All the submissions have been reviewed, and we are happy to announce the winners of the ACM SIGAI Student Essay Contest on the Responsible Use of AI Technologies. The winning essays argue, convincingly, why the proposed issues are pressing (that is, of current concern), why the issues concern AI technology, and what position or steps governments, industries or organizations (including ACM SIGAI) can take to address the issues or shape the discussion on them. These essays have been selected based on depth of insight, creativity, technical merit and novelty of argument.
The winners (in alphabetical order) are:
- Jack Bandy, Automation Moderation: Finding symbiosis with anti-human technology
- Joseph Blass. You, Me, or Us: Balancing Individuals’ and Societies’ Moral Needs and Desires in Autonomous Systems
- Lukas Prediger, On Monitoring and Directing Progress in AI
- Matthew Rahtz, Truth in the ‘Killer Robots’ Angle
- Grace Su, Unemployment in the AI Age
- Ilse Verdiesen, How do we ensure that we remain in control of our Autonomous Weapons?
- Christian Wagner, Sexbots: The Ethical Ramifications of Social Robotics’ Dark Side
- Dennis Wilson, The Ethics of Big Data and Psychographics
All winning essays will be published in the ACM SIGAI newsletter “AI Matters.” ACM SIGAI provides five monetary awards of USD 500 each as well as 45-minute skype sessions with the following AI researchers:
- Murray Campbell, Senior Manager, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
- Eric Horvitz, Managing Director, Microsoft Research
- Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google
- Stuart Russell, Professor, University of California at Berkeley
- Michael Wooldridge, Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford
Special thanks are in order to our panel of expert reviewers. Each essay was read and scored by three or more of the following AI experts:
- Sanmay Das, Washington University in St. Louis
- Judy Goldsmith, University of Kentucky
- H. V. Jagadish, University of Michigan
- Albert Jiang, Trinity University
- Sven Koenig, University of Southern California
- Benjamin Kuipers, University of Michigan
- Nicholas Mattei, IBM Research
- Alexandra Olteanu, IBM Research
- Rosemary Paradis, Lockheed Martin
- Francesca Rossi, IBM Research
We hope to run this contest again with a new topic in the future!
— Nicholas Mattei, IBM Research
Congratulations to all the winners!
Congratulations to all winners! This is a nice initiative to promote AI and trigger discussions on issues with students.
I will request the organizers to consider putting a list out mentioning all worthwhile/ valid submissions (e.g., participants, their submission titles and affiliations). This will encourage participants further.
Congratulations to all the winners! Is it possible to see our essay score so that we can do better next time?