Blog, Long read
What is or isn’t OK when it comes to biometrics?
Reflections from round one of the Citizens’ Biometric Council
About
The Ada Lovelace Institute is an independent research and deliberative body with a mission to ensure data and AI work for people and society.
Ada will promote informed public understanding of the impact of AI and data-driven technologies on different groups in society.
Sign up for updates
Or contact us
Latest news
Blog
Regulation of biometrics debated
The Ada Lovelace Institute marked the beginning of an independent review it has commissioned on the governance of biometric data by hosting a debate on UK biometrics regulation. The Facial Recognition and Biometrics – Technology and Ethics event, held in London on 29 January 2020, was jointly organised with the Foundation for Science and Technology and chaired by Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE.
Blog
Beginning ‘JUST AI’ – bravery and creativity for ethics in practice
Dr Alison Powell, Director of the newly established JUST AI network, on the need for bravery and creativity for ethics in practice
News
New humanities-led network will put social justice at the heart of AI research
The Ada Lovelace Institute and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have today launched JUST AI, a network of researchers and practitioners, led by Dr Alison Powell from LSE, that will establish a multidisciplinary research base around ‘just AI’ – AI that is ethical, works for the common good and is effectively governed and regulated.
Recruitment
Recruitment: Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute Board
The Ada Lovelace Institute is seeking a Chair who is able to work in a fast-paced technical domain but who is equally committed to our sense of social purpose and to understanding what these technologies mean for individuals and society, and what actions should be taken to channel them for good.
News
Ada Lovelace Institute announces independent review of the governance of biometric data
The Ada Lovelace Institute has commissioned Matthew Ryder QC to lead an independent review of the governance of biometric data. The review will examine the existing regulatory framework and identify options for reform that will protect people from misuse of their biometric data, such as facial characteristics, fingerprints, iris prints and DNA.
Blog
Changing the Data Governance Ecosystem – through narratives, practices and regulations
Today the Ada Lovelace Institute launches Rethinking Data a programme of research and public engagement that will understand and evolve new data narratives, and learn from international data access and data partnerships – to inform best practice and create regulations that strengthen data rights.
Blog, Opinion
Health Data Partnerships: Amazon/Department of Health and Social Care – Ada’s view
The use of NHS health data to develop new technologies raises important questions for people and society – who ‘owns’ the data, where are the benefits (financial gains and new knowledge that can lead to better healthcare) recouped, and how are those benefits distributed?
Blog
How will data and AI work for people and society after the UK General Election 2019?
We’ve taken a look at the five largest political parties’ manifesto commitments relating to data, AI, innovation, law enforcement and human rights.
News
Four new board members appointed to Ada Lovelace Institute
The Nuffield Foundation has appointed four new members to the board of the Ada Lovelace Institute.
Blog
Facial recognition: defining terms to clarify challenges
Facial recognition technology is a complex area, which means the risk of misunderstandings is high.
Blog, Long read
Pieces in the puzzle: why we need to convene diverse voices
When it comes to the societal impacts of AI and data, we need to tackle complex problems that don’t necessarily have objective solutions.
Blog
Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day: what Ada means to us
On Ada Lovelace Day the world celebrates the contribution to global culture of a remarkable woman: a curious visionary, poetical scientist and collaborative thinker.
Blog
The technical and ethical distinction between random and non-random biometric data
Professors Clive Bowman and Peter Grindrod CBE on why we need a legal distinction between random and non-random biometrics and their respective ethical implications
Blog
Facial recognition and policing – a test case of technology and consent
Giles Herdale argues for urgent action on biometric technology to preserve the principle of policing by consent in a digital age.
Publication
Beyond face value: public attitudes to facial recognition technology
First survey of public opinion on the use of facial recognition technology reveals the majority of people in the UK want restrictions on its use.
Blog
The human rights flaws in police facial recognition trials
Dr Daragh Murray explains how use of live facial recognition technology by the Metropolitan Police Service fails to comply with human rights law, and backs Ada’s call for a moratorium.
Speech
Speech to the PICTFOR Parliamentary Summer Reception
What is the next digital revolution and how can the UK further embrace it to remain a world-leading digital economy? How can industry and government ensure citizens remain central to emerging tech and the changing world?
Blog
Biometrics and facial recognition technology – where next?
Carly Kind introduces the Ada Lovelace Institute’s emerging research on understanding public attitudes to facial recognition technologies, proposing a way forward for regulators, policymakers and industry in the UK.
