The Evolving Landscape of Human Research with AI - Putting Ethics to Practice

Jessica Vitak is a full professor in the College of Information and director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland. Her research evaluates the privacy and ethical implications of new technologies that collect data in our homes, schools, and workplaces. She seeks to understand how privacy concerns play a role in technology adoption and use, and she develops tools and resources to help children and adults make more informed decisions when using technology and sharing sensitive data.

Kevin McKee conducts research spanning machine learning, social psychology, and human-agent interaction. His projects focus in particular on the design of inclusive and cooperative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, touching on topics such as leveraging machine learning to promote group cooperation, applying Rawls’ concept of the veil of ignorance to align AI systems with human values, and exploring the ethical and epistemological risks of replacing human participants with AI surrogates. Currently, Kevin is working to develop sociotechnical methods for evaluating large language models, in partnership with external experts and community stakeholders. Kevin also frequently collaborates on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, including co-founding and leading Google DeepMind’s queer employee group.

Craig Lipset is Co-Chair of the Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to improving trial access. He is founder of Clinical Innovation Partners, providing advisory and board leadership with pharmaceutical and technology companies, health systems and research networks, advocacy, and investors. Craig is Vice President of the Foundation for Sarcoidosis, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Health Informatics at Rutgers University, and Fellow at DIA. He serves on the Advisory Council for HL7 Project Vulcan and External Stakeholder Board for IMI Trials at Home, as well as the Advisory Boards for EveryCure and the i-Cubed innovation center at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Craig was previously the Head of Clinical Innovation and Venture Partner at Pfizer and on the founding management teams for two successful startup ventures.

Reid Blackman, Ph.D., is the author of Ethical Machines (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022), creator and host of the podcast Ethical Machines, and Founder and CEO of Virtue, a digital ethical risk consultancy. He is also an advisor to the Canadian government on their federal AI regulations, was a founding member of EY’s AI Advisory Board, and a Senior Advisor to the Deloitte AI Institute. His work, which includes advising and speaking to organizations including AWS, US Bank, the FBI, NASA, and the World Economic Forum, has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and Forbes. His written work appears in Harvard Business Review and the New York Times. Prior to founding Virtue, Reid was a professor of philosophy at Colgate University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Learn more at reidblackman.com.

Steph Batalis is a Research Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Her research examines a number of issues at the intersection of AI and the life sciences, including how emerging technologies will impact both biomedical innovation and U.S. biosecurity. Before joining CSET, Steph was the STEM Policy Fellow at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center where she focused on economic and workforce development initiatives in North Carolina’s life sciences ecosystem. Steph earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a focus in Structural and Computational Biophysics from Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine and a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Vanderbilt University

Michael J. Pencina, Ph.D., is Duke Health’s chief data scientist and serves as vice dean for data science, director of Duke AI Health, and professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the Duke University School of Medicine. His work bridges the fields of data science, health care, and AI, and builds upon Duke’s national leadership in trustworthy AI. Dr. Pencina co-founded and co-chairs Duke Health’s Algorithm-Based Clinical Decision Support Oversight Committee and serves as co-director of Duke’s Collaborative to Advance Clinical Health Equity. He spearheads Duke’s role as a founding partner of the Coalition for Health AI whose mission is to increase the trustworthiness of AI by developing guidelines to drive high-quality health care through the adoption of credible, fair, and transparent health AI systems. Dr. Pencina is an internationally recognized authority in the evaluation of AI tools and algorithms. Guideline groups rely on his work to advance best practices for the application of algorithms in clinical medicine. With over 100,000 citations, he has been recognized by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics among the world’s most “highly cited researchers” in clinical medicine and social sciences.