Computing researchers partners on responsible AI demonstrator projects

Professor Marco Gillies and Dr Dan McQuillan from the Department of Computing are partners on two of the three BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divide) demonstrator projects.

The BRAID programme, launched in 2022, is a national programme aiming to integrate research from the arts and humanities more fully into the conversation around developing the responsible use of AI. It represents a £15.9 million investment funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), running from 2022-2028.  

The three BRAID-funded projects include looking into equitable futures for the live music sector, creating immersive art experiences through AI and exploring sustainability with AI.  

Creating immersive art experiences through AI 

Professor Marco Gillies joins a multi-institutional team led by the University of Nottingham exploring the responsible use of AI in the creation, archiving, reactivation and conservation of artworks. This project will investigate the responsible use of AI when working with artworks and their archives, reactivating artworks (performing or exhibiting them again), and documenting responses.  

For their part of the project, Professor Gillies and PhD student Clarice Hilton will work with disabled dancers using technologies which focus on the body, such as VR and motion capture. These immersive technologies often have normative understandings of the body, meaning they are not inclusive.  

As well as creating interactive dance performance using technology, technologists and dancers will collaborate to develop methodologies of care, to support disabled dancers when using AI in their practice, both with the use of technology itself but also with the emotional challenges this might present. Collaborating with disabled dancers, and learning from their embodied experiences, the project will critique the limitations and challenges of current technologies which interact with the body and inform new technologies. 

Professor Gillies added, “Developing methodologies of care is at the core of our research, to support the dancers both technologically and emotionally when integrating AI into their performance.” 

Sustainable AI Futures 

Dr Dan McQuillan joins the team of academics led by Bath Spa University investigating the impact of AI on the environment, and how AI tools could be used to support sustainability. Against the backdrop of a rapidly-developing ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) landscape, the use of AI to address sustainability brings with it both potential risks and benefits. The environmental impact of AI technology itself needs to be better understood. The interdisciplinary approach will build in perspectives and methods from arts and humanities, which have often been missing from the discussions around responsible AI and sustainability.  

Dr Dan McQuillan said, "AI data centres are set to spread like a rash across the UK, and yet we don’t know how to measure its environmental impacts.  

“In the process, and by combining the humanities, arts, critical theory and green coding, the project will help to improve the available tools while affirming the importance of social and cultural values alongside technical standards. AI is a matter of carbon emissions and electricity use as well as a set of algorithms. This project will help to fill a vital gap in knowing how to measure its effects."  

• More information about the three BRAID demonstrator projects can be found on the UKRI website.