Values-Centered Artificial Intelligence (VCAI) Initiative

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The goal of the University of Maryland (UMD) grand-challenges funded initiative for Values-Centered Artificial Intelligence (VCAI) is to integrate research and education across the campus and engage in high-impact research with stakeholders to transform how artificial intelligence (AI) is practiced globally.

In 30 years, the VCAI hopes to see AI:

• Safely and privately augmenting and personalizing medicine with doctors and patients informed and providing feedback.
• Fairly and justly tailoring educational content to individual learners with teachers and students understanding and critiquing AI interactions.
• Planning efficient and accessible routes across our cities with engineers and transit riders in the loop.
• Enabling equitable, reliable communication across languages and cultures with lay users and professional interpreters alike.

Unfortunately, that vision is not where AI is today.

The proposed solution is simple to say, but hard to do: To put AI in a human context by developing theories, practices, and tools to ensure that AI respects human values:

• Is understandable, transparent, and trustworthy.
• Is fair, just, and equitable.
• Supports human creativity and innovation.
• Provides privacy and security for stakeholders.