Director’s Message

Artificial intelligence lies at the heart of a profound transformation concerning the future of law, ethics, human rights, security, democracy and social life. The values and principles according to which increasingly capable and autonomous AI systems will be developed, used and governed, and how human control over these systems will be preserved, are questions that must be considered and answered.

As the Bahçeşehir University Artificial Intelligence Law and Ethics Application and Research Center (YETİ), we carry out our work on the basis of these fundamental questions.

While benefiting from the extraordinary opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, we believe that protecting human dignity, fundamental rights and freedoms, the rule of law and democratic values is indispensable. We maintain that we do not have to choose between technological progress and human rights; on the contrary, real and sustainable progress is possible only when these two areas are considered together.

At the same time, we are of the view that the debate on the future of AI cannot be limited to the legal and ethical problems raised by existing systems. As the capabilities and autonomy of AI systems increase, problems of safety, control and alignment with human values become increasingly fundamental. In particular, how to keep the goals of advanced AI systems aligned with human values, how to prevent unforeseen behaviour and misuse, how to ensure that systems can be safely constrained or stopped when necessary, and how to guarantee that ultimate decision-making and control authority remains with humans are among the most important interdisciplinary research problems of our time.

We believe that work in the fields of “AI safety”, “AI security”, “alignment” and “AI control” should be addressed together with research on law, ethics and governance. We consider that the systemic and long-term risks that advanced AI systems may pose, including low-probability but extremely high-impact risks, should be investigated with scientific rigour.

This approach also places the question of human control in a special position in our Center’s work. However far the capabilities of AI systems may advance, we consider it important to develop legal and technical structures that preserve real, effective and meaningful human control, in which humans are not reduced to a symbolic approval authority outside the system. Preserving human will, responsibility and decision-making capacity is directly linked to protecting human dignity and the rule of law in the age of artificial intelligence.

Our aim is to contribute to the development of an approach to AI governance that enables innovation while placing human beings, human will and human responsibility at its centre, and that is safe and accountable.

Our Center’s fundamental approach is interdisciplinary. We believe that the problems raised by artificial intelligence cannot be solved by lawyers, engineers or ethics researchers alone. A genuine academic dialogue is needed, extending from law to computer science and engineering, from philosophy to political science, and from international relations to communication and the various fields of the social sciences. We believe that, especially in matters such as AI safety and control, technical research and normative research cannot be conducted in isolation from one another.

It is also not enough for academic knowledge to remain within its own boundaries. One of the core responsibilities of universities is to bring the knowledge they produce to society and to build the intellectual ground that can shape the transformations under way. For this reason, we aim to position our Center as a meeting point between academia, the public sector, the private sector, civil society and international organisations.

Through our research, educational programmes, publications, national and international projects and collaborations, we aim to be a center that not only follows current debates but also shapes them.

This goal naturally has an international dimension. Artificial intelligence is creating a transformation that is not confined to national borders, and the legal, ethical and security problems arising from this transformation call for global academic cooperation. Among our priorities, I see our Center building lasting research networks with leading universities, research centers and international organisations around the world, and Bahçeşehir University carrying its academic expertise in this field more strongly into international debates.

At the same time, we do not view internationalisation as a one-way transfer of knowledge. We believe that Türkiye’s legal tradition, academic expertise, social experience and geography can offer original contributions to the global governance of artificial intelligence. Our goal is not only to bring developments in the world to Türkiye, but also to make high-quality academic knowledge produced in Türkiye part of international debates.

In the coming period, we aim for our Center to develop a strong and original academic identity and to produce research that is cited as a reference at national and international level, particularly in the fields of AI law and ethics, AI safety, “AI alignment” and the control problem, human rights, the rule of law, algorithmic decision-making, human oversight, accountability and AI governance.

Our long-term goal is ambitious: to take the Bahçeşehir University Artificial Intelligence Law and Ethics Application and Research Center beyond being one of Türkiye’s leading centers in this field and turn it into an internationally recognised academic institution ranked among the world’s leading AI research centers.

We are aware that achieving this goal is possible not through individual but through collective effort. We invite our academics, students, researchers, public institutions, the private sector, civil society organisations and international stakeholders to become part of this intellectual journey.

The future of artificial intelligence will be a reflection of the decisions we make about the future of humanity and society.

Contributing to shaping this future with an approach that places human dignity, freedom, justice, safety, responsibility and the rule of law at its centre, and that guarantees the alignment of AI with human values and meaningful human control over technology, is our Center’s most fundamental aim and responsibility.

Asst. Prof. Mert Nomer
Director
Bahçeşehir University
Artificial Intelligence Law and Ethics Application and Research Center (YETİ)