Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Duncan Purves

Dr. Purves will discuss some of the core ethical issues facing data science. Each issue will be illustrated using real-world applications of data science in sectors including social media and criminal justice.

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Dr. Duncan Purves is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in ethics, especially ethical issues concerning artificial intelligence and the treatment of non-human animals. His past work was on ethical issues related to so-called ‘autonomous weapons systems,’ weapons which can target enemies without human oversight. He now has an NSF grant to investigate the ethical dimensions of predictive policing algorithms, which are being used to identify places and people at highest risk of crime. Some of the ethical concerns he is looking at include discriminatory impacts and community distrust.