Marina Denise Anne Jirotka is Professor of Human Centred Computing at the University of Oxford, Governing Body Fellow at St Cross College, Board Member of the Society for Computers and Law and a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. She leads a team that works on responsible innovation, in a range of ICT fields including robotics, AI, machine learning, quantum computing, social media and the digital economy. She is known for her work on the 'Ethical Black Box'., a proposal that robots using AI should be fitted with a type of inflight recorder, similar to those used by aircraft, to track the decisions and actions of the AI when operating in an uncontrolled environment and to aid in post-accident investigations.
Education
Jirotka obtained her BSc in psychology and social anthropology from Goldsmiths College in 1985 and her Masters in Computing and Artificial Intelligence from the University of South Bank in 1987. Her doctorate in Computer Science, An Investigation into Contextual Approaches to Requirements Capture, was undertaken at the University of Oxford in 2000.
Jirotka's most recent work centres around the 'ethical black box' - a way of making algorithmic decisions explainable after an unexpected event or accident. The model for this approach is the aviation industry that uses inflight recording systems to provide evidence after an accident. This approach to explainability in robotics is developed from Jirotka's earlier work on Responsible Research and Innovation, a research method supported by the EU's Horizon 2020 theme and the UK research councils, particularly the EPSRC. RRI includes the use of reflection, stakeholder involvement and anticipatory governance to try to ameliorate potential negative effects of research and development. It is considered to be particularly applicable in ICT disciplines where failing to consider possible negative outcomes can have serious repercussions. Jirotka contributed significantly to the evolution of RRI after her work on the Framework for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT project that was adopted for rollout in the UK by EPSRC.
Jirotka's other projects include:
UnBias and ReEnTrust - research projects that examine the way algorithms are used online. The projects seek to raise awareness of algorithmic bias and to find ways of reducing bias such that public trust in algorithmic calculations can be justified.
RoboTIPS - a project looking at how robots can be developed using the RRI principles that emphasise responsibility.
Expert opinion
Jirotka has frequently given evidence to Select Committees, Advisory Boards, All-Party Parliamentary Groups and industry bodies. She sits on the Steering Committee of the APPG on Data Analytics and the Advisory Board of the Society for Computers and Law. She regularly appears on expert panels to discuss ethical approaches to innovation and is also an international speaker on the issues arising from a lack of diversity in science.
Novel contributions
Along with members of her team, Jirotka formulated the concept of the Ethical Hackathon. This is a technique based on the traditional type of hackathon that additionally incorporates a focus on ethical issues such as assessing the work's impact on minority groups or vulnerable users. The concept was trialled during work on the UnBias project and has since been used in a Zimbabwe LabHack and in training doctoral students at Oxford.
