Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe
The Alexander von Humboldt Professor for the Applied Ethics of AI at the University of Bonn.
Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe is the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for the Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Bonn. She is director of the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE) and founder of the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab. She is a member of the German Academy for Sciences and Literature, Mainz, Advisory Board member for the DAAD Konrad Zuse Schools of Excellence in AI and has served as a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI. Prof. van Wynsberghe is author of the book Healthcare Robots: Ethics, Design and Implementation and founding editor for the international peer-reviewed journal AI & Ethics (Springer Nature). She regularly appears in the media to promote awareness of the pressing ethical issues surrounding the design and use of robotics and AI in society.
Repairing AI for Environmental Justice
The world is increasingly confronted with the natural, social, and economic effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and environmental pollution. AI is perceived as an important tool to mitigate or even counter these effects. While there is a growing amount of research directed towards AI for the Sustainable Development Goals, identified by the United Nations, there is little research addressing the, often hidden, environmental and related social and economic costs of designing, developing, and using AI across society. The Bonn Sustainable AI Lab was established in November 2021 to do just this.The Sustainable AI Lab takes the starting point that AI is a planetary endeavor and as such the ethical issues related to AI ought to address a global perspective. As such, the Lab works together with researchers from the University of Ghana studying the epistemic injustices facing the current global AI ethics debate. The Lab investigates both the topics of AI for sustainability and the sustainability of AI responding to questions such as, what are the normative demands of sustainability as a value and how can this be translated into policy options.
The Lab is made up of an interdisciplinary team and has established itself as a prominent research hub dedicated to Sustainable AI research both in Germany and beyond. The team works closely with artists to explore new ways of thinking in the academic space (the lab was chosen as the scientific partner for the ArtScience Residency program made possible by Deutsche Telekom and Ars Electronica). Since 2021, the team has published the first special issue on the topic of Sustainable AI (in the journal Sustainability), organized the world’s first conference dedicated to the topic of Sustainable AI, spoken at COP21 and COP22, and published more than 20 articles on the topic.
The funding for the Lab has been provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Artificial Intelligence endowed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.