The Law and Ethics of AI in Social Care

The Technology, Governance and Intellectual Property Law Research Group at the School of Law’s Centre for Business Law & Practice, will host the workshop “The Law and Ethics of AI in Social Care”.

The AI in Social Care workshop will examine the legal and ethical implications of the use of AI tools in social care from different perspectives. Social care is one sector where AI tools are increasingly being deployed to improve efficiency in providing public services and detect fraudulent practices in many jurisdictions. While these tools have been in use in some way in the past decade, recent advances in AI are poised to further automate decision-making processes in a rather unprecedented manner. Yet, the use of automated decision-making tools such as AI in social care raises serious concerns. The experience in other jurisdictions reveals that such tools risk perpetuating bias, discrimination and undermine fundamental rights such as the right to privacy, equality and fair trial. Despite such concerns, the use of these tools appears to be growing. 

The workshop will consider how automated decision-making in social care and welfare interacts with different constitutional and regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions alongside comparative insights from other European jurisdictions. While the use of AI in social care has been addressed – to some degree – in the literature, the debate at the workshop will offer fresh insights on the issue. First, the workshop takes place in the aftermath of unprecedented advances in AI which promises to revolutionalise the ways in which public services are provided, including social care. Such advances call for renewed and fresh examination properly to grasp, analyse and respond to the threats posed by automated systems. That makes the workshop a timely event to examine the multi-pronged implications of AI use in social care. Second, the topic will be addressed by speakers with diverse backgrounds.

This workshop is intended to act as a national and international forum bringing together researchers, policy actors and civil society organisations working on AI and social care, to establish an ongoing collaborative network on the legal governance of automated decision-making in welfare and social care provision.

The programme will feature a keynote speech by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty alongside two discussion panels offering research presentations on a range of related topics, including digitisation and poverty, AI bias and discrimination in social care decisions from public/private sectors, digital health justice, data regulation, digital welfare state, responsible AI, etc.  

The workshop is organised by members of the The Technology, Governance and Intellectual Property Law Research Group (TGIPRG) and is kindly funded by the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) and the School’s Centre for Business Law & Practice (CBLP).

For any queries, please contact k.yilma@leeds.ac.uk.

If you are interested in attending the workshop, please register here.

Please follow this link to locate the venue in the campus map.

Programme

Venue: Worsley SR (4.11)