Dr Benedetta Catanzariti British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies

Focusing on the case of Affective Computing, this talk explores how AI practitioners conceptualize the validity of their models and negotiate expertise in light of often uncertain and unverifiable claims. In particular, I investigate how practitioners working on commercial and research developments of facial expression recognition systems for mental health (models designed to detect or manage mental health conditions based on facial affective behaviors) construct notions of objectivity, truth, and accuracy. Since the algorithmic performance of facial expression recognition systems cannot be evaluated in relation to ground truths – the “truth” of affective experience – practitioners must evaluate performance, and legitimate their practice, in alternative ways. Findings from this research illustrate how the shifting, discursive nature of AI practice can shape understandings of validity and expertise as well as understandings of social and ethical responsibility.

Dr Benedetta Catanzariti is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores the social, ethical, and political dimensions of data-driven technologies, with a focus on machine learning and its related data practices. She is also a core member of the Edinburgh-based network AI Ethics & Society, and a Postdoctoral affiliate of the Centre for Technomoral Futures at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

website: https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/benedetta-catanzariti