Unesco Chair in AI Ethics and Governance
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Navigating the Complexities of AI Ethics and Governance
The UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics and Governance seeks to advance the aims of UNESCO recommendations on the ethics of AI, to set global standards and norms, and has the ambition to drive ethical reflection and build national capacities to maximize AI´s benefits while addressing its risks.
The ethics and governance challenges posed by artificial intelligence grow more significant with each passing day, as the technologies and applications develop faster than attempts by researchers, citizens, and regulators to understand and shape them. Which values and belief systems should AI reflect, and who should decide? How can the benefits and burdens of AI be fairly shared? Which developments and uses should societies encourage or refuse? What are the responsibilities of organizations that develop, operate, or govern AI, and how can they uphold these responsibilities effectively?
The UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics and Governance is a keystone initiative of IE University’s School of Humanities and an integral part of IE’s UN Hub, a collection of initiatives IE has launched in collaboration with several UN agencies. The Chair’s mission is to promote the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the world’s most widely-endorsed framework for responsible AI. It will advance this mission through innovative research, education, advisory, and outreach activities with local and global partners.
Priorities:
critical reflection
Emphasis on the unique contributions of the humanities to critical reflection on technological choices and their contexts.
Cooperation and knowledge
Cooperation and knowledge cogeneration between the Global South and Global North.
theory and practice
Bridging gaps between theory and practice with projects addressing both foundational and applied questions.
A Collaboration Between IE University and UNESCO
Discover the esteemed UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics and Governance, granted to Professor Ted Lechterman. Leading research, educational initiatives, and global knowledge exchange, the chair aims to advance ethical AI practices worldwide.
ABOUT THE CHAIRHOLDER
Dr. Theodore “Ted” Lechterman is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at IE University, where he researches and teaches in political philosophy and applied ethics. His recent work has explored the concept of accountability in AI, the philosophical challenges of democracy-enhancing robots, and the ethics of industry self-regulation. He is the author of The Tyranny of Generosity: Why Philanthropy Corrupts Our Politics and How We Can Fix It (Oxford University Press, 2022) and numerous chapters and articles appearing in (e.g.) Journal of Business Ethics, Polity, Journal of Practical Ethics, and History of Political Thought. A connecting theme across his research is what makes democracy valuable and how this value applies when power is exercised by private and artificial agents.
Lechterman is an Associate Researcher at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, an organizer of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, and an officer of the Standing Group on Political Theory for the European Consortium for Political Research. He frequently contributes to public debates and advises organizations on strategies for navigating dilemmas in business, governance, and technology. He holds degrees from Harvard (A.B.) and Princeton (M.A., Ph.D.) and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford, Goethe, Hertie, and Oxford, where he was an inaugural fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI.