Interviews
Event review: FutureScot Cloud, Data & AI Conference
EPCC’s Donald Scobbie writes about this recent event in Glasgow, which included a keynote talk by EPCC Director Mark Parsons. Digital transformation This conference addressed some big topics: service delivery transformation, public sector data management, migration to cloud platform services, and use of AI and automation to support service delivery. The keynote speakers laid out…
Read More#DDIdiscussions | Open Finance, Ethics and Social Inclusion
Consumers must be involved in designing financial services if open banking and open finance are going to have a positive impact on social inclusion, a DDI seminar was told. Open Finance, Ethics and Social Inclusion heard that opening up consumers’ data could deliver significant benefits, especially in terms of addressing the challenges of the unbanked…
Read MoreGuest Blog: My time as DDI summer intern
In this blog DDI intern Lucia Mackenzie describes her time with us this summer. I was originally drawn to the Data Driven Innovation programme in February 2020 by the scope of the work being done in collaboration with such a wide variety of sectors and academic disciplines. As a student of Politics with Quantitative Methods, to…
Read MoreOur ever-increasing consumption of social media is damaging our ability to think critically and engage in self-reflection, argues Professor Shannon Vallor.
It’s a fundamental question for our times; what are the major impacts of the enormous consumption of emerging technologies on human beings and their character? Professor Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair of Data and AI Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, says those impacts have been diverse – but damaging overall. “Positive impacts include…
Read MoreClimbing the learning curve
The West has a lot to learn from other parts of the world in responding to pandemics – and attitudes to data and government play a big part, says Rainer Kattel, Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Listen to our podcast with Rainer here. Vietnam has a population of…
Read MoreHardwiring ethics into a future worth wanting
How can we fuse technology and ethics to create the kind of future we want? Professor Shannon Vallor, Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures in Edinburgh, talks to us about why we must act urgently. Listen to our podcast with Shannon here. Every day, we all make a multitude of instant and often…
Read MoreData and democracy
Writer and broadcaster Jamie Bartlett speaks to us about how data is set to play a bigger role than ever in targeting voters in the 2020 US presidential campaign and the difficult position of big tech companies Listen to our podcast with Jamie here. We are often told that the pace of technological change has…
Read MoreMobilising public data in the Covid-19 fight
Albert King was appointed Chief Data Officer (CDO) for Scotland during the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis. We caught up with Albert to find out how he feels Scotland’s public sector has managed the huge data challenges posed by the pandemic. Listen to our podcast with Albert here. What main data challenges were presented…
Read MoreTime to take back control of our data
MIT’s Alex Pentland speaks to us about the importance of ‘neighbourhood data’ in tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges – and why we need data unions Listen to the DDI Podcast with Alex Pentland here. #DDIdiscussions Alex Pentland was once named one of the seven most influential data scientists in the world. Five years…
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