Thursday, February 6

Tag: ethics

AI and Journalism Need Each Other
28Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

AI and Journalism Need Each Other

In the Associated Press newsroom a decade ago, I witnessed the birth of a new era: AI penning news. Before artificial intelligence rose to its current prominence, it wasn’t tech luminaries but journalists at AP who floated the audacious idea of machines taking up editorial roles. As I watched lines of code spin stories, a thought nagged at me: Weren’t stories meant to be earned, not generated?Fast-forward to today, and this once-controversial shift has proved revolutionary for AP and many other organizations. Tackling two monumental challenges in journalism—covering an ever-expanding breadth of news and overcoming the limits of human capacity—AI has reshaped the industry. AI enabled AP to broaden its quarterly financial reporting from 400 companies to 4,000. This had ripple effects: Stanf...
Read More
OpenAI Cofounder Reid Hoffman Gives Sam Altman a Vote of Confidence
7Dec By adminNo Comments
Technology

OpenAI Cofounder Reid Hoffman Gives Sam Altman a Vote of Confidence

Hoffman and others said that there’s no need to pause development of AI. He called that drastic measure, for which some AI researchers have petitioned, foolish and destructive. Hoffman identified himself as a rational “accelerationist”—someone who knows to slow down when driving around a corner but that, presumably, is happy to speed up when the road ahead is clear. “I recommend everyone come join us in the optimist club, not because it's utopia and everything works out just fine, but because it can be part of an amazing solution,” he said. “That's what we're trying to build towards.”Mitchell and Buolamwini, who is artist-in-chief and president of the AI harms advocacy group Algorithmic Justice League, said that relying on company promises to mitigate bias and misuse of AI would not be en...
Read More
The Justices’ Ethics Code Rebukes Their Critics
19Nov By adminNo Comments
Business

The Justices’ Ethics Code Rebukes Their Critics

By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. CaseyIf you look at the Supreme Court’s new Code of Conduct as an attempt to appease the justices’ antagonists in Congress and the media, it is a total and predictable failure. But in substance it is an important rebuke to those critics. “Congress must continue its efforts to hold the judiciary accountable,” Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted in response.The code and the justices’ accompanying commentary make clear that Congress has no such authority. The justices describe the court’s unique role in America’s constitutional system and affirm several important principles:Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Clarence Thomas’s R.V. Loan and Supreme Court Scrutiny
4Nov By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Clarence Thomas’s R.V. Loan and Supreme Court Scrutiny

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You ListenSign up to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter.Justice Clarence Thomas is once again under the spotlight—this time, for a forgiven R.V. loan. In the nineteen-nineties, a wealthy friend loaned Thomas more than a quarter of a million dollars to purchase a forty-foot motor coach. A Senate inquiry has now found that Thomas’s loan was later forgiven; this discovery raises questions about the ethics of the deal. Over the years, the conduct of Justices appointed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents has been in question, the staff writer Jane Mayer explains, “but there is nothing that comes near the magnitude of goodies that have been taken by Clarence Thomas”: if Thomas “were in any other branch of go...
Read More
Joe Biden Wants US Government Algorithms Tested for Potential Harm Against Citizens
2Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

Joe Biden Wants US Government Algorithms Tested for Potential Harm Against Citizens

“The framework enables a set of binding requirements for federal agencies to put in place safeguards for the use of AI so that we can harness the benefits and enable the public to trust the services the federal government provides,” says Jason Miller, OMB’s deputy director for management.The draft memo highlights certain uses of AI where the technology can harm rights or safety, including health care, housing, and law enforcement—all situations where algorithms have in the past resulted in discrimination or denial of services.Examples of potential safety risks mentioned in the OMB draft include automation for critical infrastructure like dams and self-driving vehicles like the Cruise robotaxis that were shut down last week in California and are under investigation by federal and state reg...
Read More
The Hypocrisy of Judging Those Who Become More Beautiful
25Sep By adminNo Comments
Technology

The Hypocrisy of Judging Those Who Become More Beautiful

While recently reading about leg-lengthening surgery, I couldn’t help but sense a touch of absurdity in the whole enterprise. Although I’m no taller than average—I’m 5'9", thank you very much—dispensing sincere sympathy for the men featured in the article didn’t come naturally. Even when it did, my sympathy was mixed with an element of comedic pathos, like for someone who just got a kick to the groin.Since then, however, I've been harboring a suspicion that my gut reaction to leg-lengthening surgery, or any surgery aimed at enhancing physical attractiveness, might be at odds with egalitarian ideals. Physical beauty is utterly contingent and you have no more control over your hotness than the zip code of your birth. Not being a “10,” so to speak, is no more reason to feel shame, or pride, ...
Read More
A Letter Prompted Talk of AI Doomsday. Many Who Signed Weren’t Actually AI Doomers
17Aug By adminNo Comments
Technology

A Letter Prompted Talk of AI Doomsday. Many Who Signed Weren’t Actually AI Doomers

This March, nearly 35,000 AI researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens signed an open letter from the nonprofit Future of Life Institute that called for a “pause” on AI development, due to the risks to humanity revealed in the capabilities of programs such as ChatGPT.“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves ... Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?”I could still be proven wrong, but almost six months later and with AI development faster than ever, civilization hasn’t crumbled. Heck, Bing Chat, Microsoft’s “revolutionary,” ChatGPT-infused search oracle, hasn’t even displaced Google as the leader in search. So what should we make of the letter...
Read More