Creating Thoughtful Conversations Around AI

Ethics Unwrapped documentary screening Oct. 15 opens dialogue around AI ethics

“The rise of powerful AI will be either the best or the worst thing to ever happen to humanity. We do not yet know which,” Stephen Hawking said 10 years ago.

Artificial intelligence has transformed the way we live, but the speed at which it is being developed is also generating concerns. This is the focus of “Running With Scissors: AI and the Race for the Future,” a new documentary by educational program Ethics Unwrapped.

Researchers will host a free screening of the new documentary Oct. 15. A Q&A session moderated by the program’s faculty director and professor, Robert Prentice, and featuring experts from the film will follow the screening.

The movie, directed by Cara Biasucci, creator and executive director of Ethics Unwrapped, features more than 60 subjects, including undergraduate students, faculty members, graduate researchers, and industry experts. It will be shown at Rowling Hall’s Crum Auditorium, and registration is free and open to the public.

Over the course of 45 minutes, “Running With Scissors” explores how AI is being used to develop groundbreaking advances in major industries, how students are engaging with it, and how the sudden development of such a powerful technology is creating ethical concerns — including its environmental footprint, effects on job security, and misinformation.

The purpose of the documentary isn’t to give answers that will solve all the issues brought up by AI, but to “provide people with some insight and the motivation to have a productive conversation about it,” Biasucci said.

There are “unlimited benefits” that AI could bring to society, Prentice said in the documentary. That’s why the Ethics Unwrapped team is advocating for a thoughtful approach when developing and working with it, he said.

Ethics Unwrapped is an educational program housed by the McCombs School of Business that produces high-quality content and learning tools for business students and educators primarily focused on topics such as behavioral ethics.

When Biasucci was prompted to make a documentary exploring the ethics of AI, she immediately thought of Good Systems, a University-wide initiative devoted precisely to the research of that same field, she said. Through the initiative, she was able to connect with most of the academics and students who are part of the documentary.

Four of the people featured in “Running With Scissors” will make an appearance for the Q&A session. Panelists include Emily Economy, doctoral student at the Moody College of Communication; Sherri Greenberg, assistant dean for state and local government engagement at the LBJ School of Public Affairs; Peter Stone, head of the School of Computing; and Ben Herndon, MBA/MPA ’96, Ph.D, ’09, chief strategy officer at Kungfu.AI.

But the work doesn’t stop after the screening. Biasucci made it clear that “a video is a starting point for a conversation, but it doesn’t replace the discussion in the classroom or boardroom.” Now she and the Ethics Unwrapped team want to bring the documentary to other universities, hoping to start “a thoughtful conversation about the application of AI,” she said.

The documentary answers broad questions about AI, such as what academics are researching and how students feel about it. Yet it ultimately opens the door to ask, “What could we be doing better?”

Register to attend the free screening of “Running With Scissors: AI and the Race for the Future” on Oct. 15.

Story by Raul Flores