How did your journey in AI start - what brought you to AI?
My journey in AI started by the end of my PhD-degree and with the new position. While writing my PhD thesis, I saw new potential areas for my research which pointed towards AI. My research was within design, at the cross of Human-Robot Interaction and Human-Computer Interaction, where I worked on two different cases, with Universal Design as a red thread linking these cases. In addition, right after finishing my PhD, I’ve been “thrown” in the AI-wave through the research project that I am currently working on, the Vulnerability in Robot Society (VIROS). In this research project, in a way, I continue the work started during my PhD degree, but now with a stronger emphasizes on AI and ethical aspects related to the integration of social and assistive robots within home and healthcare. I must confess: I enjoy it a lot!
What is the biggest change you have observed in AI compared to when you entered the field at the start of your career?
I think the biggest change is that AI is not anymore only “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”, as initially defined by (McCarthy et al. 2006). But an amalgam of fields, that all have to come together to solve the current and future societal and technical challenges: social sciences, humanities, engineering, design, philosophy, sustainability etc. Thus, the biggest change I can see is a shift in our attitudes towards AI, and a maturation of our understanding of how complex the field is.
What excites you about working in AI, and what are you working on right now?
Oh, wow! AI excites me because I can see endless opportunities of applications and research, which feeds my endless curiosity about seeking to know more, and new things, to deepen into the unknown, and to get answers.
Currently, I am working in the Vulnerability in Robot Society (VIROS) research project, as I mentioned before. I am also involved in Predictability and Intuitive Robot Companion (PIRC) project. I have several studies currently going on, where I focus on different ethical aspects of including social assistive robots in home- and healthcare contexts. For instance, in one of them I investigate how we can use Universal Design principles and guidelines (that are currently extensively used in web- and mobile applications for making these more accessible for people with various functional abilities) to be applied to social and assistive robots. In another study, I investigate how socially and assistive intelligent robots (AI/ML based) considered to be so-called welfare robots may challenge the concept of welfare, through various ethical aspects (privacy, safety, security issues) that need to be addressed in order to preserve the meaning of welfare. In another study, I focus on how the implications that these intelligent welfare robots may have on the workflow and practices of home- and healthcare personnel. Together with other colleagues, in another paper we are investigating how the notion of human autonomy is strengthened or weakened of AI/ML based everyday applications (e.g., smart insulin pump, everyday consumer products). Last, but not least, we are currently in the process of planning some user studies with elderly and healthcare personnel from an elderly care facility, regarding the use of two types of robots: companion/therapy robots and a social and assistive robot (TIAGo). We are also in touch with a hospital regarding the use of social and assistive robots there.
How do you see the number of female researchers and professionals in AI grow? How do you involve yourself in initiatives to introduce more women to AI, and what initiatives can we make to inspire more women to pursue careers within AI?
I think the number of female professionals activating within AI is increasing as AI is permeating several areas, especially with healthcare. I am currently part of several organizations as a board member or committee member, such as: Norwegian Council for Digital Ethics (NORDE), Tekna big data, dScience Community Forum, working group on Ethics & AI at Standards Norway, member of IEEE Artificial Intelligence Group - SG on Considerations of Cognitive Robots for Enhancing Human Efficacy, and AI in Norwegian Healthcare Service (Kunstig Intelligens i Norsk Helsetjenste). I am activating in these boards or commitees, and I am proactively trying to recruit more women. I think many of my (female, but also male) colleagues are aware of the importance of diversity, and we are always trying to recruit both female and males in our events. I am also consciously share information with my female peers that I think it’s relevant for them, where they can “get a seat at a table.” However, I think that we should make aware about this attitude, and the importance of diversity and inclusion to our younger peers, for instance, to educational programs where there are predominantly males. I think this is important in order to support the upcoming female generation.
Why is it important for more women to get involved in AI?
It’s simple: diversity and inclusion is more important than ever at this stage that we are today with the AI development. We need to avoid future biases and discrimination in our algorithms.
What advice would you like to give women who are pursuing their careers in AI?
Don’t be afraid to get involved. Your knowledge and expertise is equally important, regardless if you contribute in a technical, engineering, design, or socially oriented way. We are better together.
What advice do you have for organizations who wish to recruit and retain female researchers and professionals in AI?
Reach out to women. Invite them to events and presentation. Add them to email lists. Organize events where they can network and support each other. Be inclusive. Be aware of not only involving researchers, but female researchers with different backgrounds (technical, design, social-humanities), but also nationalities, ethnicities, international and non-international. Be inclusive. You will be surprized about the amazing competence they have. We can also build up their competence in this way and retain them within the field.
Who is your biggest role model within your field, and why?
Oh, that’s hard! I wouldn’t give names. But I have many role models at different levels. International known researchers, from Mark Coeckelbergh and Aimee van Wynsberghe – philosophers that engage within ethics, responsible robotics, sustainability questions etc., to colleagues whose papers I am reading, but I do not know them personally, to more senior colleagues from academia that I am working on a daily basis, to colleagues from the research projects that I am involved in, and colleagues from these commitees/organizations that I am involved in, and my younger peers that inspire me. I don’t think I have one single “hero”, but many at different levels, from whom I am continuously learning different things.
What role can NORA take on to empower diversity and inclusion in AI in Norway?
The facilitator role. That you hold webinars, conferences and other events, have continous contact with various groups of researchers and users, involve us actively in different things – that’s the role that I see for NORA. Nevertheless, NORA can also act as a knowledge hub, with putting in touch its members through various research projects and collaborations. NORA can also take a more policy maker role representing the voice of the “crowd”. This is how I see it now – but may be I will come up with new things that NORA could do.
About Diana
Diana Saplacan is a senior researcher/forsker II at the University of Oslo, at the Department of Informatics, Robotics and Intelligent Systems (ROBIN) research group, currently working in Vulnerability in Robot Society (VIROS) project. Her research in the VIROS project covers the ethical aspects of AI robots and systems. She focuses on the user (e.g., care receiver and caregivers, including family members and medical staff using the AI robot system) and how the user experiences privacy and safety in their interaction with AI robots and systems. She is concerned with products and services being designed with inclusion and accessibility in mind, such that vulnerable users can also use them, but not at the cost of their privacy or safety.
She received her Ph.D. degree (2020) from the University of Oslo, Norway, and her M.Sc. degree (2013) from Kristianstad University, Sweden, where she also worked as a Computer Science lecturer for three years. Her Ph.D. degree is interdisciplinary within Design of Information Systems, at the cross of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) fields, with Universal Design (UD) knitting these fields. In her Ph.D., she worked with two different cases, one focused on everyday interaction with robots in the home as part of the Multimodal Elderly Care Systems (MECS) research project, and the other focused on interaction with digital learning environments in higher education in UDFeed project. She coined the notion of situated abilities discussing from a phenomenological perspective how the abilities of humans in their interaction with digital systems are constrained or enabled by the design of the system itself.
Her current interests include Human-Robot Interaction and Human-Robot cooperation, ethics, and AI regarded through the lens of Universal Design principles, inclusion, and accessibility. She is not afraid of asking difficult questions in order to protect the human rights of vulnerable users when it comes to AI and robots.