With the theme on "Ethical challenges and fundamental rights with the use of AI", the first morning panel of the fourth and last day (November 14th) of the XVIII International Congress on Human Rights discussed the importance of using AI in scientific research and its ethical implications.
The panel was attended by Professor Rafael Santos (INPE (National Institute for Space Research)) and Professor Jéssica Hind Ribeiro Costa (UCSal (Catholic University of the city of Salvador)), under mediation of Professor Gustavo Paschoal Teixeira de Castro Oliveira (PPGPJDH).
In the lecture on "Generative AI and Ethics at the Academy", Professor Rafael Santos addressed the use of Artificial Intelligence in scientific research, reinforcing that technology should occupy the place of assistant, not author.
By taking the historical path of physical libraries to Google, until reaching the language models, he highlighted that the novelty of Generative AI is participating in the process of thinking itself, which increases the temptation to let the machine write the entire article.
“Ethical use, however, goes through another logic: the researcher formulates the idea, writes his sketches, asks the AI to point out gaps, improve explanations, identify redundancies and suggest concepts as a reviewer or private teacher", stressed, emphasizing that intellectual authorship and responsibility for the text remain human.
At the conference on "Ethical challenges, fundamental rights and the use of artificial intelligence," Professor Jéssica Hind pointed out that the debate about AI is not only technical, but deeply political and civilizational. According to her, technology can be an ally in the promotion of human rights, even in the legal field, since it is developed and used from a plurality of intelligences, subjects and perspectives.
“This implies avoiding the erasure of ancestral and traditional knowledge, disputing how systems are trained and ensuring transparency about information sources, precisely to not reproduce fake news and post-truth scenarios," she argued.
For the speaker, instead of delegating to AI moral choices or judicial decisions, it is necessary to establish limits, social control mechanisms, truthful regulation and clear accountability systems.
“Someone needs to answer for the misuse, the automated decision and the damage caused. The central question is no longer 'if' we will have AI, to become 'what AI, on behalf of whom and under which limits?'", she concluded.
In convergence, the exhibitions reinforced that Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool, which came to stay, but whose ethical use presupposes human authorship, commitment to truth and non-negotiable defense of fundamental rights.
