Lero is one of three Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centres featured in a global online series, ‘Unlocking Science’, presented by the International Science Council and produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions.

The series looks at the creative approaches to the world’s most immediate and complex concerns. The series includes films, articles and podcasts, hosted on a dedicated BBC.com StoryWorks webpage.

The series, produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, explores how scientific culture is changing for the better towards a future of more effective and inclusive citizen engagement, interdisciplinary and international cooperation, and open knowledge-sharing.

Lero’s ‘Battling bias in AI’ looks at how AI is being used to champion equality and inclusivity at the cutting edge of software innovation. Researching a large image database containing millions of images used to train AI systems, Abeba Birhane, PhD student at UCD’s Complex Software Lab and Lero, discovered racist, misogynistic, and other offensive content.  The team at Lero are looking at the human aspects of technology and how AI is written, and how it impacts people. They’re looking at ensuring that technology doesn’t discriminate and is inclusive and unlock its possibility of benefiting marginalised people.

Dr Siobhan Roche, Director of Economy at Science Foundation Ireland said: “I sincerely congratulate the teams at iCRAG, I-Form and Lero in their involvement with this BBC StoryWorks online series and the development of such interesting and engaging short films. The world-class research that each of these centres is groundbreaking and it is wonderful to see their work recognised by being included in this global online initiative”.