[SydPhil] UOW Agora Speaker Series – Yves Saint James Aquino (ACHEEV, UOW) – Thursday 4 September, 3.30pm

[Elena Walsh]

Dear all,



The next seminar in this semester's Agora series will be:



Dr. Yves Saint James Aquino (UOW)

Algorithmic somaesthetics: A philosophical and ethical examination of
beauty apps with artificial intelligence functionalities

Thursday, September 4, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Building 20, Room 3, University of Wollongong (Keiraville campus)



Abstract

This paper examines the philosophical and ethical implications of
incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML)
capabilities into beauty apps, which are designed to analyse, evaluate, and
modify images of people. I first introduce algorithmic somaesthetics as a
novel framework that captures the phenomenon of translating ideals of
physical beauty into algorithmic processes of computation, representation
and interpretation. In particular, I examine strategies by AI developers
that convert amorphous beauty ideals into seemingly objective and
measurable data points. The second part of the paper offers insights from
an online experimental survey that aimed to assess the social acceptability
of beauty apps with AI functionalities The AI-enabled functionalities were
“use of personal data”, “beauty scoring”, “image enhancement”, “product
recommendation” and “virtual surgery”. This empirical study supports the
notion that we can elicit moral intuitions about new technologies.
Specifically, we gained insight about how participants make normative
distinction between degrees of invasiveness.



Bio

Dr Yves Saint James Aquino (he/him) is a physician and philosopher with
expertise in empirical bioethics and philosophy of medicine. His program of
research currently focuses on the ethical, legal and social implications of
artificial intelligence applications in healthcare. Other research
interests include ethics of cosmetic surgery, social justice in health, and
public health ethics. Yves is a research fellow at the Australian Centre
for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, University of Wollongong. He is
one of the editors-in-chief of Research Ethics (SAGE), and co-leads the
Empirical Bioethics Stream of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and
Health Law.



This is an in-person event and there is no need to register. All welcome.
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