Since I returned to Oulu from Dublin in 2020, I’ve been more or less systematically shifting my professional focus toward AI ethics and trying to establish a foothold in that community. Two months into 2024, it’s starting to look like those efforts are paying off in a measurable way. The following is a list of ethics-related things I’ve been invited to do since the year began:

• Contribute to a workshop proposal for a technology ethics conference 
• Join the programme committee of another conference with a tech ethics track 
• Serve on the ethics board of a Horizon Europe project 
• Work as a researcher in another EU project with an ethics aspect 
• Give a talk on ethics and participate in a panel discussion at an AI-themed business event 

On top of all that, a journal manuscript to which I contributed by writing an ethics section was finally accepted for publication, with very minor revisions. Starting the new year with a splash!

As for what I’ve been doing at work during these past two months, three things very much dominate. First, I finished and submitted my project proposal to the Research Council of Finland, which (as per usual) is unlikely to be granted funding but did at least earn me a glass of sparkling wine and a slice of cake, courtesy of the university. Then there’s my university pedagogy studies, with the preparation of a literature review for the seminar on research-based teacherhood and a plan for my teaching practice taking a fair amount of time. The planning of the OpinTori event, where the results of the teaching practice will be presented, was also recently kicked off.

The third thing was the selection of new students for the international master’s degree programme in computer science and engineering, to which I contributed as an evaluator now for the second time. The number of applicants doubled from last year, and although the evaluation process had been streamlined, it was again, to put it nicely, something of a cathartic experience – presumably even more so for the people in charge of the whole circus. I have to admit, though, that after combing through the slew of application documents assigned to me for evaluation, there was something genuinely rewarding about interviewing the most promising candidates and encountering many who were a real delight to talk to – young, bright, confident, enthusiastic. We’ve also been promised a debriefing party, but sadly, I don’t expect that there will be anything stronger than coffee served at this one.

The next big effort is putting that plan for teaching practice into action, as the AI ethics course kicks off again on Monday the 11th. The plan revolves around the theme of AI ethics education meeting real-world AI applications: I’m going to explore various ways of using generative and conversational AI tools to support the delivery of teaching on the course, while at the same time modifying the learning assignments with the aim of making it more difficult for students to use AI tools in a counterproductive manner. Happily, the university is currently piloting the use of both Copilot for M365 and Azure AI, and I have a bunch of ideas for how they could be of service here. If all goes well, I think there’s even an opportunity to get a scientific publication out of this.

In choir news, The Magic Flute is now well and truly over after a total of 26 performances (plus dress rehearsals), every single one of them sold out. During the week leading up to the final performance I was feeling pretty tired, and I thought it would be primarily a relief to finally say goodbye to the production, but when the curtain was closed on us for the last time, I felt curiously sad after all. The emotion was even more intense the following day, when I went back to the theatre to pick up something I’d left in the dressing room. Since this is so far the only opera, or indeed theatrical production of any kind, I’ve been involved in, I don’t have anything I could meaningfully compare it to, but I got a strong feeling, still lingering, that this was something extra special. You can have too much of a good thing, though, and in retrospect, stretching it out much further would not have been a good idea. Which is not to say that I’m now done with treading the boards, if it’s up to me; apparently the next opera production here will be in 2026, Oulu’s European Capital of Culture year, and if they need tenors for the chorus – well, you just try and stop me.