In the CAVE: An Ethics Podcast

Just imagine that you are lying down in the warm sand, relaxing while enjoying the sun and sea on a lazy holiday. Wouldn’t it be nice if every day was like that? Many of us have enjoyed the fantasy of quitting our jobs, moving somewhere exotic, and living a simpler and more meaningful life. Wouldn’t a life without the trouble of work be a more fulfilling one? With the ever-increasing sophistication of technology and the rise of AI seemingly threatening mass unemployment, the post-work world might be one that we are already hurtling towards. But is a post-work world really possible? And even if it was, would a world without work be a better and fairer world than our own in which work plays such a central role? Join host Professor Paul Formosa and guest Professor Jean-Philippe Deranty as they discuss the nature and value of work, and whether a world without work is possible. This podcast discusses Jean-Philippe’s recent paper: Deranty, J.-P. (2022). “Post-work society as an oxymoron: Why we cannot, and should not, wish work away”, European Journal of Social Theory, 25(3), 422–439. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310211012169 Produced by Piccolo Podcasts: https://piccolopodcasts.com.au/

Assisted reproductive technologies are now pervasive in Australia, with around 1 in 20 babies born through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or other technologies. IVF has been used to help people make families since 1978. However, for women without a functioning uterus, the options were limited to adoption or surrogacy until relatively recently. In 2014 a Swedish team announced the first live birth of a baby born following uterus transplantation (UTx). Since then, teams around the world have set up UTx programs, including in Sydney. Alongside the clinical research, ethicists have engaged in vigorous debate about the rights and wrongs of UTx.   Join host Distinguished Professor Wendy Rogers and guest Associate Professor Mianna Lotz as they discuss the ethics of uterus transplantation, drawing on Mianna’s experiences as an ethical adviser to the first uterus transplantation trial in Australia. This podcast discusses one of Mianna’s key papers on the topic: Lotz, M. (2021). Public funding of uterus transplantation: Deepening the socio-moral critique. Bioethics 35: 664-671. DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12914   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us take our legal identity for granted. We are easily able to apply for passports, bank accounts and other services that require proof that we are who we claim to be. But around one billion people lack proof of their legal identity, impacting their human rights in adverse ways. It can be a difficult matter to establish legal identity. Mechanisms ranging from birth registration through to biometric measures raise various potential complications, especially for people who are already marginalised. “Legal identity for all” is one of the Sustainable Development Goals, but despite this recognition of how important it is, ensuring fair access to legal identity remains challenging. Join host Distinguished Professor Wendy Rogers and guest Dr Christoph Sperfeldt as they discuss legal identity, how to establish it and the challenges of ensuring that no-one is deprived of the right to a legal identity. This podcast discusses Christoph’s recent paper: Sperfeldt, C. (2022). Legal identity in the sustainable development agenda: actors, perspectives and trends in an emerging field of research. The International Journal of Human Rights 26:2, 217-238. DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2021.1913409 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You call out to your favourite AI voice assistant and ask it to play an obscure song. Unfortunately, it starts playing the wrong song, which leads you to verbally abuse it. After a brief pause, the AI responds submissively. Is there anything wrong with your behaviour? And does it matter that the AI voice assistant was designed, by predominately male teams, to sound like a submissive woman? Siri, Alexa, the Google assistant, and other AIs all have a default female-sounding voice. Why? Is it because we think of them as personal assistants, and we stereotype personal assistants as female? We often think of robots, as well as AI avatars and assistants, as mere “things”, but this is misleading insofar as many robots and AI personalities are designed to appear gendered, and we tend to bring our human gender stereotypes to our interactions with social robots. So how should we think about the gendering of robots and AI? Join host Professor Paul Formosa and guest Dr Inês Hipólito as they discuss the role of gender in AI and robotics. This podcast discusses Inês’s recent co-authored paper: Hipólito, I., Winkle, K., & Lie, M. (2023). Enactive artificial intelligence: Subverting gender norms in human-robot interaction. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 17. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2023.1149303 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All of us may complain about our jobs from time to time. Despite this, meaningful work, that is work that we find personally significant or is objectively worthwhile, is an important part of our lives. Work allows us to exercise our skills and autonomy and can provide a sense of belongingness. These and other dimensions of meaningful work will be affected in various ways by the implementation of AI in the workplace. On the one hand, humans may be reduced to ‘minding the machine’ while the AI takes over. On the other hand, AI may free us from boring repetitive tasks, allowing us to exercise our creativity in new ways.  Join host Distinguished Professor Wendy Rogers and guest Associate Professor Sarah Bankins as they discuss the implications of AI for meaningful work and the ethical considerations that arise as AI enters the workplace. This podcast discusses Sarah’s recent paper co-authored: Bankins, S. and Formosa, P. (2023). The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Meaningful Work. Journal of Business Ethics 185:725–740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05339-7   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.