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Everyone is welcome to get involved in Data Ethics Club, as much or as little as youâd like to! We would love to hear your point of view at our discussion groups, to have your support in organising or running a meeting, or to add your contributions to our reading list.
You donât need to be a data ethicist (weâre not!), or a data scientist - having a variety of different people is how we learn from each other. Itâs a friendly and welcoming group and we often have new people drop by, so why not try it?
We meet every other week for one hour on Zoom (Wednesdays, 1pm, UK time) to talk about something from the reading list. Out upcoming meeting dates are available below. If you would like to get email reminders about the content and dates for the next meeting then click below to join our mailing list!
Please read our Code of Conduct before attending.
Upcoming meetings#
These are the meetings for the next academic term.
We will update the material and questions based on the previous weeksâ vote.
All meetings are held at 1pm UK time and last one hour. If you are in another timezone please use a time/date converter like this one to check your local time!
Join the meeting on the following Zoom link: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96026442410
You can see the write ups of previous meetings here!
25th September#
Material: ChatGPT is Bullsh*t
Discussion questions:
Do you think that the labels of ChatGPT as a bullshit machine is fair?
Do you think ChatGPT is a soft or a hard bullshitter? I.e. do you think it has the intention to mislead its audience or not?
What do you think of the implications of the anthropomorphizing of AI tools? E.g. hallucination, learning, training, perception etc.
9th October#
Material: Time to reality check the promises of machine learning-powered precision medicine
Discussion questions:
How should we more meaningfully assess applications of ML to medicine (and other fields)?
Why do you think most of the reviewed ML methods are producing classifications (i.e. diagnosed or not diagnosed) instead of predicting a continuum of risk?
Do you think precision medicine itself is an epistemological dead end? What about stratified medicine? (identifying and predicting subgroups with a better and worse response)
23rd October#
Material: Transparent communication of evidence does not undermine public trust in evidence
Suggested discussion questions:
Were you surprised by the findings of the study? Do they mirror experiences in your own domain?
What do you think is behind the difference between the results of the nuclear power study and the vaccine study?
Should research articles have a place in persuading the public, or should their intention always be to focus on robust, trustworthy information?
20th November#
Suggested discussion questions:
What are the potential risks that could come about with 23andMe using peopleâs data in the way theyâve outlined in their service agreements?
If you were the Chief Executive of 23andMe, what would you be prioritising to make sure highly personal genetic data was being protected if the company is sold (or even if it isnât!)
Data security aside, would you want to take a DNA test knowing that you might find out things about your family or about health conditions you could develop?
4th December#
To be decided.
18th December#
To be decided.
Past Meetings#
You can see a record of what we have discussed previously here.