MSc in Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics

A new, interdisciplinary degree with the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme meets the urgent demand for interdisciplinary skills and knowledge in the ethical design, use and governance of artificial intelligence and other data-intensive technologies.

Today, many organisations and sectors that work with artificial intelligence (AI) and data-intensive applications are missing the distinctive expertise in their technical and policy/governance workforce needed to answer society’s ethical demands for responsible technology use, which increasingly goes beyond mere legal compliance.

Faced with rising public expectations and regulatory demands that new technologies will be applied not just legally, but ethically, all sectors require skilled graduates armed with critical, creative and higher-order data skills. Graduates of this programme will help their future employers to navigate complex new technical systems and roles with transparency, accountability, fairness, justice, and respect for individual and human rights, and in ways aligned with genuine human and social needs.

Our interdisciplinary degree is designed with the University of Edinburgh’s world-leading academic expertise in this area, drawing on philosophy, law, informatics, and science and technology innovation studies (STIS). It leverages the research power and mission of the Futures Institute’s Centre for Technomoral Futures, which promotes sustainable, just and ethical outcomes for artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technology.

You will:

• Build the complex cognitive and collaborative skills needed to become knowledgeable and competent in responsible and ethical data and AI development, use and governance.
• Develop an understanding of the ethical, legal, policy and design values, principles and practices that enable responsible use of data and AI.
• Gain practical experience working and communicating about AI and data ethics with other stakeholders and practitioners across sectors, disciplines and publics.

Students will learn how ethical norms and principles map onto the distinctive technical affordances of AI and data science; how ethics intersects with other forms of technology governance such as law, policy, design and professional standards; and how ethics relates to broader political and cultural contestations of algorithmic, corporate and state power and influence.

Postgraduate study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). EFI supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research focused on complex global and social challenges.

Our programmes are all taught by academic experts from many different subject areas. As an EFI student, you will develop creative, critical and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals, and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at EFI will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident and critical citizen in a fast-changing world. These will include:

• core data skills
• data ethics
• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope
• the creative and analytic approaches to knowledge that are vital for building better futures

You can join us regardless of whether you already have skills in the use and application of digital data.

Our Ethos

At the Edinburgh Futures Institute, we challenge, create, and make change happen. We are focused on tackling today’s increasingly complex issues and shaping a better tomorrow through education and research with a difference. We bring people and disciplines together to spark the unexpected. We are creating a curious, open-minded, thought-laboratory in order to make better futures possible.

Purpose

The purpose of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. EFI’s distinctiveness stems from our approach to research, education and engagement – an approach that combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production. Working with industry, government and communities (at home and abroad) we will build a challenge-led and data-rich portfolio of activity that has demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts.

Our ethos is:

Critical: Be critical and challenge with kindness, humility and persistence. Nothing should be taken for granted. No assumptions left unprobed. We are working on pressing social issues that need deep and novel ways of thinking: this is not a practice run. We are open, curious, provocative, constructive and mindful of a University’s role in confronting uncomfortable questions.

Participatory: We invite people at all stages of life and from across all disciplines to work hand-in-hand and bring their ways of working and ideas together. Importantly, we also extend this participation and collaboration to industry, the public, and the government.

Future-facing : EFI is a place to embrace the untraditional, the untried and the unexpected. A place where invention and innovation are part of daily life. Here, we define challenges, co-create, envision, experiment, prototype, and evaluate from new perspectives, to make better futures.

Why EFI now?

The biggest challenges facing societies globally are complex and interconnected. Our approach recognises that insight and innovation can come from bringing the arts, humanities and the social sciences into contiguity with data science, engineering, the natural sciences and medicine. And our ethos and commitment to co-production stem from the University’s historic principles of the ‘democratic intellect’ updated now in Strategy 2030. These principles focus on the civic responsibilities of the University is working with and for its wider communities, and the importance of opening up education to all who can benefit.

Our first programme – Data-Driven Innovation

One of EFI’s first major programmes is focused on the challenges and opportunities posed by the revolution in data, digital and artificial intelligence. EFI is a key component of the University’s Data-Driven Innovation contribution to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. This multi-million-pound investment by the UK and Scottish Governments aims to increase the provision of data and digital skills in the workforce and secure economic prosperity for all.

EFI’s data-driven innovation programme links to four key sectors: financial services (including fintech); creative industries; tourism and festivals; and public services (data civics). Additionally, it has two cross-cutting themes: the ethical implications of data analytics and artificial intelligence; and the future infrastructure needed to drive social, economic, environmental and cultural inclusion.

Application and innovation

We will apply innovation from our data-rich activities to the futures of:

• Democracy – exploring the changing patterns of, and preferred futures for democracy, governance and policy.
• Society – addressing the challenges posed by increasingly internetworked yet divided societies.
• Education – future-making through education policy, philosophies and the ways we teach.
• Creativity – understanding and utilising creativity as narrative, product, political agenda and practice.
• Justice – critically engaging with ethics and justice against a backdrop of rapid change and complex global dynamics.
• Health – driving action-oriented research and practice to promote urban and planetary health.
• Sustainability – reconciling the resources that populations consume and the carrying capacity of the planet.
• Economy – scoping futures for finance, policy and infrastructure and their social and economic impacts.
• History – building futures on and from our archives, heritage and culture.