Theresa Anderson: Building Responsible AI

We were delighted to welcome Theresa Anderson (CIC Alumnus, MDSI Course Director, and now Honorary Fellow) back to UTS to share her current thinking on one of the most pressing challenges…

Abstract: As calls for more ethical applications of AI grow, so too does the need for guidance about what it means to work responsibly with data and AI technologies. This seminar offers techniques to transform ethical intentions into justifiable and practical actions.

Theresa will share seven practical actions to take now to shape a more human-centred and compassionate approach to data science and AI. A distillation of her award-winning scholarship and teaching, these seven actions are designed to move past traditional dichotomies of fast and slow, human and machine, head and heart.

Developed over her 25 years of experience with students and practitioners, the seminar shares how these techniques can empower data and AI professionals to bring imagination and compassion into their work in meaningful ways. The seminar will also provide a brief overview of the theory and practice-based research Theresa draws on in her work. As part of the session, participants will be invited to reflect on ways this understanding might improve data and AI practices. [Slides PDF]

Bio: Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson is the Director and Chief Data/AI Ethicist at Connecting Stones. She is an award-winning scholar and practitioner with nearly thirty years of experience tackling the challenges of information, data and ethical technologies. In recognition of her work in data and AI ethics locally and internationally, Theresa was recognised by the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia (IAPA)in 2023 as one of Australia’s “Top25” data analytics leaders. After an earlier career in international security and diplomacy, Theresa shifted her attention to the information sciences. A social informaticist with a PhD in Information Science, she was an academic at UTS from 1998 until 2020. As part of the UTS Connected Intelligence Centre, she was Director and Associate Professor of the university’s inaugural human-centred and transdisciplinary postgraduate data science program (MDSI: Master of Data Science & Innovation) from 2014-2018. She remains an Honorary Fellow with CIC. As a freelance consultant within her own company, Theresa now focuses on advancing socially just data policies and building trusted environments for data/AI use. She contributes to developing reference and actionable frameworks at local and international levels. These include appointments to the New South Wales State Government’s inaugural Artificial Intelligence Advisory and Review Committee and as an expert contributor to an international standard for Data Usage. She is also a data ethics advisor to the International Science Council (ISC) Committee on Data (CODATA), where she contributes to the WorldFAIR project, shaping the cultures of CARE in relation to data policy and practice.