Kalev Leetaru, Forbes; Gatekeeping Is Not The Same As Censorship
"With each new effort by social media companies to reign in the deluge of
digital falsehoods, accusations pour forth that such efforts represent
censorship. In reality, the two represent very different concepts, with
censorship referring to the repression of ideas in alignment to
political, social or moral views, while gatekeeping in its broadest
sense refers to efforts to maintain the quality of information published
in a given venue. A censor prohibits discussion of topics with which
they disagree. A gatekeeper is viewpoint-neutral, ensuring only that the
information has been thoroughly vetted and verified...
In the end, both social platforms and society at large must recognize
the clear distinction between the dangers of censorship and the benefits
of gatekeeping."
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, explored in the "Ethics of Data, Information, and Emerging Technologies" and "Intellectual Property and Open Movements" graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. -- Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Friday, October 4, 2019
Gatekeeping Is Not The Same As Censorship; Forbes, August 22, 2019
The Authoritarian’s Worst Fear? A Book; The New York Times, October 3, 2019
Duncan White, The New York Times; The Authoritarian’s Worst Fear? A Book
""Regimes are expending so much energy attacking books because their supposed limitations have begun to look like strengths: With online surveillance, digital reading carries with it great risks and semi-permanent footprints; a physical book, however, cannot monitor what you are reading and when, cannot track which words you mark or highlight, does not secretly scan your face, and cannot know when you are sharing it with others."
""Regimes are expending so much energy attacking books because their supposed limitations have begun to look like strengths: With online surveillance, digital reading carries with it great risks and semi-permanent footprints; a physical book, however, cannot monitor what you are reading and when, cannot track which words you mark or highlight, does not secretly scan your face, and cannot know when you are sharing it with others."
Thursday, October 3, 2019
E.U.’s Top Court Rules Against Facebook in Global Takedown Case; The New York Times, October 3, 2019
Adam Satariano, The New York Times; E.U.’s Top Court Rules Against Facebook in Global Takedown Case
"The case has been closely watched
because of its potential ripple effects for regulating internet
content. The enforcement of defamation, libel and privacy laws varies
from country to country, with language and behavior that is allowed in
one nation prohibited in another. The court’s decision highlights the
difficulty of creating uniform standards to govern an inherently
borderless web and then enforcing them.
Facebook
and other critics have warned that letting a single nation force an
internet platform to delete material elsewhere would hurt free
expression...
Last week, the European Court of Justice limited the reach of the European privacy law known as the “right to be forgotten,”
which allows European citizens to demand Google remove links to
sensitive personal data from search results. The court said Google could
not be ordered to remove links to websites globally, except in certain
circumstances when weighed against the rights to free expression and the
public’s right to information."
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Congress and Trump Agreed They Want a National Privacy Law. It Is Nowhere in Sight.; The New York Times, October 1, 2019
David McCabe, The New York Times;
"But after months of talks, a national privacy
law is nowhere in sight...
The struggle to regulate consumer data shows how
lawmakers have largely been unable to turn rage at Silicon Valley’s practices
into concrete action...
But the fervor to crack down on Silicon Valley has
produced only a single new law, a bill to prevent sex trafficking online...
The
United States has some laws that protect consumers’ privacy, like medical
information collected by a doctor. But Congress has never set an overarching
national standard for how most companies gather and use data. Regulators in
Europe, in contrast, put strict new privacy rules into effect last year.
Many tech
companies built lucrative businesses off their users’ personal information,
often by offering a “free” product in return.”
The Last Hope for Net Neutrality; Slate, October 1, 2019
April Glaser, Slate; The Last Hope for Net Neutrality
A federal appeals court upheld the FCC’s repeal of the open-internet rules. But it allowed for states to save them.
