A Framework for Socio-Developmental Ethics in Educational AI

In recent years there have been many attempts to create ethical frameworks for AI. Theoretical concepts, such as privacy, fairness, transparency, explainability, responsibility, risk, and trustworthiness have been used as key elements in these frameworks. The use of these concepts is often justified by their wide use in similar frameworks and guidelines but does not seem to result from any coherent shared theoretical foundation. Educational and developmental theories and research have so far had little impact on ethical debates but become important when AI is used in education and learning (AIEd). A socio-developmental view on ethics naturally emerges in the educational context, and the paper shows that it has important implications also beyond the education sector. This paper describes an ethical framework structured in three thematic domains: agency, social fairness, and justified choice, that links AI with theories of education and human development, opening new ways to understand ethics of AI and the social and technical challenges and opportunities in AIEd

State of the art and practice in AI in education

Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have generated great expectations for the future impact of AI in education and learning (AIED). Often these expectations have been based on misunderstanding current technical possibilities, lack of knowledge about state-of-the-art AI in education, and exceedingly narrow views on the functions of education in society. In this article, we provide a review of existing AI systems in education and their pedagogic and educational assumptions. We develop a typology of AIED systems and describe different ways of using AI in education and learning, show how these are grounded in different interpretations of what AI and education is or could be, and discuss some potential roadblocks on the AIED highway

The Future of Semiconductor Intellectual Property Architectural Blocks in Europe

Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) blocks, also known as IP cores, are reusable design components that are used to build advanced integrated circuits (ICs). It is typically impossible to create new IC designs without pre-designed IP blocks as a starting point. These design components are called ¿intellectual property¿ blocks because they are traded as rights to use and copy the design. Firms that focus on this business model are often called ¿chipless¿ semiconductor firms. IP cores are perhaps the most knowledge-intensive link in the information economy value chain. They define the capabilities of billions of electronic devices produced every year. As all products are becoming increasingly intelligent and embedded with information processing and communication capabilities, future developments in semiconductor IP will have a profound impact on the future developments in the overall knowledge economy and society. At present, the IC industry is approaching the most fundamental technological disruption in its history. The rapid incremental innovation that has led to exponential growth in the number of transistors on a chip and expanded the applications of ICT to all areas of human life is about to end. This discontinuity¿the end of semiconductor scaling¿opens up new business opportunities and shifts the focus of ICT research to new areas. The main objective of this study is to describe the current state and potential future developments in semiconductor IP, and to relate the outcomes of the study to policy-related discussions relevant to the EU and its Member States.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Internet, innováció és a nyílt forráskód: közreműködők a hálózatban

A szerző a közösség-alapú gyakorlati alkalmazás és tanulás modelljeit kombinálja a közreműködő-hálózat elmélettel, és a bevezetett fogalmak felhasználásával vizsgálja a nyílt forráskódú fejlesztési modell jellemzőit. A cikk elemzi a Linux és fejlesztőközössége növekedését és változását, illetve bemutatja, hogyan alakul át elsősorban közösség-központú gyakorlati eljárások ökológiájával megragadható közösségé. A konkrét elemzés felcsillantja a reményt, hogy a szerző módszertanával közelebb juthatunk a társadalmi-technikai változások dinamikájának megértéséhez

Editorial

The editorial is written by the guest editor(s) of the special issue presenting its main contents. This issue takes stock of progress on the use and impact of Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) on learning. It provides a critical review of evidence and opens the discussion on identifying and implementing major changes in education systems to meet the challenges of 21st century learning and society. It shows that if we want to advance our knowledge and understanding of ICT for learning, the discussion must be broadened (e.g. not focused only on learning outcomes in terms of better scores in tests) and be clear and specific in terms of what we mean by impacts.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Työmarkkinatieto digitalisoituvassa Suomessa

Tässä selvityksessä on kartoitettu ura- ja koulutusvalintoja tukevia tietojärjestelmiä eri maissa, tähän käyttöön soveltuvia tietovarantoja Suomessa ja esitetty kehitysehdotuksia, joilla Suomessa voidaan aiempaa paremmin vastata muuttuvien työmarkkinoiden haasteisiin. Selvityksessä on tehty katsaus ura- ja koulutusvalintoja, siirtymiä ja nivelkohtia käsittelevään tieteelliseen tutkimukseen. Selvityksessä esitetään perinteistä laajempi työmarkkinatiedon käsite, joka sisältää ulkoisia työmarkkinoita kuvaavan informaation lisäksi digitaalisten palvelujen henkilökohtaistamiseksi tarvittavaa tietoa. Raportin johdanto kuvaa tätä työmarkkinatiedon kenttää ja esittelee hankkeen tavoitteet ja selvityksen lähestymistavan. Raportin toinen luku kuvaa käytössä ja kehitteillä olevien työmarkkinatieto- ja ohjausjärjestelmien yleispiirteitä ja kehityehdotusten taustaa. Kolmas luku kuvaa järjestelmiä vertailumaissa. Neljäs luku kartoittaa Suomessa käytettävissä olevia tietovarantoja ja tieto- ja ohjauspalveluja. Viides luku tarjoaa katsauksen ura- ja koulutuspolkujen siirtymistä ja nivelvaiheista tehtyyn tutkimukseen. Kuudes luku esittää joukon kehitysehdotuksia. Ehdotuksia on taustoitettu erityisesti avoimien tietovarantojen, elinikäisen oppimisen, uusien sääntelytarpeiden ja data-analytiikan uusien mahdollisuuksien näkökulmista.Tämä julkaisu on toteutettu osana valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimussuunnitelman toimeenpanoa (tietokayttoon.fi). Julkaisun sisällöstä vastaavat tiedon tuottajat, eikä tekstisisältö välttämättä edusta valtioneuvoston näkemystä

