20th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research Organized by the Digital Government Society (DGS) Conference Theme: Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence June 18-20, 2019 – Dubai, UAE http://dgsoc.org/dgo-2019 Call for Papers: Track - The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Digital Government Artificial intelligence and associated computational strategies are becoming deeply integrated into nearly every aspect of public policy and management. These strategies, encompassing integrated data sets, machine learning, and predictive analytics, and others, have the potential to yield great benefits, but pose substantial challenges to privacy, autonomy, governance, equity, and fairness. The challenges posed are contemporary - not distant or future – and they are concerns that call for reflection and research by digital government scholars. In the public sector, AI has already become a central component of strategic planning for police departments, educational institutions, regulating the financial industry, the military, and more. AI holds tremendous potential in creating “smart environments”, and the combination of machine learning and predictive analytics makes possible the revelation of key insights promising efficiencies that might otherwise go undiscovered. However, AI also raises the possibility that - if those insights incorrectly mistake correlation for causality, make certain biased assumptions based on the selection criteria of its training data, or infer too much about individuals through poorly designed algorithms - whole groups of people can be discriminated against or even excluded from critical services and opportunities.
From an individual rights-based perspective, this is the ethical dilemma of our time. Unfortunately, discussions about ethics in digital government contexts have not been frequent or wide-ranging. Some of the current concerns may appear to overlap or enter the familiar discussion domains of privacy and security, but we must also ask what new, revised or potentially different ethical standards and principles should be created to respond to technologies that display a pervasive trend primarily directed at surveillance and control. Governments should respond to AI challenges by adjusting their ethical and legal frameworks. But it is also clear that further research is needed to define the borders between ethical codes and legal regulations in AI strategic implementation so that legal frameworks are not overloaded with often contradictory and unclear regulation.
Further, as government decision-making depends increasingly on AI operations and data algorithms, more stakeholder-oriented research is needed to understand ethical implications for citizens, businesses and other relevant communities. DG researchers must find and explicitly formulate “alert points” for government in data-based decision-making. Ultimately, as governments incorporate AI further into their core functions and systemic processes, the central concern is that, through AI, we may lose our ability to parse how machines are arriving at decisions. This Call for Papers seeks to curate scholarly papers that explore the ethics of AI and its associated computing strategies. The track’s objectives include 1) identifying real-world examples and cases that have emerged, 2) seeking to place such cases in the context of existing ethical frameworks for analysis, 3) examining possible ancillary topics to foster a truly thorough discussion, 4) creating actionable recommendations for professional AI developers and digital government practitioners, and finally, 5) institutionalizing recommendations in public administration systems. Possible Topics (although other relevant approaches are welcome as well): • Responsible uses of AI strategies in government contexts • Responsible uses of data science • Assessing data for fitness in use • Issues in integrating data sets • Impacts of AI, IT, and other computing strategies on citizen’s experience of governance • Values in digital government practice and research • Ethical guidelines for digital government practice and research • Ethical challenges posed by enumeration, one-stop, and other government IT programs • Creating a culture of ethics in digital governance • Conflict resolution in public AI practices implementation Submission Guidelines Submission Site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dgo2019 Submission Types and Formats: (1) Research papers (maximum of 10 pages) and (2) Management, Case Study, or Policy papers (maximum of 6 pages) For Full Submission Guidelines, consult: http://dgsoc.org/dgo-2019/submission-guidelines/ Some Important Dates • January 15, 2019: Papers are due • January 20, 2019: Workshops, tutorials, and panel proposals due For questions regarding this track, please contact: Rdomanski@sbs.nyc.gov For all general questions about the conference, please contact: dgo2019@mbrsg.ac.ae We look forward to receiving your papers for DG.O 2019! Robert J. Domanski, Teresa Harrison, and Evgeny Styrin Track Co-Chairs