AI is exciting – and an ethical minefield: 4 essential reads on the risks and concerns about this technology; The Conversation, April 27, 2023

Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics Editor , The Conversation; AI is exciting – and an ethical minefield: 4 essential reads on the risks and concerns about this technology

"If you’re like me, you’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months trying to figure out what this AI thing is all about. Large-language models, generative AI, algorithmic bias – it’s a lot for the less tech-savvy of us to sort out, trying to make sense of the myriad headlines about artificial intelligence swirling about.

But understanding how AI works is just part of the dilemma. As a society, we’re also confronting concerns about its social, psychological and ethical effects. Here we spotlight articles about the deeper questions the AI revolution raises about bias and inequality, the learning process, its impact on jobs, and even the artistic process."

Why Supreme Court ‘ethics’ legislation would do more harm than good; The Washington Post, April 28, 2023

Jason Willick, The Washington Post ; Why Supreme Court ‘ethics’ legislation would do more harm than good

"Lower courts have a formal process for fielding complaints of judicial misconduct, because lower-court judges can be censured or temporarily suspended from cases by panels of fellow judges. The Supreme Court is different — it does not, by definition, answer to other courts, so any code of conduct would be unenforceable within the judicial branch. Accountability at the highest levels of the executive and judicial branches must come from the political process: impeachment. By installing a permanent investigative bureaucracy to scrutinize the Supreme Court, the Senate legislation would warp constitutional lines of authority."

Editors quit top neuroscience journal to protest against open-access charges; Nature, April 21, 2023

 Katharine Sanderson, Nature; Editors quit top neuroscience journal to protest against open-access charges

"More than 40 editors have resigned from two leading neuroscience journals in protest against what the editors say are excessively high article-processing charges (APCs) set by the publisher. They say that the fees, which publishers use to cover publishing services and in some cases make money, are unethical. The publisher, Dutch company Elsevier, says that its fees provide researchers with publishing services that are above average quality for below average price. The editors plan to start a new journal hosted by the non-profit publisher MIT Press.

The decision to resign came about after many discussions among the editors, says Stephen Smith, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, UK, and editor-in-chief of one of the journals, NeuroImage. “Everyone agreed that the APC was unethical and unsustainable,” says Smith, who will lead the editorial team of the new journal, Imaging Neuroscience, when it launches.

The 42 academics who made up the editorial teams at NeuroImage and its companion journal NeuroImage: Reports announced their resignations on 17 April. The journals are open access and require authors to pay a fee for publishing services. The APC for NeuroImage is US$3,450; NeuroImage: Reports charges $900, which will double to $1,800 from 31 May. Elsevier, based in Amsterdam, says that the APCs cover the costs associated with publishing an article in an open-access journal, including editorial and peer-review services, copyediting, typesetting archiving, indexing, marketing and administrative costs. Andrew Davis, Elsevier’s vice-president of corporate communications, says that NeuroImage’s fee is less than that of the nearest comparable journal in its field, and that the publisher’s APCs are “set in line with our policy [of] providing above average quality for below average price”."

War of words: The fight over banning books; CBS News, Sunday Morning, April 23, 2023

MARTHA TEICHNER, CBS News, Sunday Morning; War of words: The fight over banning books

""Stop it!" said cartoonist Art Spiegelman. "I mean, talk about Orwellian, you know? Calling this organization Moms for Liberty, when it's actually for suppression, is about as basic as you could find in '1984,' which I think is listed as a young adult novel still, and probably has been banned in lots of places."

Spiegelman has been speaking out ever since the McMinn County, Tennessee school board voted unanimously last year to ban "Maus," his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, citing violence, profanity, and (because of the below, right image) nudity. 

Spiegelman said, "I think it's possible for an adult to say, 'I don't want my kid reading that book in class.' But to forbid the other kids from reading it or taking it out of the library? That's not liberty; that's suppression and authoritarianism."

