Ethics in an age of disinformation: Free webinar series from the National Press Club Journalism Institute; National Press Club Journalism Institute, April 4, 2024

Press Release, National Press Club Journalism Institute; Ethics in an age of disinformation: Free webinar series from the National Press Club Journalism Institute 

"The National Press Club Journalism Institute is pleased to announce a free, four-part webinar series focused on ethics in the age of disinformation. These discussions are geared toward equipping journalists and the public with tools to combat mis and disinformation efforts aimed at disrupting journalism and democracy.

All of these webinars are free and open to the public and are designed to provide tools and best practices to support ethical, trustworthy journalism."

Who owns your cells? Legacy of Henrietta Lacks raises ethical questions about profits from medical research; Cleveland.com, August 18, 2023

Gretchen Cuda Kroen, cleveland.com; Who owns your cells? Legacy of Henrietta Lacks raises ethical questions about profits from medical research

"While the legal victory may have given the family some closure, it has raised concerns for bioethicists in Cleveland and elsewhere.

The case raises important questions about owning one’s own body; whether individuals are entitled to a share of the profits from medical discoveries derived from research on their own cells, organs and genetic material.

But it also offers a tremendous opportunity to not only acknowledge the ethical failures of the past and the seeds of mistrust they have sown, but to guide society toward building better, more trustworthy medical institutions, said Aaron Goldenberg, who directs the Bioethics Center for Community Health and Genomic Equity (CHANGE) at Case Western Reserve University."

A New Frontier for Travel Scammers: A.I.-Generated Guidebooks; The New York Times, August 5, 2023

 Seth Kugel and Stephen Hiltner, The New York Times; A New Frontier for Travel Scammers: A.I.-Generated Guidebooks

"Though she didn’t know it at the time, Ms. Kolsky had fallen victim to a new form of travel scam: shoddy guidebooks that appear to be compiled with the help of generative artificial intelligence, self-published and bolstered by sham reviews, that have proliferated in recent months on Amazon.

The books are the result of a swirling mix of modern tools: A.I. apps that can produce text and fake portraits; websites with a seemingly endless array of stock photos and graphics; self-publishing platforms — like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing — with few guardrails against the use of A.I.; and the ability to solicit, purchase and post phony online reviews, which runs counter to Amazon’s policies and may soon face increased regulation from the Federal Trade Commission.

The use of these tools in tandem has allowed the books to rise near the top of Amazon search results and sometimes garner Amazon endorsements such as “#1 Travel Guide on Alaska.”"

The Guardian’s editorial code has been updated – here’s what to expect; The Guardian, July 27, 2023

 Elisabeth Ribbans, The Guardian; The Guardian’s editorial code has been updated – here’s what to expect

"Much has changed since 2011 – at the Guardian, in the way society shares information and opinions, and in the world at large. The updates reflect this. But as “the embodiment of the Guardian’s values”, which is how the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, described the code in an email to staff today, the standards by which journalists agree to be held accountable, while geared (as far as possible) to the modern environment, seek to maintain something immutable: trust."

The Supreme Court Needs Real Oversight; The Atlantic, December 5, 2022

Glenn Fine, The Atlantic; The Supreme Court Needs Real Oversight

"A series of recent events at the Supreme Court threatens to undermine trust and confidence in the institution and demonstrates the need for it to have a code of ethics and for better oversight within the judiciary...

First, a code of judicial ethics should apply to Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court should explicitly state that the Judicial Code of Conduct applies to it, or implement a modified code that does.

Second, the justices should be more transparent about their recusal decisions. They should explain the reasoning for their decisions to recuse, or not to recuse, themselves in significant cases.

Third, the judiciary as a whole should be subject to inspector-general oversight—to investigate alleged misconduct and to promote efficiency throughout the judiciary’s administrative operations, not to second-guess any judicial opinion. An experienced, permanent, internal judiciary inspector general, potentially reporting to the chief justice, could be structured to ensure that the judiciary maintains its institutional independence but employs more effective oversight.