"It’s confirmed: Net neutrality is legally dead. On Tuesday morning, a federal appeals court reaffirmed the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules that prohibited internet providers from blocking, slowing down, or speeding up access to websites. In a 200-page decision, the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who in 2017 vowed to “fire up a weed whacker” and destroy the regulations, which had only been on the books for about two years at the time.
While it’s been legal for internet providers to block access to websites since June 2018, when the FCC’s net neutrality repeal hit the books, advocates and website owners who depend on unfettered consumer access to the web were hopeful that the court would invalidate the repeal. Now, internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T can do whatever they want with their customers’ connections and web access as long as they state that they reserve the right to do so in their terms of service. That doesn’t mean the internet is going to change tomorrow, or that Comcast will start throttling with abandon anytime soon. But by allowing telecom companies to sell faster speeds to the websites that can afford it, the deregulation threatens the ideal of the open web—a level playing field that allows anyone to build a website that can reach anyone.
There is a significant silver lining in Tuesday’s ruling, however: The court struck down the part of the FCC’s 2017 rules that attempted to preempt state net neutrality rules. That reaffirms legislation and executive orders across the country that seek to preserve the pre-2017 status quo in which companies could not mess with websites’ and customers’ access to the internet. Nine states—Hawaii, Montana, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Rhode Island, California, Montana, and Vermont—have passed their own net neutrality rules. Another 27 states have seen legislation proposed to protect net neutrality. More than 100 mayors of cities across the country likewise have pledged not to sign contracts with internet providers that violate net-neutrality principles."
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Roboethics: The Human Ethics Applied to Robots; Interesting Engineering, September 22, 2019
Susan Fourtané , Interesting Engineering; Roboethics: The Human Ethics Applied to Robots
Who or what is going to be held responsible when or if an autonomous system malfunctions or harms humans?
"On ethics and roboethics
Ethics is the branch of philosophy which studies human conduct, moral assessments, the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice. The concept of roboethics brings up a fundamental ethical reflection that is related to particular issues and moral dilemmas generated by the development of robotic applications.
Roboethics --also called machine ethics-- deals with the code of conduct that robotic designer engineers must implement in the Artificial Intelligence of a robot. Through this kind of artificial ethics, roboticists must guarantee that autonomous systems are going to be able to exhibit ethically acceptable behavior in situations where robots or any other autonomous systems such as autonomous vehicles interact with humans.
Ethical issues are going to continue to be on the rise as long as more advanced robotics come into the picture. In The Ethical Landscape of Robotics (PDF) by Pawel Lichocki et al., published by IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, the researchers list various ethical issues emerging in two sets of robotic applications: Service robots and lethal robots."
Who or what is going to be held responsible when or if an autonomous system malfunctions or harms humans?
"On ethics and roboethics
Ethics is the branch of philosophy which studies human conduct, moral assessments, the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice. The concept of roboethics brings up a fundamental ethical reflection that is related to particular issues and moral dilemmas generated by the development of robotic applications.
Roboethics --also called machine ethics-- deals with the code of conduct that robotic designer engineers must implement in the Artificial Intelligence of a robot. Through this kind of artificial ethics, roboticists must guarantee that autonomous systems are going to be able to exhibit ethically acceptable behavior in situations where robots or any other autonomous systems such as autonomous vehicles interact with humans.
Ethical issues are going to continue to be on the rise as long as more advanced robotics come into the picture. In The Ethical Landscape of Robotics (PDF) by Pawel Lichocki et al., published by IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, the researchers list various ethical issues emerging in two sets of robotic applications: Service robots and lethal robots."
Metro’s ethics changes are welcome. But they’re only a start.; The Washington Post, September 29, 2019
Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Metro’s ethics changes are welcome. But they’re only a start.
"THE
REPUTATION of former Metro chairman Jack Evans wasn’t the only thing
that was tarnished amid the swirl of allegations that he used his public
office to advance his private interests. Public trust in the Metro
board was also badly shaken after it completely botched its handling of
the allegations. It’s encouraging, then, that the board has taken a
first step in its own rehabilitation by amending its code of ethics.
