AI and Ethics

Hosted with the Music Department at the U of T, this session will explore authorship, copyright, bias, consent and responsibility.
About this Event

As AI systems become more common in our culture, important ethical questions are emerging around authorship, consent, compensation, human creativity, and the value of creative work. This panel discussion brings together artists, researchers, technologists, and cultural leaders to examine these issues from the perspective of creative communities.

Panelists will explore how AI systems are built and trained, who benefits from their development, and where current models raise concerns for artists and cultural workers. Topics may include copyright and intellectual property, the use of creative works in training data, misinformation, bias in AI systems, environmental impact, and the role of major technology companies in shaping creative economies.

The discussion will also highlight how artists and creative communities are already influencing the direction of these technologies through advocacy, resistance, collaboration, and public dialogue. Rather than treating ethics as an abstract debate, this session grounds it in real creative livelihoods, cultural value, and the need to ensure that human creativity is respected, protected, and fairly compensated.

Meet Our Panelists:

• Catherine Moore, Adjunct Professor of Music Technology & Digital Media at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, emphasizes creating -- and pitching -- value, with a focus on new technologies for digital media creation & distribution, music startups, and developing curriculum to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist. She has mentored and coached at several conferences and hackathons.
  At the 2026 Digital Media at the Crossroads/DM@X conference, Catherine set up and moderated a panel titled, "Canadian Music Today: Policy, Artificial Intelligence, and Decision-Making", and she has recently been quoted in the media about major record label partnerships with generative AI music companies, the promotion of Drake's newest album, and government regulation of the secondary-ticketing business.

• Steven Coyne - Steven Coyne is an Assistant Professor, teaching stream, in Philosophy and Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He teaches courses in ethics of technology, philosophy of law, and moral and political philosophy. He is also a faculty co-lead (and the main ethicist) for the Department of Computer Science’s Embedded Ethics Education Initiative.