Católica Porto Business School (CPBS) was on the stage this Monday, 23rd October for a debate around three perspectives on how to look at the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI): the conference “Artificial Intelligence: Crossed Eyes between Ethics, Law and Technology” was organised by the Ethics Forum and held as part of the opening of the Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer Executive Course.

Rui Soucasaux Sousa, Católica Porto Business School's Dean, opened the conference by stating it is essential and inherent to the School’s mission “to be at the forefront of studying the complex impact of AI on society and companies, which requires a multidisciplinary approach”.

The Católica Porto Business School's Ethics Forum coordinator, Helena Gonçalves, reinforced “the importance that the forum itself has assumed in raising awareness of ethics in organisations”. The teacher highlighted the connections with the topic of AI and challenged the guests present to create a book with reflections on the future of AI.

The conference was marked by the debate panel, moderated by Alberto Castro, non-executive director of the Center for Management Studies and Applied Economics, and which had as guests the co-founder and chairman of Critical Software, Gonçalo Quadros, Steven S. Gouveia, researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto, and Pedro Miguel Freitas, professor and researcher at the Porto School of the Faculty of Law of the Portuguese Catholic University.

Gonçalo Quadros, who initiated the debate, began by saying that human beings are facing a leap in computational power that has not been seen in almost a century: “It increases more today in one hour than in 90 years”. He spoke about the importance of AI in all sectors. Still, he warned of the danger of software that creates dystopian societies, ending by saying that, with deepfakes, “democracy is in danger”.

For Pedro Miguel Freitas, “the regulator has tried to maintain a technologically neutral position”. The evolution of the European Parliament’s final position on AI is a sign of this. “There is a focus on digital literacy, which is information versus disinformation”, he explained, taking the opportunity to highlight the importance of the legal definition of AI – “neither too comprehensive nor too restrictive”.

Finally, Steven S. Gouveia compared the fascination with AI with the Age of Discoveries, saying that “an ethical compass is necessary to guide society”. The researcher also addressed the authorship of the art made by robots and the importance of applying AI in identifying different types of skin cancers, AI which, however, is still far from replacing “what the relationship between patient and doctor is today”.

The conference was held in a hybrid format (in-person and online) with many registrants. Among them are the new Chief Ethics & Complication Officer Executive Course students who started this week. This program is one of the many commitments of Católica Porto Business School in the area of ​​Ethics and Sustainability.

This initiative, promoted by the Ethics Forum, was one of the many activities developed by this working group. The Ethics Forum at Católica Porto Business School is a meeting space that aims to facilitate business ethics through the exchange of experiences, joint reflection and the creation and sharing of knowledge.