Spiegelman says: fight back. "Kick out the damn school boards," he said, "and get school boards in that are more nuanced in what they're doing; getting involved in local politics as necessary to try to protect libraries' funding and schools' needs, instead of making it such a low priority.""

The US supreme court’s alleged ethics issues are worse than you probably realize; The Guardian, April 28, 2023

Moira Donegan, The Guardian; The US supreme court’s alleged ethics issues are worse than you probably realize

"Bad intent by the justices need not be present for the mere appearance of corruption to have a corrosive effect on the rule of law, and both Gorsuch and Thomas have allowed a quite severe appearance of corruption to attach itself to the court. Both have claimed that they are such intelligent and gifted legal minds that they should be given lifelong appointments of unparalleled power, and also that they have made innocent mistakes on legal forms that they are too dumb to understand.

The claim strains credulity. What it looks like, to the American people who have to live under the laws that the supreme court shapes, is that Thomas has long been living lavishly on the dime of a rightwing billionaire who wants rightwing rulings, and that Gorsuch conveniently managed to sell a house he didn’t want at the precise moment when he became important enough to be worth bribing.

The chief justice doesn’t seem very worried about this appearance of impropriety. In light of these alarming ethics concerns, Roberts’ curt rejection of the committee’s invitation to testify speaks to an evident indifference to ethical standards, or a contempt for the oversight powers of the nominally coequal branches. Ironically enough, his nonchalance has made the reality even more plain than it was before: the court will not police itself. The other branches need to show the justices their place."

Recognize Those Who Inspire Others to Uphold Ethical Principles; IEEE Spectrum, April 26, 2023

 SHERRY LINDBAK, IEEE Spectrum; Recognize Those Who Inspire Others to Uphold Ethical Principles 

"Do you know someone who has risen above others in demonstrating high standards of ethics and integrity? Or do you belong to an organization that has inspired others to share a vision of extraordinary ethical principles and practices? If so, IEEE wants to honor and celebrate their contributions.

The IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee is now accepting nominations for this year’s IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices. The annual award recognizes an IEEE member, or an organization employing IEEE members, for exemplary ethical behavior or persuasive advocacy of ethical practices.

Nominators will be asked to explain:

• What situation was happening (or not happening) that caused the nominee to believe it was unethical?
• In what ways did the nominee demonstrate ethical leadership, courage, innovation, or honor to make the situation better?
• What was the overall impact of the nominee’s actions?

The deadline for nominations is 31 May. The recipient will be announced in November.

For more information, including eligibility requirements, and to access the nomination form, visit the EMCC-Award web page or write to ethics@ieee.org."

Senators to introduce bill aimed at strengthening ethical guidelines in the Supreme Court; CNN, April 26, 2023

Lauren Fox and Shawna Mizelle,, CNN ; Senators to introduce bill aimed at strengthening ethical guidelines in the Supreme Court

"A bipartisan pair of senators will introduce legislation on Wednesday that aims to implement new ethics standards on the Supreme Court, though it would still grant the high court extensive power to police itself.

The “Supreme Court Code of Conduct Act,” to be introduced by Independent Maine Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would require the nation’s highest court to enact its own code of conduct within a year of the bill passing. 

Under the legislation, the court would have the power to “initiate investigations as needed to determine if any Supreme Court justices or staff may have engaged in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice or that violates other federal laws or codes of conduct.” 

The legislation would also require the court to lay out the rules on its website, name an official to handle complaints about violations of those rules (which could come from anyone including the public), and then require that official to publish an annual report chronicling actions taken in response to any of those complaints."

Chief Justice Roberts declines Sen. Durbin request to testify on ethics; The Washington Post, April 25, 2023

Robert Barnes, The Washington Post; Chief Justice Roberts declines Sen. Durbin request to testify on ethics

"Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told Senate leaders Tuesday he would “respectfully decline” to testify at a Senate hearing focused on the Supreme Court, offering instead a statement signed by all the justices in which they “reaffirm and restate foundational ethics principles and practices” to which they abide.

