We invited six international researchers from the fields of computer science, social sciences, medicine and business.
The HHU AI Conference 2020
Decision-making based on Artificial Intelligence
On October 29-30, 2020 the conference on AI and decision-making took place as an online conference at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. It was organized by the Manchot research group "Decision-making with the help of Artificial Intelligence" and the Heine Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (HeiCAD).
Data as a basis for decisions
We are on the edge of profound social change, driven by advances in the collection of data from the real world. The rapidly progressing development of virtual agents and cognitive systems based on Big Data are used for decision making and can already take over a variety of tasks: starting with the collection and evaluation of information about physically demanding work up to the support of therapy possibilities in medicine (AI-supported diagnostics), management decisions in companies, in the legal system (finding precedents) or political opinion-forming processes of each of us.
Which knowledge will be gained by data?
It can be assumed that the performance spectrum of cognitive systems will expand significantly. Therefore, we must learn to recognize and evaluate economic and social consequences of decision-making using AI-based methods and to enter into a critical discourse about opportunities and risks: What does the use of AI in decision-making processes mean for the autonomy of private individuals, entrepreneurs and doctors? Which and how much space should algorithms be given in the decision-making process? Who is ultimately responsible for automated decisions?
These are just a few of the questions that equally affect society, business, politics and science. From different perspectives, the conference focused on the use of AI-supported software in decision-making processes and discussed the resulting consequences for human action. In addition to lectures on methods and applications of AI in various socially relevant contexts, ethical and legal issues have also been addressed.
The results of all lectures and discussions have been documented in four graphic summaries by Sci|vis|to:
Listen to the conference's talks:
Six international guest speakers each gave a 30 minute lecture on how AI can support decision making in their area of expertise. After the third and the sixth lecture there was a panel discussion where the guest speakers, researchers from HHU and the audience discussed the following key issues: (1) What are the challenges and constraints when collecting, storing and managing data that should serve as a basis for decision making? (2) How can this data be used to support humans in complex decision-making processes?
The AI Conference 2020 was the kick-off event of the Manchot research group AI and HeiCAD, established to develop the research area of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science into a strategic profile area of HHU.
