Computer scientist and author Dr. Nisha Talagala spoke about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and answered questions from Civic Tech Club members on Friday.
Talagala talked about her background first working for Google as an AI scientist then moving on to build secure AI systems for banks and hospitals. As the founder of AIClub, a company that educates students about AI where she runs a research institute for high schoolers, Talagala explained the importance of using AI responsibly in a time of widespread AI usage following the introduction of tools like ChatGPT.
“AI learns from data, so if the data is bad, the AI will give biased results,” Talagala said. “With ChatGPT everybody has access to AI tools, and the ethics issues that were always there are magnified because now everyone’s playing with it. That’s one of the reasons why ethics have become so serious and why there are laws being passed about it.”
She discussed the environmental impact of widespread AI usage, privacy concerns, and the effectiveness of government AI regulation, pointing to the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act which classifies AI applications into different risk levels. Civic Tech Club members then asked Talagala questions, and she advocated for AI classes in the workplace and the use of AI to detect and defend against cybersecurity threats.
“I really liked how she dove into not only AI but also the law surrounding AI and what’s letting us use it in the right way,” attendee Lucas Huang (9) said. “That’s really important because now that AI is evolving, we can harness it as a tool more than as something that used to cheat. Her talk was really useful, and I took away a lot, especially about technology.”
Civic Tech Club aims to help students understand civic literacy issues and ways to solve them using tech solutions. The club holds speaker events with experts in various scientific fields and government officials to discuss local policy and technology.
“We chose Talagala to speak because she’s an AI expert, and AI is a very important topic right now,” President Krish Nachnani (11) said. “It’s important to learn about the role of AI in this evolving civic landscape. We plan on getting professors that are related to AI and also having discussion events after so students have more time to talk with themselves.”