A Teenager Killed Himself After Being Outed as Bisexual. His Family Wants Justice.; The New York Times, September 30, 2019
Emily S. Rueb, The New York Times;
"Channing’s death underscores the challenges of combating cyberbullying, which has proliferated in recent years. According to a report last year from the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of teenagers said they had been bullied or harassed online — and many of them thought teachers, social media companies and politicians were failing to help.
In schools across the country, L.G.B.T. students are more likely to be bullied and experience depression than their straight peers, studies have found."
A Teenager Killed Himself After Being Outed as Bisexual. His Family Wants Justice.
The
family and classmates of Channing Smith, a high school junior, said his
death was a result of “social media bullying” and called for a thorough
investigation.
"Channing’s death underscores the challenges of combating cyberbullying, which has proliferated in recent years. According to a report last year from the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of teenagers said they had been bullied or harassed online — and many of them thought teachers, social media companies and politicians were failing to help.
In schools across the country, L.G.B.T. students are more likely to be bullied and experience depression than their straight peers, studies have found."
Monday, September 30, 2019
For Vulnerable Populations, the Thorny Ethics of Genetic Data Collection; Undark, September 30, 2019
Adrian Pecotic, Undark; For Vulnerable Populations, the Thorny Ethics of Genetic Data Collection
"Research to capture these snapshots, called genome-wide association studies, can only draw conclusions about the data that’s been collected. Without studies that look at each underrepresented population, genetic tests and therapies can’t be tailored to everyone. Still, projects intended as correctives, like All of Us and the International HapMap Project, face an ethical conundrum: Collecting that data could exploit the very people the programs intend to help."
"Research to capture these snapshots, called genome-wide association studies, can only draw conclusions about the data that’s been collected. Without studies that look at each underrepresented population, genetic tests and therapies can’t be tailored to everyone. Still, projects intended as correctives, like All of Us and the International HapMap Project, face an ethical conundrum: Collecting that data could exploit the very people the programs intend to help."
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
‘Nerd,’ ‘Nonsmoker,’ ‘Wrongdoer’: How Might A.I. Label You?; The New York Times, September 20, 2019
Cade Metz, The New York Times; ‘Nerd,’ ‘Nonsmoker,’ ‘Wrongdoer’: How Might A.I. Label You?
ImageNet
Roulette, a digital art project and viral selfie app, exposes how
biases have crept into the artificial-intelligence technologies changing
our lives.
"But for Mr. Paglen, a larger issue looms. The fundamental truth is that
A.I. learns from humans — and humans are biased creatures. “The way we
classify images is a product of our worldview,” he said. “Any kind of
classification system is always going to reflect the values of the
person doing the classifying.”"
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
For authoritarians, stifling the arts is of a piece with demonising minorities; The Guardian, September 22, 2019
Elif Shafak, The Guardian; For authoritarians, stifling the arts is of a piece with demonising minorities
"Art and literature are – and will be increasingly – at the centre of the new culture wars. What might seem like sporadic, disconnected incidents here and there are in truth manifestations of a similar mindset, a growing wave of bigotry...
In country after country, we have seen enough examples to understand that a divisive and aggressive rhetoric against LGBT and women’s rights is intrinsic to the rise of populist nationalism and populist authoritarianism.
Top-down censorship and the control of art and literature are inseparable components of the hatred and discrimination against sexual minorities, as well as against immigrants and intellectuals. Artists and writers cannot afford not to know what is happening to colleagues in other parts of the world. We cannot afford to be silent."
"Art and literature are – and will be increasingly – at the centre of the new culture wars. What might seem like sporadic, disconnected incidents here and there are in truth manifestations of a similar mindset, a growing wave of bigotry...
In country after country, we have seen enough examples to understand that a divisive and aggressive rhetoric against LGBT and women’s rights is intrinsic to the rise of populist nationalism and populist authoritarianism.
