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Event Recap: October Digital Ethics Unconference

3 November 20252 min read
News
Event Recap: October Digital Ethics Unconference

Since July 2024, techUK has created space for conversations between responsible AI practitioners via the Digital Ethics Unconference. 

On 30 October 2024, techUK welcomed a group of responsible AI practitioners to our October Digital Ethics Unconference. The unconference format, which gained popularity in the Tech sector in the mid-nineties, represented a move away from formal conferences, giving attendees the freedom to co-create the event they want. This approach fosters a more dynamic and collaborative environment, enabling participants to address the most pressing and relevant issues in real-time. By allowing attendees to shape the agenda, unconferences often lead to more diverse discussions and unexpected insights, particularly valuable in a rapidly evolving field like digital ethics.  

In this spirit, the techUK event was participant-driven. Attendees were able to present their suggested topics of discussion for live voting and then self-assigned to topics that rose the ranks. This free-flowing structure allowed responsible AI practitioners across the ecosystem to engage in peer-to-peer learning, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative problem-solving. The unconference is a great way to feel a little less alone in this pursuit and provides a great opportunity for sentiment analysis. 

We extend our gratitude to all participants who attended and engaged in this participatory event format. We look forward to continued conversations on digital ethics at our upcoming Digital Ethics Summit, register here to attend here. 

Session 1: Topics and Takeaways 

Topics for discussion suggested by participants on the day itself included:  

  • Agentic AI risk management (4 votes) 

  • Mental health and digital ethics values (3 votes)  

  • How to mitigate data sets bias and increase diversity (3 votes) 

  • Knowledge gap between AI ethics and responsible AI (8 votes)  

  • Incentive structure for stakeholder buy-in (0 votes) 

  • Where to start with internal responsible AI upskilling (6 votes)  

  • Is ‘ethics’ the right thing to measure? (collapsed into another relevant topic) 

Session 2: Topics and Takeaways 

Topics for discussion suggested by participants on the day itself included:  

  • Exec level making on AI adoption and diffusion (2 votes, lost in a full group revote) 

  • Managing mental health and burn out within digital ethics ecosystem practitioners (2 votes, won in a full group revote)  

  • Human interactions and impact on interpersonal (& digital democracy) (8 votes)  

  • AI addiction (4 votes) 

  • Erosion of critical thinking? (6 votes) 

  • Sustainability impacts (1 vote) 

  • AI ethics in digital democracy (collapsed into another relevant topic) 

The digital ethics unconference proved a great success, with many lessons learned from gathering responsible AI practitioners to engage in thought-provoking conversations and peer-to-peer learning. This format allowed for a breadth of topics to be discussed and showcased emerging priorities in the community.  

If you have found this summary of the Digital Ethics Unconference interesting and would like to find out more about techUK’s work on digital ethics, and AI Assurance and how to get involved alongside members through the Digital Ethics Working Group and future Digital Ethics Unconferences, please contact Tess Buckley at  tess.buckley@techuk.org. To join the Digital Ethics Unconference cohost's gatherings please connect with Myrna MacGregor.