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HEIndividual fellowship2023–2026

BehindAI · Building Responsible Technology: Global Digital Transformations, Tech Workers’ Agency and the Making of Artificial Intelligence

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2023-04-01 → 2026-09-30
EU contribution
€334,757
Participants
8
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Building Responsible Technology: Global Digital Transformations, Tech Workers’ Agency and the Making of Artificial Intelligence

The global digitalization process is often understood through a focus on some “disruptive” or “innovative” tech products or on the relentless public efforts to regulate the big tech companies releasing them, easing their social impacts and restraining the self-proclaimed grand visions of the high-profile Silicon Valley’s CEOs. And yet, the driving force behind the development and maintenance of the incredibly expansive technology ecosystem sustaining modern digital life – apps, websites or platforms used by millions of workers and clients across the globe – is actually to be found in a sprawling network of tech consultancy companies. These employ hundreds of thousands of tech workers spread across tech powerhouses in the Majority World, such as India or Brazil, in various forms of subcontracting or outsourcing contracts with clients based in Europe or the US. But who are these workers? In which way are their life trajectories, rooted in Southern Asia or Latin America, coming to inform their views about technology, the conception they have of their own work, and their very experiences in the industry? And how is the international division of labour that structures the global software services industry shaping both their work environment and the kinds of technologies they build?

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

HHow could developers and deployers of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) make ‘social responsibility’ a key element in everyday industry practices and technological decisions?To answer this question – at the core of the EU Digital Compass 2030 and the recent publication of the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI – BehindAI will open up the “algorithm black box” and deploy an innovative international action research in collaboration with tech workers from major global technology and consultancy companies in Europe, Brazil, India and the US.Carrying out close studies of how decisions are taken during software design and development, the project will explain those decisions by understanding team members’ reflexive perspectives on tech and how those were shaped by their personal and professional trajectories. Furthermore, it will analyse concrete workplace organizational set-ups and the ways in which they allow or limit the application of those ethical and social perspectives in the everyday reality of the global tech industry.As a MSCA Global Fellowship, BehindAI will be carried out by Sébastien Antoine under the supervision of EU tech industry expert Seán Ó Riain and organized through a closely coordinated transnational team from Europe (Maynooth/Ireland), Latin America (UFRGS/Brazil), Asia (HK PolyU/China) and North America (UPenn/USA) with strong organic links between academia and industry insiders through CoLABOR (Portugal) expertise in collaborative research.In this way, the project will provide a new perspective on how the socialization, learning and reflexive negotiation of tech developers can address critical ethical and social issues in AI. This will provide new directions for addressing both theoretical challenges and policy dilemmas currently being considered at the highest levels, ensuring that the key principles of ethical AI championed by the EU reach the shop floor of the tech industry, shaping concrete software developments and broader digitalization processes of economy and society.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH · MaynoothCoordinatorIreland
  • ASSOCIACAO LABORATORIO COLABORATIVOPARA O TRABALHO, EMPREGO E PROTECAO SOCIAL · LisboaPortugal
  • HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY · HONG KONGChina
  • INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BANGALORE · BangaloreIndia
  • THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CORP · PhiladelphiaUnited States
  • Thoughtworks Deutschland GmbH · HamburgGermany
  • UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO · RecifeBrazil
  • UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL · Porto AlegreBrazil

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union