Top-down censorship and the control of art and literature are inseparable components of the hatred and discrimination against sexual minorities, as well as against immigrants and intellectuals. Artists and writers cannot afford not to know what is happening to colleagues in other parts of the world. We cannot afford to be silent."
Kona Stories Book Store to Celebrate Banned Book Week; Big Island Now, September 21, 2019
Big Island Now; Kona Stories Book Store to Celebrate Banned Book Week
"At its heart, Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to access ideas, a fundamental right that belongs to everyone and over which no one person or small group of people should hold sway.
Banned Books Week is a celebration of books, comics, plays, art, journalism and much more.
At Kona Stories Book Store, books have been wrapped in paper bags to disguise the title. Books are decorated with red “I read banned books” stickers and a brief description of why they are on the list.
Customers are encouraged to buy the books without knowing the titles."
"At its heart, Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to access ideas, a fundamental right that belongs to everyone and over which no one person or small group of people should hold sway.
Banned Books Week is a celebration of books, comics, plays, art, journalism and much more.
At Kona Stories Book Store, books have been wrapped in paper bags to disguise the title. Books are decorated with red “I read banned books” stickers and a brief description of why they are on the list.
Customers are encouraged to buy the books without knowing the titles."
Harry Potter and the Poorly-Read Exorcists; The New York Times, September 23, 2019
Margaret Renkl, The New York Times; Harry Potter and the Poorly-Read Exorcists
"Little surprise, then, that two decades
of efforts to protect children from imaginary spells have made no
difference at all. Harry Potter titles have sold more the 500 million copies worldwide.
As it happens, this is Banned Books Week
in the United States, so the timing of Father Rehill’s ban is richly
ironic, but Harry and his friends are no longer the chief targets of
book-banning adults, presumably because most adults are now aware that
attempting to keep children from reading Harry Potter is about as
effective as banning air."
Monday, September 23, 2019
M.I.T. Media Lab, Already Rattled by the Epstein Scandal, Has a New Worry; The New York Times, September 22, 2019
Noam Cohen, The New York Times; M.I.T. Media Lab, Already Rattled by the Epstein Scandal, Has a New Worry
"Four researchers who worked on OpenAg said in interviews with The New York Times that Mr. Harper had made exaggerated or false claims about the project to its corporate sponsors, a group that included the retail giant Target, as well as in interviews with the news media."
"Four researchers who worked on OpenAg said in interviews with The New York Times that Mr. Harper had made exaggerated or false claims about the project to its corporate sponsors, a group that included the retail giant Target, as well as in interviews with the news media."
Manifesto Promotes ‘Ethics, Equity, and Empathy’; STREETSBLOGUSA,September 20, 2019
Aaron Short, STREETSBLOGUSA;
Manifesto Promotes ‘Ethics, Equity, and Empathy’
A design firm publishes a new credo for engineers, policymakers, and planners.
"Maryland-based design firm is seeking to revolutionize the century-old credo that shapes how policymakers and engineers plan communities — in order to force planners to prioritize human beings over automobiles and think deeply about how their decisions affect road safety.
Toole Design, which has 17 offices in the United States and Canada, last week released a manifesto that seeks to substitute new concepts for the traditional “three Es” — education, enforcement, and engineering — that have guided transportation professionals as they have built the infrastructure of our towns and cities.
The new “three Es” that Toole proposes — “ethics, equity, and empathy” — replace the object- and rule-centered approach that dominates the discipline with a moral one centered on people."
Saturday, September 21, 2019
'The Personification Of Human Decency': Nina Totenberg Remembers Cokie Roberts; NPR, September 17, 2019
Nina Totenberg, NPR; 'The Personification Of Human Decency': Nina Totenberg Remembers Cokie Roberts
"To know Cokie was to see the personification of human decency. There is a reason she was asked to speak at so many funerals. People felt such a deep connection to her because she touched their lives. Casual friends would find Cokie visiting them in the hospital. People in terrible financial straits would find her bailing them out, hiring them for work that perhaps she did not need, but work that left them with their dignity...
