Väitös (tietojärjestelmätiede): YTM, FM Salla Westerstrand
Aika
6.6.2025 klo 12.00 - 16.00
YTM, FM Salla Westerstrand esittää väitöskirjansa ”Ethics and Democratic Resilience in the Age of Pervasive Digital Systems – A Rawlsian Approach” julkisesti tarkastettavaksi Turun yliopistossa perjantaina 6.6.2025 klo 12.00 (Turun yliopisto, Turun kauppakorkeakoulu, LähiTapiola-sali, Rehtorinpellonkatu 3, Turku).
Yleisön on mahdollista osallistua väitökseen myös etäyhteyden kautta: https://echo360.org.uk/section/dcc77fb5-0663-4618-8089-9d8a333c6b71/public (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
Vastaväittäjänä toimii professori Katina Michael (Arizonan osavaltionyliopisto, Yhdysvallat) ja kustoksena FT Jani Koskinen (Turun yliopisto). Tilaisuus on englanninkielinen. Väitöksen alana on tietojärjestelmätiede.
Väitöskirja yliopiston julkaisuarkistossa: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-02-0180-7 (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
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Tiivistelmä väitöstutkimuksesta:
Digital systems such as AI come with a promise of making our lives easier. Meanwhile, they are known to bring forth ethical challenges. They are often used to steer human communication, decision-making, and many other actions that have a profound impact on people’s lives. At the same time, they influence societal structures and democratic resilience. The use of digital tools has thus become ever more pervasive, even though we do not yet fully understand its comprehensive impacts on individuals and society.
This doctoral dissertation explores ethical and societal impacts of pervasive digital systems from the perspective of social justice. The study examines the ethical dimensions of current AI development through the lens of the EU AI Act, building understanding of their effects on democratic resilience.
The findings indicate that compliance with regulations such as the EU AI Act can serve as the first step to prevent the most serious harms to basic liberties and equality of opportunity. It can partially counteract, for example, the loss of autonomy, discrimination, and mass surveillance. However, significant gaps remain, meaning that compliance alone does not guarantee ethical and societally sustainable technology. Its support for freedom, deliberative public discourse, and especially proactive efforts to improve the position of the least advantaged members of society remains limited.
The study shows that understanding the impacts of modern technology requires broadening the perspective beyond technical components and individuals to wider entities, such as communities and society. It requires recognising the political nature of the ongoing discourse surrounding technology. Digitalisation that supports social justice requires collaboration between various actors, including technology companies, regulators, system deployers and citizens.
Based on these findings, the research offers tools for researchers and AI developers to guide their actions toward ethical and societally sustainable AI. It enhances our understanding of the ethical and societal impacts of digitalisation by illustrating the roles of different actors in building a just digital society.
Yleisön on mahdollista osallistua väitökseen myös etäyhteyden kautta: https://echo360.org.uk/section/dcc77fb5-0663-4618-8089-9d8a333c6b71/public (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
Vastaväittäjänä toimii professori Katina Michael (Arizonan osavaltionyliopisto, Yhdysvallat) ja kustoksena FT Jani Koskinen (Turun yliopisto). Tilaisuus on englanninkielinen. Väitöksen alana on tietojärjestelmätiede.
Väitöskirja yliopiston julkaisuarkistossa: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-02-0180-7 (kopioi linkki selaimeen).
***
Tiivistelmä väitöstutkimuksesta:
Digital systems such as AI come with a promise of making our lives easier. Meanwhile, they are known to bring forth ethical challenges. They are often used to steer human communication, decision-making, and many other actions that have a profound impact on people’s lives. At the same time, they influence societal structures and democratic resilience. The use of digital tools has thus become ever more pervasive, even though we do not yet fully understand its comprehensive impacts on individuals and society.
This doctoral dissertation explores ethical and societal impacts of pervasive digital systems from the perspective of social justice. The study examines the ethical dimensions of current AI development through the lens of the EU AI Act, building understanding of their effects on democratic resilience.
The findings indicate that compliance with regulations such as the EU AI Act can serve as the first step to prevent the most serious harms to basic liberties and equality of opportunity. It can partially counteract, for example, the loss of autonomy, discrimination, and mass surveillance. However, significant gaps remain, meaning that compliance alone does not guarantee ethical and societally sustainable technology. Its support for freedom, deliberative public discourse, and especially proactive efforts to improve the position of the least advantaged members of society remains limited.
The study shows that understanding the impacts of modern technology requires broadening the perspective beyond technical components and individuals to wider entities, such as communities and society. It requires recognising the political nature of the ongoing discourse surrounding technology. Digitalisation that supports social justice requires collaboration between various actors, including technology companies, regulators, system deployers and citizens.
Based on these findings, the research offers tools for researchers and AI developers to guide their actions toward ethical and societally sustainable AI. It enhances our understanding of the ethical and societal impacts of digitalisation by illustrating the roles of different actors in building a just digital society.
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