IHEM External Speaker Antoine Boudreau LeBlanc: public ZOOM access

Title: 

An Embedded Ecosystem Perspective on the Sociotechnical Landscape of NeuroAI: A Québec-UNESCO Experimental Case Study in Progress

Abstract:

NeuroAI is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence, propelled by advances in both domains. It is garnering increasing interest due to its pursuit of a common theoretical foundation between the brain's organizational complexity and machine learning architectures. Contemporary AI systems are increasingly modeling their architecture on neural principles, which also enhances our mechanistic understanding of cognition and brain function. In turn, these biomimetic approaches promote a mutual advancement of both AI and neuroscience.

However, the ethical and legal governance of such research-and its dual-use potential-exists within an equally complex, multi-actor, and rapidly shifting sociotechnical environment. This presents an opportunity to test embedded, participatory approaches to ethics that are rooted in immersive collaboration with the scientific community. The ongoing Québec-UNESCO case study examines how such embedded ethics can be enriched by integrating an "ecosystem management" perspective. This experimental framework encourages both researchers and decision-makers to engage with questions of dual-use, ethical foresight, and systemic disconnects between scientific innovation and normative international normative instruments.

This new approach to global bioethics seeks to introduce more effective organizational, systems-thinking, and reflexive tools to enhance societal science advisory and diplomacy, as well as to increase the accuracy, efficacy, and responsibility of research conduct and strategic analysis across sectors.

If you would like to attend online, please use the following Zoom dial-in info:

https://tum-conf.zoom.us/j/63062412184

Meeting ID: 630 6241 2184

Code: 536634

Organic : 

Antoine Boudreau LeBlanc, PhD in Bioethics, is interested in translating biological theories (ecology and evolution) to organizational settings, including digital environments, data resources, and the sophistication of information flow mechanisms resulting from artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation ecosystems.

Trained in biology (BSc) and landscape ecology (MSc), prior to doing his PhD in Bioethics, he recently completed a postdoctoral Scientific Residency at the Quebec Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Technologies on the operationalization of ethical governance in AI and is assisting in the development at UNESCO of their Recommendation on Ethics of Neurotechnology.

He is now conducting postdoctoral research at McGill University at the Québec AI Institute (MILA) on neuroscience and mental health in a clinical and urban context, in collaboration with One Urban Health Chair (U.Montreal) and the Research Center in Regulation, Law & Governance (U.Sherbrooke).