Tech giants are seeking help on AI ethics. Where they seek it matters; Quartz, March 30, 2019

Dave Gershgorn, Quartz; Tech giants are seeking help on AI ethics. Where they seek it matters

"Meanwhile, as Quartz reported last week, Stanford’s new Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence excluded from its faculty any significant number of people of color, some of whom have played key roles in creating the field of AI ethics and algorithmic accountability.

Other tech companies are also seeking input on AI ethics, including Amazon, which this week announced a $10 million grant in partnership with the National Science Foundation. The funding will support research into fairness in AI."

Can Self-Driving Cars Be Engineered to Be Ethical?; Voice of America, March 21, 2018

Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English. Additional information came from Reuters and the Associated Press. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor., Voice of America; Can Self-Driving Cars Be Engineered to Be Ethical?

"Nicholas Evans is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, Massachusetts...

Evans is receiving money from the National Science Foundation to study the ethics of decision-making algorithms in autonomous vehicles. He says self-driving cars need to be programmed to react to many difficult situations. But, he adds, even simple driving activities – such as having vehicles enter a busy street – can be dangerous...

One of the most basic questions is how to decide the value of human lives. Evans says most people do not like to think about this question. But, he says, it is highly important in developing self-driving technology...

“So this is one of the really tricky questions behind autonomous vehicles – is how do you value different people's lives and how do you program a car to value different people's lives.”"