Bayes Centre

[23/04/23] Partner News: Making Systems Answer Project - Call for General Public Participants

Autonomous systems involve software applications, machines, and people that are able to take actions with little or no human supervision. 

Are you interested in contributing to a new project that aims to boost the trustworthiness of autonomous systems?  

Nayha Sethi, Chancellor's Fellow University of Edinburgh and Dr Louise Hatherall, Postdoctoral Research Fellow are looking for participants for a Focus Group as part of the Trustworthy Autonomous System: Making Systems Answer project at the University of Edinburgh.  Bayes Centre Director, Michael Rovatsos, is one of the Co-investigators on the project.

Autonomous systems are increasingly becoming part of our lives. For example, they are used to read and interpret x-rays, to detect banking fraud, and to pilot vehicles. These systems are becoming more complex, and they involve a combination of applications, machines and people. This can raise important questions about responsibility because it might not be clear who should be held responsible for an action, especially if things go wrong. This project aims to tackle this problem by identifying the kinds of answers that people might need to trust autonomous systems enough to rely on them. These answers will be used to help the project team to develop software and proposals for regulation that can help improve the trustworthiness of autonomous systems. 

To achieve the above aims they are recruiting participants for a Focus Group, to be held on 31st May 2023 between 5pm – 7pm, held online via Zoom. 

The Focus Group will explore the kinds of answers we want and expect from autonomous systems through three case studies, each involving a hypothetical scenario from health, finance, and government. We are offering a voucher of £25 as a thank-you for participating in the research.  

 If you are interested in taking part, please email Louise Hatherall (lhathera@ed.ac.uk) for more information. If you agree to take part, they will provide further information about what will happen with your information and the data they collect.