New ABA Rules on AI and Ethics Shows the Technology Is 'New Wine in Old Bottles'; The Law Journal Editorial Board via Law.com, August 16, 2024

The Law Journal Editorial Board via Law.com; New ABA Rules on AI and Ethics Shows the Technology Is 'New Wine in Old Bottles'

On July 29, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 512 on generative artificial intelligence tools. The opinion follows on such opinions and guidance from several state bar associations, as well as similar efforts by non-U.S. bars and regulatory bodies around the world...

Focused on GAI, the opinion addresses six core principles: competence, confidentiality, communication, meritorious claims and candor to tribunal, supervision and fees...

What is not commonly understood, perhaps, is that GAI “hallucinates,” and generates content...

Not addressed in the opinion is whether GAI is engaged in the practice of law...

At the ABA annual meeting, representatives of more than 20 “foreign” bars participated in a roundtable on GAI. In a world of cross-border practice, there was a desire for harmonization."

Prevent An AI Disaster Like The One At McDonald’s By Serving Up Ethics; Forbes, July 1, 2024

 Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D., Forbes; Prevent An AI Disaster Like The One At McDonald’s By Serving Up Ethics

"Would you like some bacon with your ice cream? How about an order of 260 Chicken McNuggets? These are but a few of the menu mishaps that occurred after McDonald’s incorporated AI into its drive-through experience.

The comic results of this technological mishap are the stuff of late-night television shows, but the core issues are anything but funny. No company wants its promising initiatives to become fodder for comedians.

The best way for your company to prevent an AI-generated disasters like this one is to embed ethical considerations into every step of the process you use to take an idea to market.

Here are three guidelines for making sure your business doesn’t become a feature on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s “Meanwhile” segment."

MapLab: The Case for a Cartographer’s Code of Ethics; Bloomberg, March 9, 2022

Marie Patino, Bloomberg ; MapLab: The Case for a Cartographer’s Code of Ethics

"In 2017, Kent spearheaded the drafting of the first and only known professional code of cartography ethics for the British Cartographic Society (BCS) while he was the president of the organization. The code upholds five principles: Honesty, integrity, competence, respect and responsibility. It also warns of potential sanctions that can be taken against members if they don’t follow these principles, including being banned from the BCS — though Kent says this hasn’t happened yet.

“There’s an increased sense of responsibility that goes with the idea of mapmaking.” Kent says. “I think cartographers have for too long not really grasped the idea that what they’re doing has immense power to change the way how people see the world.”

Now, momentum for ethical guidelines may be picking up...

Buckley, who created a user group at Esri to discuss best practices and ideas for mapmaking ethics, is planning ethics discussions at other map gatherings this year. “Having good examples, I think, is what we need to move towards next,” Buckley said. “After we come up with a code of ethics, the statements have to be supported by resources that people can look at to understand how to enact ethical practices.”"

COVID-19 Fatigue? Don’t Let Your Ethics Guard Down; Esquire, July 28, 2020

Esquire; COVID-19 Fatigue? Don’t Let Your Ethics Guard Down

"But now is not the time to give in or to cut corners professionally. No, now is the time for a quick run-through of a lawyer’s ethical obligations to clients during these challenging times.

The legal profession’s ethical rules do not contain exceptions for pandemics."

Ignorance Is Strength; New York Times, February 13, 2017

Paul Krugman, New York Times; 

Ignorance Is Strength

"Competent lawyers might tell you that your Muslim ban is unconstitutional; competent scientists that climate change is real; competent economists that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves; competent voting experts that there weren’t millions of illegal ballots; competent diplomats that the Iran deal makes sense, and Putin is not your friend. So competence must be excluded.

At this point, someone is bound to say, “If they’re so dumb, how come they won?” Part of the answer is that disdain for experts — sorry, “so-called” experts — resonates with an important part of the electorate. Bigotry wasn’t the only dark force at work in the election; so was anti-intellectualism, hostility toward “elites” who claim that opinions should be based on careful study and thought."

I’ve always voted Republican. Until now.; Washington Post, 8/17/16

Daniel Akerson, Washington Post; I’ve always voted Republican. Until now. :

"And I have always voted for Republicans for president. Not this year.

The compelling rationale behind this decision: leadership. A good leader must demonstrate such qualities as competence, integrity, empathy, character and temperament. Hillary Clinton has these essential qualities. Donald Trump does not.

Trump simply lacks the competence to serve as president of the United States...

Long ago, I learned an old Navy saying from a good friend and now-retired admiral: “Ship, shipmate, self.” This motto set the priorities for my life during my service. The civilian equivalent would be “country, fellow citizen, self.” As individuals and as a nation, we must aspire to serve the greater good. We must exhibit the empathy that places the greater good of the nation and its people above individual self-interest.

Unfortunately, Trump has appealed to the lowest common denominators in our society: prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance...

What kind of person equates the sacrifice of the loss of a child to that of creating jobs or making money?"