they have complementary expertise. And so once you can build a bridge across the discipline, then you can do really exciting work. - John Kelleher

Fluency in and of itself isn't the sign of intelligence that we thought it was before. And that's why maybe we need more emphasis on creativity and critical thinking within education. - John Kelleher

KEYWORDS
#ai #adapt #research #technology #artificialintelligence #culture #languagemodels #accessibility

In the age of data our private information is currency and we digital trails behind us everywhere we go online. As AI grows in popularity, some fear it may be a threat to our privacy. It’s important we consider how we can best protect ourselves from our valuable information ending up in the wrong hands.

Today, in light of Data Privacy Week, we're diving into the week’s theme, ‘Take Control of Your Data’, to ask how we can do that, who the responsibility of protection and regulation lies with and the ways generative AI can be a game changer for data privacy.

Our expert is passionate about data protection at an organisational level and is Vice President and Chief Knowledge Officer at the International Association of Privacy Professionals, Caitlin Fennessey.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

● How the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) is approaching AI
● Generative AI and protecting data privacy
● Data Privacy Week: Taking control of your data
● Encouraging organisations to embrace AI, rather than ban it
● Global streamlining of data privacy regulation
● Individual responsibility and creating change in organisations

GUEST DETAILS

Caitlin Fennessy is Vice President and Chief Knowledge Officer at the International Association of Privacy Professionals, where she guides the strategic development of IAPP research, publications, communications, programming and external affairs.

Caitlin is a recognized privacy expert, serving as an inaugural member of the UK International Data Transfers Expert Council, on the German Marshall Global Task Force to Promote Trusted Sharing of Data and on the Future of Privacy Forum Advisory Board. She speaks and leads frequent public discussions on the practical impacts of privacy developments around the world.

Prior to joining the IAPP, Caitlin was the Privacy Shield Director at the U.S. International Trade Administration, where she spent ten years working on international privacy and cross-border data flow policy issues.

International Association of Privacy Professionals: https://iapp.org/about/person/0011a00000DlNmBAAV/

MORE INFORMATION

This episode is in association with Empower, which is coordinated by Maynooth University.

For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre

KEYWORDS
#privacy #data #ai #governance #privacyissues #artificialintelligence

One of the most visible areas AI has been in use in the area of translation. Large language models are getting better and better at learning the subtleties and nuances of human speech and becoming more accessible. Do human translators need to be worried?

Today we hear a talk on the intricacies of AI translation technology, where it is succeeding and where there is downfall, and why we’re maybe overestimating the impact it will have.
Our expert is Professor at Dublin City University and deputy director of the ADAPT Centre, Andy Way, who is a machine translation expert for over 35 years and has been instrumental in shaping the field of machine translation worldwide.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
01:12 Why neural machine translation is better than SMT
04:16 Data limitations in NMT
09:44 Hype around ChatGPT and AI
14:27 The European Language Equality Project
21:34 Inherent dangers in AI
28:42 What is ChatGPT actually being used for?
33:50 Humans are clever, not the systems
40:45 Q+A

GUEST DETAILS
Prof. Andy Way has been in DCU since 1991, except for a period of sabbatical leave working in the translation and localisation industry in the UK between 2011-14. From 2014, he has been back in DCU full-time as Professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University. In 2014, he became Deputy Director of the CNGL Centre for Intelligent Content at DCU. This programme was replaced by the ADAPT Centre for Digital Content Technology in 2015, where he remains Deputy Director.

Prof. Way was Editor for the journal Machine Translation from 2007-21. He was President of the International Association for Machine Translation from 2011-13, and President of the European Association for Machine Translation from 2009-15. In 2015, he received the President's Research Award for the Sciences and Engineering faculties at DCU, and the IAMT Award of Honour in 2019 for services to the MT community.

He has over 400 peer-reviewed conference papers and journals to date, and has brought in over €60 million in external research funding.

MORE INFORMATION
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

QUOTES
In neural machine translation, we actually do have a model of the entire source string, and because of that, that, to me, is the biggest reason why neural machine translation output is better than a statistical machine translation output. - Andy Way

The obvious implication is that for those languages where high class machine translation systems cannot be built, human translators will still be needed. - Andy Way

AI and ChatGPT is being used not only for good, but for nefarious purposes as well. - Andy Way

Large language models or multilingual large language models can produce high quality output and so, I think people who are system developers who rely on old neural technology better change to using multilingual large language models fairly quickly if their systems are not to become redundant. - Andy Way

I think there'll be increasing demand for spoken language translation or multimodal translation in general. But again, you know, if there is a lack of data for many languages, or many use cases, for text data, you can imagine how hard this is going to be for spoken language data and multimodal data. - Andy Way

I believe that you can't do machine translation wholly without input from linguists, or translators. - Andy Way

Maybe the honeymoon period is over, people have started to push back against tools like ChatGPT, saying that they're not as good as people are claiming them to be and that we need legislation to make sure what use cases are being used for good rather than for evil. We need to not overhype this technology because then people are disappointed when they come to use the tools, and responsible, Explainable AI is the future. - Andy Way

KEYWORDS
#machinetranslation #translators #ai #chatgbt #largelanguagemodels

In the 21st century, we do democracy differently. The internet has opened up new channels of information, meaning that citizens can access and contribute to discussions about policies and governance.

Today we find out how AI and big data support democracy in a digital age and what elections might look like in the future.

Our experts are designer, artist and strategist and senior design lead with Democratic Society, Max Stearns and Associate Professor of Digital Humanities and investigator with the ADAPT Centre at Trinity College, Dr. Jennifer Edmonds.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

00:15 How digital technologies affect democracy
04:27 The KT4D project (Knowledge Technologies for Democracy)
07:50 The Digital Democracy Lab
10:01 A cultural lens on technology and democracy
13:07 Meaningful inefficiencies in democracy
14:55 Technology in collective spaces
16:39 Social protections for consumers
18:24 Using technology to encourage informed decision making
22:13 Diffusing polarization
24:36 Trust in tools and information
30:50 Opportunities for designers to reevaluate
33:44 How AI will impact elections

GUEST DETAILS

Max Stearns is a design-minded researcher, strategist, and creative lead with proven experience crafting participatory systems change. He is a Senior Design Lead at Democratic Society, an organization that works with governments, civil society, and citizens to create opportunities for participation, dialogue, and action. His role is to research, design, and co-create systems and solutions that address social, ecological, and economic challenges across sectors and contexts, such as climate action, democratic innovation, and civic engagement.
Max’s work has been showcased at NYCxDesign: Design Week, the Paris Design Summit, Feedback Summit, and the Allied Media Conference, as well as featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, BloombergCities, and Common in Design. Max holds a BA in political science and economics from Ohio State University and an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons School of Design.

Jennifer Edmond is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at Trinity College Dublin where she is co-director of the Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities, Director of the MPhil in Digital Humanities and Culture and a funded Investigator of the SFI ADAPT Centre. Over the course of the past 10 years, Jennifer has coordinated a large number of significant funded research projects, including her most recent project on AI, big data and democracy, KT4D. She has served in leadership roles in a number of European-level policy and infrastructure organisations, including six years as a Director and President of DARIAH-EU, four on the European Commission’s Open Science Policy Platform, and her current role as a member of the Governing Board of the European Association of Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH). Her research explores interdisciplinarity, humanistic and hybrid research processes, and the emergence of critical digital humanities as a contributor to both research and technology development.

MORE INFORMATION

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

KEYWORDS

#democracy #designtechnologies #ai #democraticprocess #elections