In short, the Court needs to assure the public that it is governed by ethical rules and that each justice is not voluntarily judging his or her own compliance with ethical requirements. Supreme Court justices are not above the law or ethical rules. The Court’s failure to adopt an ethical code and its resistance to oversight risk further decline in public trust and confidence."

Editorial: A code of ethics could help the Supreme Court maintain integrity; Chicago Tribune, May 23, 2022

The Editorial Board , Chicago Tribune; Editorial: A code of ethics could help the Supreme Court maintain integrity

"That integrity can be strengthened if the Supreme Court adopted a code of ethics that would help justices navigate potential instances of undue influence and other judicial tripwires.

Like umpires, the Supreme Court may not be infallible in our democracy but its judgments are final. If justices cannot display independence from outside influences, then perhaps a code of ethics can restore the confidence and trust in the body that as begun to wane among an increasing number of Americans."

What Is Happening to the People Falling for Crypto and NFTs; The New York Times, May 5, 2020

 Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times; What Is Happening to the People Falling for Crypto and NFTs

"In the past year Yuga Labs, the well-funded start-up that makes Bored Apes, has embarked on a parade of new and even farther-out digital spinoffs of its simians. Its latest ventures have highlighted the head-scratching, money-burning, broken-casino vibe of what’s being called the internet’s next big thing. Cryptocurrencies, blockchains, NFTs and the constellation of hyped-up technologies known as “web3” have been celebrated as a way to liberate the internet from the tech giants who control it now. Instead what’s happening with Bored Apes suggests they’re doing the opposite: polluting the digital world in a thick haze of errors, swindles and expensive, largely unregulated financial speculation that ruins whatever scrap of trust still remains online...

But how many people have to lose their shirts before we realize that web3 isn’t a solution to any of our problems?"

How to avoid falling for and spreading misinformation about Ukraine; The Washington Post, February 24, 2022

Heather Kelly, The Washington Post ; How to avoid falling for and spreading misinformation about Ukraine

"Anyone with a phone and an Internet connection is able to watch the war in Ukraine unfold live online, or at least some version of it. Across social media, posts are flying up faster than most fact-checkers and moderators can handle, and they’re an unpredictable mix of true, fake, out of context and outright propaganda messages.

How do you know what to trust, what not to share and what to report? Tech companies have said they’re trying to do more to help users spot misinformation about Ukraine, with labels and fact checking. On Saturday, Facebook parent company Meta announced it was adding more fact-checkers in the region dedicated to posts about the war. It’s also warning users who attempt to share war-related photo when they’re more than a year old — a common type of misinformation.

Here are some basic tools everyone should use when consuming breaking news online."

Why your local library might be hiring a social worker; NPR, January 3, 2021

DARIAN BENSON, NPR; Why your local library might be hiring a social worker

"For years, libraries have been a place people turn to for information to help them solve problems. But the challenges patrons are dealing with are increasingly beyond the scope of what most librarians are trained to handle — and that's where social workers can fill in the gaps."

Americans widely distrust Facebook, TikTok and Instagram with their data, poll finds; The Washington Post, December 22, 2021

 

Heather Kelly

 and 

Emily Guskin

 

, The Washington Post; Americans widely distrust Facebook, TikTok and Instagram with their data, poll finds

"According to the survey, 72 percent of Internet users trust Facebook “not much” or “not at all” to responsibly handle their personal information and data on their Internet activity. About 6 in 10 distrust TikTok and Instagram, while slight majorities distrust WhatsApp and YouTube. Google, Apple and Microsoft receive mixed marks for trust, while Amazon is slightly positive with 53 percent trusting the company at least “a good amount.” (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Only 10 percent say Facebook has a positive impact on society, while 56 percent say it has a negative impact and 33 percent say its impact is neither positive nor negative. Even among those who use Facebook daily, more than three times as many say the social network has a negative rather than a positive impact."

Zoom classes felt like teaching into a void — until I told my students why; The Washington Post; March 11, 2021

C. Thi Nguyen, The Washington Post; Zoom classes felt like teaching into a void — until I told my students why

"In the end, I see this as a question of informed choice. Given who I am, it’s very predicable that my teaching will get worse as more cameras go off. Students deserve to know that, and take that into account, in their own choices. I suspect that honesty is the best we can do right now.

This experience has also changed how I behave when I’m on the other side of the exchange — in the audience of an online lecture. In that situation, I would almost always prefer to turn my camera off. But now I go camera-on most of the time, because of my understanding of the impact of my decision on the speaker.

Right now, our knowledge of one another’s lives is slim, gathered as it is through impoverished channels like Zoom. When our connections are so tenuous, a little trust can go a long way."

Emerging technologies pose ethical quandaries. Where does IT leadership fit in?; CIO Dive, February 22, 2021

Katie Malone, CIO Dive; Emerging technologies pose ethical quandaries. Where does IT leadership fit in?

""More organizations are seeing that trust is a measurement of profitability, of organizational health, of success," said Catherine Bannister, Tech Savvy and ethical tech leader at Deloitte. "This notion of ethics is becoming much more visible to stakeholders across the board and they are using that as a measure of trust, both internally and externally."

But there's no common definition for what ethical technology looks like and the conversation is ongoing. Instead, CIOs and other members of IT leadership are responsible for figuring out what tech ethics mean for their organizations in the near- and long-term. 

If an organization doesn't do its ethical due diligence, customers will catch on and trust will be diminished, according to Bannister."

The Anonymous Professor Who Wasn’t; The New York Times, August 4, 2020

Jonah Engel Bromwich and Ezra Marcus, The New York Times; The Anonymous Professor Who Wasn’t

A professor at Arizona State University does not exist.

"Among scientists and academics, the shock of mourning was already laced with suspicion. Enough of them had unpleasant interactions with the combative account and were troubled by its inconsistencies and seeming about-turns.

“You have these internal alarms that are like, ‘Oh, I don’t trust you,’” said Julie Libarkin, the head of the Geocognition Research Laboratory at Michigan State University. “Kind of the same as when I worked with BethAnn.”"

A Library Redeploys in COVID-19: Another Reason to Love Librarians; Nonprofit Quarterly, April 22, 2020

Ruth McCambridge, Nonprofit Quarterly; 

A Library Redeploys in COVID-19: 

Another Reason to Love Librarians

"Kim Edson, the head of reader services at the Rochester Public Library, says the staff have reorganized in consultation with local government to become an information hotline during the pandemic. This is part of its commitment to the city’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), “a system of disaster planning that lays out guidance for how specific critical services will continue.”

“One of the special skills we’re able to provide in times of crisis is access to information,” Edson says:

We answer all kinds of questions as part of our normal business. Everyone has a place that they trust, or where they go to get community information. The library serves that purpose for many people.

We are constantly working on the list of resources in the community and sharing those resources so everyone’s getting a consistent message."

‘Stable genius’ or dangerous ignoramus?'; The Washington Post, April 24, 2020

Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post; ‘Stable genius’ or dangerous ignoramus?

"We can laugh (uproariously) about Trump’s ignorance and inanity, but like his hawking of hydroxychloroquine — which induced hoarding of medication needed by patients with other diseases (and perhaps others to harm themselves) — this is one more instance in which concern for public safety should spur news networks to discontinue live coverage of the daily briefings. Like a con man peddling patent medicine, Trump dispenses false hope and crackpot remedies, thereby promoting disdain for scientific inquiry and valid research. Once more, one is compelled not only to shudder that such an intellectually unfit man could be president but that legions of right-wing hucksters and sycophants could regularly contort themselves not merely to defend his blabbering but also to lionize him.

It is little wonder that only 23 percent of Americans, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, have a high level of trust in what Trump says. (Some of us find it disturbing the number is that high, although the poll was taken before his latest quackery.)"

A call for ethical use of artificial intelligence; Boston Globe, March 26, 2020

John E. Kelly III, Boston Globe; A call for ethical use of artificial intelligence

"The Vatican document calls for international cooperation in designing and planning AI systems that the world can trust — for reaching a consensus among political decision-makers, researchers, academics, and nongovernmental organizations about the ethical principles that should be built into these technologies.

But we at IBM don’t think this call to action should stop with the Vatican. Leaders of all the world’s great religions, as well as right-minded companies, governments, and organizations everywhere, should join this discussion and effort."

Putting China in charge of the world’s intellectual property is a bad idea; The Washington Post, Janaury 30, 2020

Josh Rogin , The Washington Post; Putting China in charge of the world’s intellectual property is a bad idea

"Beijing is lobbying hard to take over leadership of the international organization that oversees intellectual property, which could result in dire consequences for the future of technology and economic competition. But the U.S.-led effort to prevent this from happening faces a steep uphill climb.

In March, 83 countries will vote to elect the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a U.N.-created body founded in 1967 “to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.” The Chinese candidate, Wang Binying, currently serves as one of its four deputy director-generals and is widely seen as the front-runner.

On its face, allowing China to assume leadership of the WIPO poses a clear risk to the integrity of the institution, given that the U.S. government has singled out China as the leading source of intellectual property theft in the world."

Why Businesses Should Adopt an AI Code of Ethics -- Now; InformationWeek, November 14, 2019

Gary Grossman, InformationWeek; Why Businesses Should Adopt an AI Code of Ethics -- Now

"Adherence to AI ethics breeds trust

According to Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD): “To realize the full potential of [AI] technology, we need one critical ingredient. That critical ingredient is trust. And to build trust we need human-centered artificial intelligence that fosters sustainable development and inclusive human progress.” To achieve this, he adds that there must be an ethical dimension to AI use. This all underscores the urgency for companies to create and live by a responsible AI code of ethics to govern decisions about AI development and deployment.

The EU has developed principles for ethical AI, as has the IEEE, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Tencent and other countries and corporations. As these have appeared in only the last couple of years, AI ethics is very much an evolving field. There is an opportunity and critical need for businesses to lead by creating their own set of principles embodied in an AI code of ethics to govern their AI research and development to both further the technology while also helping to create a better tomorrow."

Scientist Who Discredited Meat Guidelines Didn’t Report Past Food Industry Ties; The New York Times, October 4, 2019

Tara Parker-Pope and Anahad O’Connor, The New York Times;

Scientist Who Discredited Meat Guidelines Didn’t Report Past Food Industry Ties

The lead researcher, Bradley C. Johnston, said he was not required to report his past relationship with a powerful industry trade group.

"In an interview, Dr. Johnston said his past relationship with ILSI had no influence on the current research on meat recommendations. He said he did not report his past relationship with ILSI because the disclosure form asked only about potential conflicts within the past three years. Although the ILSI-funded study publication falls within the three-year window, he said the money from ILSI arrived in 2015, and he was not required to report it for the meat study disclosure.

“That money was from 2015 so it was outside of the three year period for disclosing competing interests,” said Dr. Johnston. “I have no relationship with them whatsoever.”"

Northeastern researchers team up with Accenture to offer a road map for artificial intelligence ethics oversight; Northeastern University, August 29, 2019

Khalida Sarwari, Northeastern University; Northeastern researchers team up with Accenture to offer a road map for artificial intelligence ethics oversight

"Now, Northeastern professors John Basl and Ron Sandler are offering organizations guidance for how to create a well-designed and effective committee based on similar models used in biomedical research. 

Maintaining that an ethics committee that is adequately resourced and thoughtfully designed can play an important role in mitigating digital risks and maintaining trust between an organization and the public, the researchers provide a framework for such a system in a new report produced in collaboration with global professional services company Accenture...

“If you want to build a committee that works effectively and if you really want to build ethical capacity within an organization, it’s a significant undertaking where you can’t just throw together a few people with ethical expertise,” says Sandler.

Added Basl: “We lay out the kinds of experts an organization will need—someone who knows local laws, someone who knows ethics, a variety of technical experts, and members of an affected community. Who those individuals are, or what their particular expertise is, depends on the kind of technology being developed and deployed.”"