There did not seem to be new proposals or guidelines in the “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices.” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) immediately labeled it insufficient, noting recent revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas that the senator said illustrate the need for more scrutiny.

“I am surprised that the Chief Justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious," Durbin said in a statement." 

Why doesn’t the Supreme Court have a formal code of ethics?; Poynter, April 17, 2023

 Matthew Crowley, Poynter; Why doesn’t the Supreme Court have a formal code of ethics?

"Enforcement questions

Steven Lubet, an emeritus law professor at Northwestern University, said enforcing any code would be challenging.

“There is no enforcement mechanism in the current … situation, in which the justices say they voluntarily follow gift disclosure and other rules,” Lubet said.

Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at the New York University School of Law, wondered whether the court would accept a code and whether Roberts would enforce it if the justices objected to its tenets.

“What buy-in would the court need to adopt a code that binds all justices?,” he asked. “Who would enforce it? Lower court judges whose opinions the justices review? Not likely to work. Or will the court as a whole pass on the conduct of a fellow justice? Will that be credible?”

Gillers said he doubted the recent outcry over Thomas would force the court to change.

“Six months ago, I would have rated it as very unlikely (1 in 20) that the court will adopt its own code; I think the Court would not want to be seen to react to public pressure,” he said. “Now, after the latest Thomas story, I think it is just unlikely (1 in 4/5) but increasingly possible.”"

Exclusive: German authors, performers call for tougher ChatGPT rules amid copyright concerns; Reuters, April 19, 2023

 Foo Yun Chee, Reuters;  Exclusive: German authors, performers call for tougher ChatGPT rules amid copyright concerns

"Forty-two German associations and trade unions representing more than 140,000 authors and performers on Wednesday urged the European Union to beef up draft artificial intelligence rules as they singled out the threat to their copyright from ChatGPT...

"The unauthorised usage of protected training material, its non-transparent processing, and the foreseeable substitution of the sources by the output of generative AI raise fundamental questions of accountability, liability and remuneration, which need to be addressed before irreversible harm occurs," the letter seen by Reuters said."

Roberts invited to testify at Senate hearing on Supreme Court ethics; NPR, April 20, 2023

Dustin Jones, NPR ; Roberts invited to testify at Senate hearing on Supreme Court ethics

"The chair of the Senate Judiciary committee has invited Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at a hearing next month focused on the ethical rules governing the Supreme Court as well as potential changes to those guidelines. 

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. said in a letter to Roberts on Thursday that recent reports found the justices are "falling short" of the ethical standards they and other public servants are supposed to follow. 

"The status quo is no longer tenable," Durbin wrote.

The call for Roberts' testimony comes at a turbulent time for the court and its members. Concerns surrounding the lifetime appointees involve Justice Clarence Thomas, who, according to an investigation by ProPublica, failed to disclose 20 years of luxury trips with billionaire and Republican donor Harlan Crow."

Stories Like Me defies book bans with store full of LGBTQ narratives for kids and teens; Pittsburgh City Paper, March 29, 2023

Amanda Waltz, Pittsburgh City Paper ; Stories Like Me defies book bans with store full of LGBTQ narratives for kids and teens

[Kip Currier: I'm grateful to have been able to talk recently with Helen Campbell, the creator and owner of the groundbreaking independent bookstore Stories Like Me, located in Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood, and to record a conversation with her for The Information Professional in Communities course I am finishing up for the Spring Term.

One of the questions I asked Helen was: 

What are some ways that you work to connect with and listen to the communities that are reflected in the books that you carry? 

Helen shared that while prepping for our chat she'd written -- in all caps -- the word LISTENING. Expanding on this, she emphasized that listening is key, learning from that listening, and then listening again, in an ongoing, iterative way, to better understand the needs of individuals, families, and communities.]

"Helen Campbell has strong feelings about the current effort to ban LGBTQ books from library shelves, as parenting groups and state legislatures have swept in to attack everything from youth-focused trans narratives to drag story times.