Ilmastonmuutos ja vesihuolto - varautuminen ja terveysvaikutukset

Ilmastonmuutos vaikuttaa monin tavoin myös Suomessa säähän ja ilmastoon, esimerkkeinä lämpötilan nouseminen, sateisuuden lisääntyminen, muutokset sään vuodenaikaisvaihtelussa ja äärevien sääilmiöiden yleistyminen. Sään tiedetään vaikuttavan monin tavoin vesihuoltoon. Monet ennustetuista muutoksista voivatkin aiheuttaa ongelmia talousveden valmistuksessa käytettävän raakaveden laadussa tai vedenjakelussa, ja siten lisätä juomaveteen liittyviä terveysriskejä. Suomessa on toistaiseksi kiinnitetty vain vähän huomiota vesihuollon kautta välittyviin ilmastonmuutoksen terveysriskeihin. Ilmastopaneelin rahoittamassa hankkeessa ”Ilmastonmuutos ja vesihuolto: varautuminen ja terveysvaikutukset” (2017 –2019) pyrittiin muodostamaan kokonaiskuva ilmastonmuutoksen merkityksestä vesihuollolle Suomessa. Kokonaiskuvan muodostamisessa hyödynnettiin koti- ja ulkomaista kirjallisuutta. Hankkeeseen sisältyi myös vesihuoltolaitoksille suunnattu kyselytutkimus, jonka avulla pyrittiin selvittämään muun muassa sitä, millaisia ongelmia sää aiheuttaa vesihuollolle tällä hetkellä, millaisena ongelmana ilmastonmuutos nähdään, ja miten muutokseen on varauduttu. Lisäksi hankkeessa arvioitiin ekonometrisesti vesihuoltoon liittyvien terveyshaittojen ja toisaalta niihin varautumisen aiheuttamia kustannuksia. Ilmastonmuutoksen hillintätoimet ovat tärkeä osa ilmastonmuutoksen ja vesihuollon kokonaisuutta ja kustannuksia, mutta niitä ei ole käsitelty tässä raportissa. Muuttuva ilmasto vaikuttaa myös raakaveden saatavuuteen sekä jätevesihuoltoon, mutta jätevesihuolto on rajattu tämän hankkeen ulkopuolelle ja saatavuutta on käsitelty vain kyselyaineistoon liittyen. Hankkeen tuottamat tiedot edistävät osaltaan sopeutumista ilmastonmuutokseen vesisektorilla.nonPeerReviewe

Artificial Intelligence: A European Perspective

We are only at the beginning of a rapid period of transformation of our economy and society due to the convergence of many digital technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is central to this change and offers major opportunities to improve our lives. The recent developments in AI are the result of increased processing power, improvements in algorithms and the exponential growth in the volume and variety of digital data. Many applications of AI have started entering into our every-day lives, from machine translations, to image recognition, and music generation, and are increasingly deployed in industry, government, and commerce. Connected and autonomous vehicles, and AI-supported medical diagnostics are areas of application that will soon be commonplace. There is strong global competition on AI among the US, China, and Europe. The US leads for now but China is catching up fast and aims to lead by 2030. For the EU, it is not so much a question of winning or losing a race but of finding the way of embracing the opportunities offered by AI in a way that is human-centred, ethical, secure, and true to our core values. The EU Member States and the European Commission are developing coordinated national and European strategies, recognising that only together we can succeed. We can build on our areas of strength including excellent research, leadership in some industrial sectors like automotive and robotics, a solid legal and regulatory framework, and very rich cultural diversity also at regional and sub-regional levels. It is generally recognised that AI can flourish only if supported by a robust computing infrastructure and good quality data: • With respect to computing, we identified a window of opportunity for Europe to invest in the emerging new paradigm of computing distributed towards the edges of the network, in addition to centralised facilities. This will support also the future deployment of 5G and the Internet of Things. • With respect to data, we argue in favour of learning from successful Internet companies, opening access to data and developing interactivity with the users rather than just broadcasting data. In this way, we can develop ecosystems of public administrations, firms, and civil society enriching the data to make it fit for AI applications responding to European needs. We should embrace the opportunities afforded by AI but not uncritically. The black box characteristics of most leading AI techniques make them opaque even to specialists. AI systems are currently limited to narrow and well-defined tasks, and their technologies inherit imperfections from their human creators, such as the well-recognised bias effect present in data. We should challenge the shortcomings of AI and work towards strong evaluation strategies, transparent and reliable systems, and good human-AI interactions. Ethical and secure-by-design algorithms are crucial to build trust in this disruptive technology, but we also need a broader engagement of civil society on the values to be embedded in AI and the directions for future development. This social engagement should be part of the effort to strengthen our resilience at all levels from local, to national and European, across institutions, industry and civil society. Developing local ecosystems of skills, computing, data, and applications can foster the engagement of local communities, respond to their needs, harness local creativity and knowledge, and build a human-centred, diverse, and socially driven AI. We still know very little about how AI will impact the way we think, make decisions, relate to each other, and how it will affect our jobs. This uncertainty can be a source of concern but is also a sign of opportunity. The future is not yet written. We can shape it based on our collective vision of what future we would like to have. But we need to act together and act fast.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe