Public Forum: AI and Our Society

David Crozier CBE

Director, AICC

Professor Seth Bullock

Director, AI for Collective Intelligence Research Hub (AI4CI)

Seth is a professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Bristol. His research interests span artificial intelligence, artificial life, evolutionary biology and cognitive science and he has worked on applying computational modelling approaches to a diverse set of topics ranging from archaeology to zoology with a particular focus on understanding collective behaviour in natural and artificial systems. He has twice been elected to the board of the International Society for Artificial Life, has undertaken consultancy for the UK government on complexity in ICT and financial systems, and is a fellow of the European Centre for Living Technology. He is currently Director of the UKRI National Research Hub in AI for Collective Intelligence.

Connect with Seth Bullock on LinkedIn

Lorraine Acheson

Independent Policy, Strategy & Leadership Consultancy

Lorraine Acheson is an independent consultant and facilitator with more than 25 years' experience working across healthcare, innovation and economic development. She specialises in leading complex stakeholder discussions, helping organisations explore challenging issues, identify opportunities and build consensus for change. Lorraine regularly works with senior leaders across the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Connect with Lorraine Acheson of LinkedIn

Professor Michaela Black

Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Ulster University

Michaela's career has seen her apply AI and gamification to a wide range of domains including healthcare, finance, education, telecoms and marketing with 70+ publications and securing £30M+ in pedagogic and research funding. She has actively engaged in a wide range of AI projects securing funding from a wide range of funders including coordinating an EU-funded project MIDAS (Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services) 2016-2020.

This 40-month project, secured €4.5m in funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. It delivered Data Science hardware and software solutions to connect fragmented health data and enable policymakers across 4+ European countries to analysis data and enhance policies across a range of diverse topics such as: mental health, obesity, diabetes and looked after children, as well as sharing and ensuring uptake of Ethics & Governance for data access practices such as MIDAS Honest Broker Service.

She was a member of a consortium of researchers from the public and private sectors of nine European countries who has just secured EC funding for LUCIA: Understanding Lung Cancer related risk factors and their Impact (£12.5M) seeking to improve the outcome of lung cancer by providing in-depth knowledge of the risk factors and facilitating prevention and early diagnosis. Michaela is currently PI of newly launched AI Collaboration Centre (AICC £16.3M), a collaboration between Ulster and Queens focusing on increasing business awareness, skills and adoption of AI technology to boost competitiveness and productivity across all industries in NI.

As an academic lead she is helping formulate the outline business case for City Deal Cognitive Analytics & Digital Robotics Innovation Centre (CADRIC £39M) driving multi-disciplinary innovation necessary to translate the benefits of Ulster University’s leading-edge research in data driven disciplines such as bio-inspired AI and cognitive robotics, into economic, environmental, and social benefits for NI. Michaela is a current co-director of the engage technology, a stakeholder participation system, proven and effective platform for gaining participant input and key consensus on relevant topics using real-time digital technologies.

Engage has delivered successful engagements in partnership with organisations across government, industry, professional bodies, PPIs, NGOs and academia, on the island of Ireland and across Europe. This work has influenced topics such as Brexit, work force planning in Department of Health and Matrix NI Policy on Women in STEM. An active STEM ambassador, Michaela strives to encourage more women to join this field. Actively part of the Athena Swan (AS) team at UU to promote diversity and equality. She secured EPSRC funding with University of Bath Inclusion Matters Scheme, to host a datathon which aimed to improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the engineering and physical sciences.

Mark Lee

Acting Deputy Secretary for Economic Policy Group, Department for the Economy NI

Mark has had an extensive career in the civil service, most recently as head of the Department for Economy’s Economic Policy Group, overseeing a wide range of interventions to boost economic growth.  This included the launch of the Economy Minister’s AI Panel.  Mark has also headed up work overseeing higher education in the Department for Economy, managing a £1bn budget across student support, teaching and research, as well as leading departmental work on tertiary education reform.

Prior to joining the Department for Economy Mark worked in the Department of Health.  Throughout covid-19 he led the Department’s adult social care policy teams, including work across older people’s services, mental health and disability.  Mark also headed up primary care for the Department – overseeing the roll-out of multi-disciplinary teams in GP practices – and healthcare transformation, including the launch of the Encompass programme.

Mark also has extensive experience in Whitehall, working on planning reform, housing delivery and preventing extremism in MHCLG and with stints in the Cabinet Office and the Northern Ireland Office.

Kathryn Harkin (AICC Advisory Board Chair)

Head of AI Northern Ireland, NTT DATA Inc.

Patricia O’Hagan MBE

Deputy Chair of Matrix

Tadhg Hickey

Head of AI and Digital Ethics Policy, AICC

Tadhg leads the charge in navigating the ethical complexities of AI. His role focuses on developing responsible AI guidelines and policies that promote fairness, privacy, and accountability. By integrating ethical considerations into every stage of AI development and adoption, Tadhg works to build public and business trust in AI. He believes that AI driven innovation should not only be technically advanced, but also responsible and ethical.

With a background in law, Tadhg has focused on the intersection between digital innovation, transformation, regulation and governance. He has worked with global organisations to drive responsible digital transformation, implement technology solutions, and design governance models & frameworks that enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and foster shared understanding of digital & AI ethics.

His contributions to the legal technology and digital ethics landscape have earned him accolades, including:

• LAW.COM International Legal Innovation Awards - In-house Legal Operations Team of the Year (2023)
• Future Lawyer Awards - Legal Operations Team of the Year (2022)
• Making a Difference Awards - Dinah Crystal Award (2019) for contributions to pro bono legal services

Tadhg developed a global consultative approach for Consilio Global Consulting practice aimed at the responsible use and integration of AI in both business & legal functions. Focusing on safe adoption and maximising impact. The approach has been used for global organisations like Natwest, Unilever, Magnum, Turner & Townsend, and more. Additionally, Tadhg has created global AI policies for use in companies which have a multi-geographic compliance footprint which required a harmonised approach to safe AI.

Previously working with CLOC, Global Legal Ops Consortium, tech vendors like Thomson Reuters and DocuSign, and various national bodies in other countries. Tadhg has gained a range of different perspectives for responsible AI development, deployment, and use.

Beyond work, Tadhg has previously represented both Ireland and the United Kingdom at European and World Championships while playing basketball. He continues to compete in 3X3 basketball tournaments and embraces sports like surfing and cliff jumping (he insists it’s not as dangerous as it sounds)! His guiding philosophy? “Transparency, fairness, and openness aren’t just great ethical principles, they are essential when working with others.”

Connect with Tadhg on LinkedIn

AI Collaboration Centre

Visit the AICC website

AI4CI

The AI4CI Hub is a UKRI National AI Research Hub involving seven universities and over forty initial stakeholder partners from across academia, government, charities and industry.

It is an applied, interdisciplinary effort to develop novel AI for collective intelligence at national scale, addressing key societal challenges in:

• Environmental Intelligence
• Financial Stability
• Healthcare Ecosystems
• Human-Centered Design
• Infrastructure and Governance
• Pandemic Resilience
  *Smart City Design

The Hub aims to generate research capacity, capability and community in AI for collective intelligence research across the UK.
The AI4CI Loop

Realising their goals involves addressing both halves of what they characterise as the AI4CI Loop:

1. Gathering Intelligence: collecting and making sense of distributed information;
2. Inform Behaviour: acting on that intelligence to effectively support decision making at multiple levels.

New AI methods are driving progress across the AI4CI Loop.

1. The first half is being revolutionised through mobile devices, instrumented environments, data science, machine learning analytics, and real-time visualisation.
2. The second half is transformed by decentralised smart agents that interact directly with users.

Linking both halves requires new human-centred design principles, new governance practices and new infrastructure appropriate for systems that deploy AI for collective intelligence at scale.

Visit the AI4CI website