“When you remove the stories of our LGBTQIA+ individuals from the shelves of libraries and schools, you are making a statement to the queer community that your story doesn’t matter, you don’t exist here,” she tells Pittsburgh City Paper...

Of the book bans, Campbell says, “This is unconscionable and we, along with many other indie bookstores, are committed to keeping books on our shelves that will act as mirrors and windows for the queer community. We are a safe space, we are queer owned, and will stand against any attempts to erase the stories of marginalized people.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Russian court: A reckoning will come; The Washington Post, April 10, 2023

 Vladimir Kara-Murza, The Washington Post ; Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Russian court: A reckoning will come

"In their last statements to the court, defendants usually ask for an acquittal. For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror. Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.

But I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.

This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf. From this realization, from this reflection, the long, difficult but vital path toward the recovery and restoration of Russia, its return to the community of civilized countries, will begin.

Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people. I believe that we can walk this path."

Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Post contributor, to 25 years; The Washington Post, April 17, 2023

Robyn Dixon, The Washington Post ; Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Post contributor, to 25 years

"In earlier comments on social media, Kara-Murza said he did not understand how criticizing the government could qualify as treason.

“It is incomprehensible to me how obvious and confirmed facts about the crimes committed during the aggression of Putin’s regime against Ukraine can be presented as ‘deliberately false information’ and the obvious lie — on the contrary, as the only truth.”"

Clarence Thomas, undisclosed luxury trips, and Supreme Court ethics; 1A, WAMU, NPR, April 17, 2023

 Jorgelina Manna-Rea, 1A, WAMU, NPR; Clarence Thomas, undisclosed luxury trips, and Supreme Court ethics

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been on the bench for almost 32 years. For more than 25 of those years, he’s been close with a billionaire Republican donor. 

A ProPublica investigation found that Justice Thomas went on luxury trips with Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow for 20 years and did not include them on his financial disclosures. He frequently took trips on Crow’s private jet and yacht. One such excursion in 2019 was worth $500,000.

Justice Thomas said he consulted with his colleagues at the beginning of his tenure on the court. It was his understanding that he didn’t need to report “personal hospitality from close personal friends.”

Harlan Crow’s companies also bought Georgia real estate from Justice Thomas which was also not disclosed. Four ethics law experts told ProPublica this was a violation of a federal disclosure law passed after Watergate.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans on holding a hearing to discuss the Supreme Court’s ethical standards. 

If there isn’t a Supreme Court code of ethics, what rules govern what its justices can do, or who they can have relationships with? We put together a panel to discuss."

The Ethics of Nine of the Most Powerful People in America; The Editorial Board, April 14, 2023

The Editorial Board, The New York Times ; The Ethics of Nine of the Most Powerful People in America

"An ethics office at the Supreme Court, similar to ethics committees in the House and the Senate, should be established to oversee and enforce these kinds of decisions by the justices and their employees, with public, transparent record-keeping.

Ethics rules have nothing to do with judicial partisanship. A strong set of ethical standards would apply to anyone who serves on the court, and would endure even as the ideological character of the court changes, as it may one day. The court should long ago have adopted standards of its own, but if it continues to neglect its responsibility to devise and abide by enforceable rules, Congress will have little choice but to impose its own.

In the meantime, as a sign that they take ethical lapses seriously, members of Congress need to investigate the news about Justice Thomas’s long financial relationship with Mr. Crow to determine the precise nature of the gifts and whether their secrecy violated federal ethics law. If Chief Justice Roberts doesn’t conduct a court investigation of the matter, the Senate Judiciary Committee should call on both Justice Thomas and Mr. Crow to testify. It will take effort and resolve from all branches of government to repair the tarnished reputation of the nation’s highest court, but the stakes are far too high to continue ignoring it."

Quid Pro Crow; Slate, April 14, 2023

DAHLIA LITHWICK AND MARK JOSEPH STERN, Slate ; Quid Pro Crow

"What mattered last week and what still matters this week is whether the Crow/Thomas dealings can be seen as classic quid pro quo (or perhaps quid pro Crow) corruption."

Llano County Library will remain open despite effort to shut it down over book ban; Texas Public Radio, April 13, 2023

 Kayla Padilla, Texas Public Radio; Llano County Library will remain open despite effort to shut it down over book ban

"After a contentious special meeting on Thursday, Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham announced that the county's library system will stay open.

“The library will remain open. We will try this in the courts — not through social media or through news media,” Cunningham said.

Commissioners considered whether or not they would shut down their library system rather than complying with a federal judge’s order that they must return 17 banned books to the library shelves.

The banned books, which include themes of LGBTQ+ identity and race, were removed last year without public input, after Llano County officials declared them pornographic and sexually explicit...

Most protestors stood outside for the duration of the meeting because of limited room inside the court. One library advocate, Carolyn Foote, said that the removal of the 17 books is a “slippery slope.”

Foote is co-founder of the FReadom Fighters, a group of Texas librarians fighting book bans and advocating for students.

“That’s why you have rules and policies — because censorship really isn’t a partisan issue. And partly, the Supreme Court supports libraries in that. There’s a ruling called Pico v. Island Trees that says you cannot remove materials just because you don’t like the ideas in them,” she explained."

Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire; ProPublica, April 6, 2023

Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica; Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

"For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said."

Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’; The New York Times, April 12, 2023

 Katherine Rosman, The New York Times ; Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’

"Ms. Morey called it the “Stanford Effect,” referring to a 10-page open letter written in March by Jenny Martinez, dean of Stanford University Law School, in which she affirmed her decision to apologize to Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Donald J. Trump-appointed federal appeals judge, after hecklers interrupted his speech."

To Ingrain AI Ethics, We Should Get Creative About Copyrights; Undark Magazine, April 13, 2023

CASON SCHMIT & JENNIFER WAGNER, Undark Magazine; To Ingrain AI Ethics, We Should Get Creative About Copyrights

"What’s clear, however, is that the risk of doing nothing is tremendous. AI is rapidly evolving and disrupting existing systems and structures in unpredictable ways. We need disruptive innovation in AI policy perhaps even more than we need disruption in the technology itself — and AI creators and users must be willing participants in this endeavor. Efforts to grapple with the ethical, legal, social, and policy issues around AI must be viewed not as a luxury but as a necessity, and as an integral part of AI design. Otherwise, we run the risk of letting industry set the terms of AI’s future, and we leave individuals, groups, and even our very democracy vulnerable to its whims." 

Zoom Panel: Haven’t We Been Here Before: A Panel Discussion on Banning LGBTQIA+ Books. Wednesday, April 5. 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT. University of Pittsburgh

Haven’t We Been Here Before: A Panel Discussion on Banning LGBTQIA+ Books. Wednesday, April 5. 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT. University of Pittsburgh

https://calendar.pitt.edu/event/been_here_before#.ZCgmRi-B2_U

[This session will be live via Zoom and also recorded for asynchronous viewing, following processing by Pitt. See registration link.]

There has been a recent uptick in attempts to remove or ban certain books from schools, public libraries and other educational spaces. In 2022 alone, 4 in 10 banned books contained LGBTQIA+ themes and representation, according to PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression through the advancement of literature and human rights. 

Join the University Library System and the Pitt Queer Professionals for a lively virtual panel discussion with education, literary and legal experts on intellectual freedom and the societal impact of banning books. Guest panelists will be Dr. James “Kip” Currier, Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information (SCI) in the Information Culture and Data Stewardship (ICDS) Department, Dr. Katrina Bartow Jacobs, Associate Professor of Practice of Language, Literacy, and Culture within the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading and Jeff Trexler, Interim Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an American non-profit organization formed to protect the First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers. The panel will be moderated by Acacia O’Connor (they/them/theirs) currently the University’s Executive Director of Social Media, and former manager of the Kids’ Right to Read Project of the National Coalition Against Censorship.  

Dial-In Information

Register at https://pitt.libcal.com/event/10570583Links to an external site.

Wednesday, April 5 at 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

 Virtual Event

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