People

Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem is professor and head of the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria. She is the coordinator of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Research Group at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) in South Africa, and co-chair of the Steering Committee for the Southern African Conference for AI Research (SACAIR).

She has a PhD in Philosophy in the domains of mathematical logic and the philosophy of science. Her thesis focused on formulating a mathematical model-theoretic analysis of the structure of scientific theories. Currently, she works on themes in the philosophy of technology relating to human-technology relations, and in AI ethics on themes in machine ethics, the ethics of social robotics, and data ethics. She also does research on technology-related policy making, and focuses on generating culturally sensitive policies for trustworthy AI technologies, while aiming for global regulation. In the philosophy of science, her work is centred on debates in scientific realism, the structure of scientific theories, and the status of machine learning-based methodologies in the discovery/justification debate in the philosophy of science. Her research in both the ethics of artificial intelligence and the philosophy of science includes application of non-classical formal logics to selected problems.

Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem is a corresponding member of the International Academy for the Philosophy of Science. She has been the elected South African representative at the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST) since 2014. She is an associate editor of the Journal for Science and Engineering Ethics, a member of the editorial board of Springer’s respected Synthese Library Book Series, and a member of the editorial board of Acta Baltica: Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum. She is the founder of the CAIR/UP ‘Artificial Intelligence for Society’ Symposium Series and the ‘South African Logic and Philosophy of Science’ Colloquium Series.

She currently has 6 current PhD, 2 MA, and 2 honours students and has delivered 5 PhD, 9 MA, and 14 Honours students. She is the author of a book in the Springer Synthese Library Series, 15 articles, and 5 book chapters. She has collaborated on 5 intergovernmental policy documents. She has been interviewed on various media platforms such as the Deutsche Welle (Germany), Tortoise Media (UK) and Business Day TV (South Africa), and has recently written an OpEd for the Mail and Guardian on the technology driving inequality, as well as a piece for Acteurs Publics in France.

In her capacity as an AI ethics policy researcher, Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem is a member of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA)-NEPAD Consultative Roundtable on Ethics in Africa, a member of the African Commission Human and People’s Rights Committee (ACHPR) task team working on the Resolution 473 study on Human and Peoples’ Rights and AI, Robotics and other New and Emerging Technologies in Africa, and the rapporteur for the UNESCO World Commission for Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). She was the chairperson of the Bureau of the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group (AHEG) on the ethics of artificial intelligence tasked to draft the Recommendation for a global instrument on the ethics of AI which was adopted by UNESCO member states after various periods of negotiation in November 2021. She is a current member of the AHEG working on implementing the Recommendation.

In addition, Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem is the South African representative at the Responsible AI Network Africa (RAIN), which is a joint venture of the Technical University Munich and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. She is a member of the advisory board of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Programme (Human Sciences) hosted by Umeå University in Sweden; of the advisory board of the Global AI Ethics Institute; and, as country advisor for South Africa, of the advisory board of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence (IGOAI). She is also a member of the advisory board of the international Z-Inspection® network. The Z-Inspection® assessment method for Trustworthy AI is an approach based on the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI by the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. She is also on the advisory board for SAP GE in Germany. Prof Ruttkamp-Bloem is a collaborator on the IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Strong Sustainability by Design and Accountable Sustainability by Design reports as part of their Planet Positive 2030 Campaign. She is also a collaborating fellow at the International Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is the co-convener of the Ethics Working Group at their AI for Atoms Technical Meeting in 2021 at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as at future IAEA-ITU events. Finally, she is a member of the GAIA (Global AI Association) Think Tank on Compassionate AI.

@article{384,
  author = {Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem},
  title = {The Quest for Actionable AI Ethics},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2020},
  journal = {Communications in Computer and Information Science},
  volume = {1342},
  pages = {34-52},
  publisher = {Springer},
  isbn = {978-3-030-66151-9},
  url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-66151-9_3},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66151-9_3},
}

@article{416,
  author = {Stathis Psillos, Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem},
  title = {Scientific realism: quo vadis? Introduction: new thinking about scientific realism},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2017},
  journal = {Synthese},
  volume = {194},
  pages = {3187-3201},
  issue = {4},
  publisher = {Springer},
  isbn = {0039-7857 , 1573-0964},
  doi = {10.1007/s11229-017-1493-x},
}

@article{417,
  author = {Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem},
  title = {Repositioning realism},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2015},
  journal = {Philosphia Scientiæ},
  volume = {19},
  pages = {85-98},
  issue = {1},
  publisher = {Université Nancy 2},
  isbn = {1281-2463},
  doi = {10.4000/philosophiascientiae.1042},
}

Dr Chris Seebregts is the founder and Chief Executive of Jembi Health Systems NPC. He is a digital health professional with a background in biomedical research, computer science and information systems. After completing a PhD in medical biochemistry at the University of Cape Town, he studied computer science and software engineering while establishing the Biomedical Informatics Research Division at the South African Medical Research Council. He started Jembi as a project within the MRC and spun it out as a separate organisation in 2005. He currently leads the MRC - Jembi Collaborating Centre for Digital Health Innovation and is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

@{252,
  author = {Deshen Moodley, Anban Pillay, Chris Seebregts},
  title = {Establishing a Health Informatics Research Laboratory in South Africa},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2018},
  journal = {Digital Re-imagination Colloquium 2018},
  pages = {16 - 24},
  month = {13/03 - 15/03},
  publisher = {NEMISA},
  isbn = {978-0-6399275-0-3},
  url = {http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/25615/Digital%20Skills%20Proceedings%202018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y},
}