News
The Ada Lovelace Institute supports Wellcome Trust to undertake citizen juries on fair data sharing in the NHS
The Ada Lovelace Institute has been working with the Wellcome Trust’s Understanding Patient Data programme, and NHS England to understand public attitudes to the sharing of NHS data.
News
Carly Kind appointed Director of the Ada Lovelace Institute
The Nuffield Foundation has appointed human rights lawyer Carly Kind as Director of the Ada Lovelace Institute (Ada).
News
Azeem Azhar appointed to the board of Ada Lovelace Institute
The Nuffield Foundation has appointed technology entrepreneur, investor and adviser Azeem Azhar to the board of the Ada Lovelace Institute.
News
Nuffield Foundation publishes roadmap for AI ethics research
A new report from the Nuffield Foundation and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge sets out a broad roadmap for work on the ethical and societal implications of technologies driven by algorithms, data and AI (ADA).
Speech
Data science and the case for ethical responsibility
Tim Gardam, Chief Executive of the Nuffield Foundation, recently delivered a speech to the British Computer Society on the history of data ethics and the importance of the Ada Lovelace Institute
Blog
Public deliberation could help address AI’s legitimacy problem in 2019
The importance of public legitimacy – which refers to the broad base of public support that allows companies, designers, public servants and others to design and develop AI to deliver beneficial outcomes – was illustrated by a series of public, highly controversial events that took place in 2018.
Speech
The ethical and political questions raised by AI
Picture a system that makes decisions that have a huge impact on a person’s prospects and life course; or even that makes decisions that are literally life and death. Imagine that system is hugely complex, and also opaque: it is very hard to see how it comes to the conclusions it does. A system that is discriminatory by its nature: it sorts people into winners and losers; but the criteria by which it does so are not clear.
Speech
Digital technologies have yet to earn their ethical spurs
A new, a vast, and a powerful language In words that are at one and the same time prophetic, optimistic and haunting Ada Lovelace wrote: “A new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis, in which to yield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and […]
News
First board members appointed to lead Ada Lovelace Institute
The Nuffield Foundation has appointed the first board members to lead the strategic development of the Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent research and deliberative body with a mission to ensure data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) work for people and society.
Publication
Our prospectus
The Ada Lovelace Institute is an independent research and deliberative body with a mission to ensure data and AI work for people and society. Our new prospectus sets out how the Ada Lovelace Institute will promote informed public understanding of the impact of AI and data-driven technologies on different groups of people. It will guide […]
Blog
Data for the common good – framing the debate
Over the past few years debates about data have frequently made headline news. To help us to better understand data, including its uses and ethical implications, various analogies have been used. Although analogies can help us get a better grasp of this complex issue, we should be wary of the limitations of these comparisons.
Blog
Building the evidence base for data and AI ethics
What impact is the debate on data and AI ethics having on independent public research?
Blog
Keeping society in the loop about data ethics and AI
There is a growing expectation that technologies and algorithms should align with, and reflect, commonly held public and societal values. But to make this happen, society needs to be kept ‘in the loop’. Do we need an implicit social contract between those developing and designing the tech and those who may be affected by it?
News
Sir Alan Wilson appointed Executive Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute
The Nuffield Foundation has appointed Sir Alan Wilson as Executive Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute.
News
Letter to the Financial Times: Embed ethical thinking in tech culture
Your editorial “Making decisions that computers cannot” ( May 22) identifies a central issue surrounding the relationship between the artificial intelligence sector and the ethical and social frameworks in which it operates. You ask who will be left to speak for the common good. The Nuffield Foundation is funding the Ada Lovelace Institute, in partnership […]
Blog
UK wants to lead the world in tech ethics…but what does that mean?
Last week we surely reached peak hype on tech ethics with this headline: The Sun was responding to the House of Lord’s AI report, the latest of a growing number of interventions from the government, industry and civil society seeking to grapple with the ethical and social issues technology is posing. Public debate on tech […]
News
The Nuffield Foundation announces new £5 million Ada Lovelace Institute
The new Institute is named after Ada Lovelace, the 19th Century mathematician widely regarded as one of the first computer scientists.
Speech
Social Well-being and Data Ethics
I would like in a moment to set out the proposal for an independent Convention on Data Ethics and Artificial Intelligence. This has been developed by the Nuffield Foundation over recent months in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, the Royal Statistical Society, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, the British […]
