Mexico City, December 4, 2023 - Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool in several areas of society. However, its dizzying growth raises questions about its responsible and ethical application. As AI becomes integrated into our lives, challenges arise regarding the creation of trustworthy and fair systems.
Dr. Lourdes Martínez Villaseñor, head of the academy of the Master's Degree in Data Science of the Universidad Panamericanais aware of this and therefore promotes the responsible and ethical application of artificial intelligence. It is precisely because of the actions she has taken in favor of it that she has been recognized as responsible AI leader of the year in North America .
Service to the scientific and academic community
Such recognition, the doctor explains, was awarded due to her trajectory since 2014 to promote AI ethics in different activities: publications, organization and participation in national and international forums, and as a teacher.
In the last two years, he has led special sessions at the IJCNN International Conference related to the ethical challenges of AI systems for healthcare and medicine. In addition, in 2023 he was part of the editorial committee in an issue of the scientific dissemination journal of the Mexican Society of Artificial Intelligence Komputer Sapiens dedicated to ethics in AI.
In relation to the activities of service to the scientific community, it has also encouraged the inclusion of three panels in these days of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence in the organization of national and international congresses (COMIA and MICAI) and has participated as an expert on these topics on an ongoing basis.
Similarly, at Universidad Panamericana he is responsible for and teaches the subjects of AI Ethics and Ethics for Data Science at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels.
Reliable AI systems in healthcare
Currently, there is great enthusiasm and expectations for artificial intelligence technologies. However, there are major negative consequences .
Speaking about the challenges she has faced in her professional career in relation to the creation of reliable, accessible, inclusive and impartial AI systems, she notes that the main challenges are in relation to privacy, security, fairness, transparency and explainability, accountability, human control and promotion of human values.
"Applications in the healthcare domain are very critical as people's lives are at stake. In this domain, the ethical design of intelligent systems is of course mandatory and especially relevant. To this end, it is vital to take care of ethical principles in the application of intelligent systems," he says.
He likewise adds, "The medical community is very cautious, and rightly so, about the benefits of AI for medicine, so it has been a seven-year journey to build bridges to engage them in the development of the systems to gain their trust and adoption."
Likewise, he points out that a major challenge is to ground principles, best practice guidelines and international regulations and laws into practice. "This is still an open problem that is difficult to address on a case-by-case basis, and becomes more complicated given the emergence of generative AI technologies such as Chat GTP that have extremely complex models."
Working together
She says AI is transforming all sectors of society. Indeed, it is driving operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and advanced data analysis.
However, he says, "the problem is that there is no way to ensure that the benefits of AI are spread equitably and fairly across the world as it is a multifactorial issue that concerns the entire ecosystem."
In this way, he notes: "We must work from all sectors (academia, government and business) to make everyone aware of the need to take into account the ethical dimension, make laws and commitments to self-governance and inclusion. For each intelligent system, the impact on human rights and the dignity of the person must be evaluated with all those involved and in an interdisciplinary manner".
Work in other areas
Another important role of the academic is to be part of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Preliminary Electoral Results Program ( COTAPREP). This committee has the task of advising and monitoring the implementation and operation activities of the PREP, a system that provides preliminary election results through the capture and publication of the data collected by polling station officials.
"My role will be to participate in these activities and issue recommendations to improve the preparation of systems and processes for the implementation and operation of the PREP," he explains.
Likewise, the General Assembly for the election of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Society of Artificial Intelligence (SMIA) for the period 2024-2025, ratified that Dr. Ponce will be its president, while Dr. Hiram Ponce, also a research professor at the Panamericana School of Engineering, will serve as vice-president, both as of January 1, 2024.
In this role, the researcher will be responsible for the management of the board of directors of GIEWS, as well as the development and execution of the strategic plan and the linkage between the society and the academic, business and government actors of the same.
Contribute to the development of AI
"Being part of the experts who can directly contribute to the development of these technologies and thus to the development of our country is a great privilege and a great responsibility," says Dr. Lourdes.
Similarly, she tells her female students, "As women, we have unique perspectives and our creativity is needed to find solutions to complex problems."
"Today more than ever there is a need for more representation of women both in the development of intelligent systems, influencing decisions throughout the life cycle of these, as well as at all levels of government and business, to take advantage of AI and meet the challenges and challenges of these technologies," she concludes.
Researcher's data
Dr. Lourdes Martinez VillaseñorHead of the academy of the Master's Program in Data Science at Universidad Panamericana.
SNI level I
Learn more about the researchers at Universidad Panamericana and their lines of research at: https://www.up.edu.mx/investigadores-panamericana/