@article{162,
  author = {Chris Seebregts, Anban Pillay, Ryan Crichton, S. Singh, Deshen Moodley},
  title = {14 Enterprise Architectures for Digital Health},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2017},
  journal = {Global Health Informatics: Principles of eHealth and mHealth to Improve Quality of Care},
  pages = {173-182},
  publisher = {MIT Press},
  isbn = {978-0262533201},
  url = {https://books.google.co.za/books?id=8p-rDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=14+Enterprise+Architectures+for+Digital+Health&source=bl&ots=i6SQzaXiPp&sig=zDLJ6lIqt3Xox3Lt5LNCuMkUoJ4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivtK6jxPDYAhVkL8AKHXbNDY0Q6AEINDAB#v=onepage&q=14%20Enterp},
}

@{158,
  author = {Olukunle Ogundele, Deshen Moodley, Chris Seebregts, Anban Pillay},
  title = {Building Semantic Causal Models to Predict Treatment Adherence for Tuberculosis Patients in Sub-Saharan Africa},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2014},
  journal = {4th International Symposium (FHIES 2014) and 6th International Workshop (SEHC 2014)},
  pages = {81-95},
  month = {17/07-18/07},
}

@{97,
  author = {Pascal Brandt, Deshen Moodley, Anban Pillay, Chris Seebregts, T. de Oliveira},
  title = {An Investigation of Classification Algorithms for Predicting HIV Drug Resistance Without Genotype Resistance Testing},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2014},
  journal = {Third International Symposium on Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems},
  pages = {236-253},
  month = {21/08-23/08},
  isbn = {978-3-642-53955-8},
  url = {http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-53956-5_16},
}

@{92,
  author = {Deshen Moodley, Chris Seebregts, Anban Pillay, Tommie Meyer},
  title = {An Ontology for Regulating eHealth Interoperability in Developing African Countries},
  abstract = {},
  year = {2014},
  journal = {Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems, Revised and Selected Papers, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 7789},
  pages = {107-124},
  month = {15/09},
  isbn = {978-3-642-53955-8},
}

Samuel T. Segun's research interests include the ethics of artificial intelligence with a focus on computational ethics, philosophy of mind with a specific focus on neurophilosophy and consciousness, and African intellectual development. Samuel’s doctoral research focused on developing a robust ethical theory for autonomous intelligent systems that are informed by African values and rivals Western approaches. He is a member and research fellow of the Conversational School of Philosophy (CSP), where is serves as Assistant Editor for the Scopus journal Filosofia Theoretica. He is also co-guest editor (2019 - Date) for the Special Issue on the “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” in Ethics of Information Technology - https://www.springer.com/computer/swe/journal/10676.

FULL DETAIL OF TALKS:
1) Segun, S.T. (4 September 2019). “Making Afro-ethics Computational”. Paper presented at 2019 SAHUDA Conference, Themed, Time, Thought, Materiality: Africa and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa;
2) Segun, S.T. (9 November 2018). “Conditions for an Explicit Ethical Agent”. Paper presented at the Forum for Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR 2018). Hermanus, South Africa;
3) Segun, S.T. (26 October 2018). “Teaching Machines to Be Moral”. Paper presented as part of the series of academic public lectures tagged University of Johannesburg Talks. Johannesburg, South Africa;
4) Segun, S.T. (20 October 2018). “Rethinking Privilege and Otherness”. Paper presented at the Postgraduate Philosophical Society Conference. University of Pretoria, South Africa;
5) Segun, S.T. (11 May 2018) “Constructing an Afro-ethical Framework for Autonomous Intelligence Systems”. Paper presented at the AI for Social Good Working Group. University of Pretoria, South Africa;
6) Segun, S.T. (20 October 2018). “Rethinking Privilege and Otherness”. Paper presented at the Postgraduate Philosophical Society Conference. University of Pretoria, South Africa;
7) Segun, S.T. (11 May 2018) “Constructing an Afro-ethical Framework for Autonomous Intelligence Systems”. Paper presented at the AI for Social Good Working Group. University of Pretoria, South Africa;
8) Segun, S.T. (14 August 2017). “Is There a Language of Philosophy?” Paper presented at the Contemporary Language, Logic, and Metaphysics Conference (CLLMC). University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

FULL DETAIL OF ANY PUBLICATION:

BOOK CHAPTER:
1) Segun, S. T. (2019). Neurophilosophy and the Problem of Consciousness: An Equiphenomenalist Perspective. In New Conversations on the Problems of Identity, Consciousness and Mind. J.O. Chimakonam, U. Egbai, S.T. Segun, A.D. Attoe (pp. 33-65). Springer, Cham.

PEER-REVIEWED/REFEREED JOURNAL:
1) Segun, S.T. (2020). From Machine Ethics to Computational Ethics. 'AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication'. Karamjit S. Gill (ed). Springer [Scopus Accredited].

IN PROGRESS:
1) Segun, S.T. (2020). Computational Possibilities of Non-classical Ethics.

LINKS TO RESEARCH:
Research gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samuel_Segun2;
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p33vnrcAAAAJ&hl=en;
Academia.edu: https://johannesburg.academia.edu/samuelsegun;
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1017-0906.

Rachel Thomson has recently achieved her Masters in Information Technology with Distinction at the University of Cape Town. While she started her early academic training and career in more Finance oriented roles; her expansion into Information Technology has led her to provide invaluable research in the field of Artificial Intelligence with application to the Investment arena. Her research in Artificial Intelligence led her to present her publication at the Southern African Conference for Artificial Intelligence Research in December 2021. Her research focused on the use of ontologies and Bayesian networks to support automated share evaluation.