Welcome to the inaugural issue of the AI Ethics Journal (AIEJ). Artificial intelligence (AI) ethics is an inherently multidisciplinary domain incorporating the areas of AI, computer science, philosophy, ethics, and beyond with increasingly practical applications. AI has the potential to transform our world as we know it, and we hope that it will be implemented mindfully. As emerging technologies advance at an exponential rate, it is now imperative that we begin thinking about how autonomous technologies will interact with and impact society in different areas of daily life and at different levels of society. The key focus is on moral implications and the implementation of ethical considerations in autonomous systems.

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The AIEJ is published by The AI Robotics Ethics Society (AIRES), which was founded at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in November 2018. Since then, AIRES has become the nation's largest student-run organization dedicated to educating the next generation of  leaders to ensure AI is created ethically and responsibly. Establishing this journal was the natural next step as we continue to foster accessible discourse on ethical AI implementation and encourage the pursuit of AI ethics as an interdisciplinary academic discipline. It has become increasingly important to develop, regulate, and deploy AI through the lens of ethical discussion and academic work. By creating a platform for publishing thoughtful and engaging articles on ethical AI, the AIEJ hopes to solidify the standing of AI ethics as a new academic discipline to parallel the rapid development and deployment of AI.

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Founded in November 2019, the AIEJ is the first international journal solely dedicated to providing an open-access platform for academic dialogue on ethical AI. Discussions touching upon ethical AI have been on-going for decades, but academic work in this area has only recently begun to truly blossom. It is the goal of the AIEJ to operate at a thoughtful intersection between technology and society as we seek to promote unique insight into both the contemporary and long-term ethical impacts of artificial intelligence on society, culture, and technology. Ergo, articles published in the AIEJ are selected to be of interest to the broad community of scientists and philosophers, regardless of particular research specialties, and to the general public as well. 

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The AIEJ seeks to provide an inclusive avenue for emerging technologists and practitioners to publish their scholarly works within the scope of ethical AI and society. As such, the AIEJ’s core areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

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• The implementation of ethical AI standards within corporate and governmental environments at local, national, and global levels.

• The applications and regulations of ethical AI within the fields of healthcare, law, and finance.

• Immersive training to lead ethical data-driven organizations.

• Research regarding new techniques to implement ethics within autonomous systems.

• Review papers regarding the current landscape of ethical frameworks for autonomous technologies.

• Research regarding the status and developments of artificial narrow, general, and super intelligence as it pertains to their impacts on our societies.

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With this first volume, each article published has been carefully selected to approach a different and unique aspect of ethical AI to inform and challenge existing perspectives. For our first article, we are proud to launch the AIEJ with research on the ethical issues of bias in training AI within healthcare settings by a team of data scientists and neurosurgeons at the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery. Already, we see the interdisciplinary approach required to produce holistic solutions to the ethical challenges that face the diverse disciplines in which ethical AI belongs. All of our submissions undergo a rigorous double blinded peer review process and cover a plethora of disciplines that will be sure to interest many readers as well. 

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Starting this new journal from the ground up has been and will continue to be a difficult endeavor, but one that I truly believe is worth the effort. As the founding Editor-in-Chief, I am deeply grateful to my wonderful team of Editors and Advisors, for without them, this journal could have never become a reality. Within our Advisory Board, we have assembled a multidisciplinary and international panel representing diverse fields, disciplines, and companies with expertise in ethical AI. All of our Advisory Board members were carefully chosen as leaders in their respective fields to serve as our peer reviewers, who along with our Editorial Board, are responsible for selecting and publishing articles that are groundbreaking, academically rigorous, and of the highest quality. I would also like to thank our authors for their excellent works and exceptional contributions. Together, we are all dedicated to advancing the newly established discipline of ethical AI with groundbreaking knowledge and understanding. It is with great hope and optimism that we publish this new journal to elevate and synthesize academic discourse on AI ethics.

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Learn, contribute, and inspire with the AI Ethics Journal.