On a larger scale, she was always the voice of people with less power, and the voice of what is right. I remember one day many years ago, when we were in negotiations with NPR management over a labor contract. Management didn't want to extend health care coverage to one group, and we were at an impasse.
Then Cokie, who was working on a piece of embroidery, looked up at the management team and said, "You know, the position you are taking isn't immoral, it is simply amoral." The room got very quiet, and soon the impasse was over."
"To know Cokie was to see the personification of human decency. There is a reason she was asked to speak at so many funerals. People felt such a deep connection to her because she touched their lives. Casual friends would find Cokie visiting them in the hospital. People in terrible financial straits would find her bailing them out, hiring them for work that perhaps she did not need, but work that left them with their dignity...
On a larger scale, she was always the voice of people with less power, and the voice of what is right. I remember one day many years ago, when we were in negotiations with NPR management over a labor contract. Management didn't want to extend health care coverage to one group, and we were at an impasse.
Then Cokie, who was working on a piece of embroidery, looked up at the management team and said, "You know, the position you are taking isn't immoral, it is simply amoral." The room got very quiet, and soon the impasse was over."
Banned Books Week Celebrates 'Freedom To Read'; WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR News Station, September 18, 2019
WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR News Station; Banned Books Week Celebrates 'Freedom To Read'
"Christy Bostardi is a member of Book Fairies of Pennsylvania, which hides books around the city for strangers to find and read. She says banning books also has educational implications.
"We read books for personal reasons... to explore the outside world and learn." Removing books from shelves, she says, prohibits us from being an informed society, but it can have an inverse effect, especially for children, who get excited by the idea of reading a banned book.
The ACLU is also partnering with CMU and the Carnegie Library system to celebrate the "freedom to read" at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland on Tuesday."
"Christy Bostardi is a member of Book Fairies of Pennsylvania, which hides books around the city for strangers to find and read. She says banning books also has educational implications.
"We read books for personal reasons... to explore the outside world and learn." Removing books from shelves, she says, prohibits us from being an informed society, but it can have an inverse effect, especially for children, who get excited by the idea of reading a banned book.
The ACLU is also partnering with CMU and the Carnegie Library system to celebrate the "freedom to read" at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland on Tuesday."
Public libraries across the country face a different type of censorship; Tennessean, September 20, 2019
Kent Oliver, Tennessean; Public libraries across the country face a different type of censorship
"Book censorship impedes access to literature and
information. For a public library such as Nashville Public Library,
unfettered, undiscriminating access to reading is the core of our work –
it is in our library DNA. Access is the key word. Librarians work to
ensure access to ideas, popular and unpopular, within financial
constraints.
The disturbing issue confronting us
for this year’s Banned Books Week, Sep. 22-28, is the restrictions
publishers are placing on public libraries making it more difficult to
buy e-books and e-audiobooks. In particular, libraries are concerned
about a new e-book embargo from Macmillan, one of the biggest book
publishers in the industry, set to launch Nov. 1.
Under
this new policy, libraries will be limited to purchasing (closer to
leasing, really) one copy of a new e-book for eight weeks after release,
when demand is at its peak."
Americans’ perceptions about unethical behavior shape how they think about people in powerful roles; Pew Research Center, September 19, 2019
Claire Gecewicz and Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center; Americans’ perceptions about unethical behavior shape how they think about people in powerful roles
"Americans have mixed views of the job performance of those who hold positions of power and responsibility in eight major U.S. groups and institutions. A key element in shaping these views is their sense of whether members of these groups act ethically and hold themselves accountable for their mistakes, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The groups studied included members of Congress, local elected officials, leaders of technology companies, journalists, religious leaders, police officers, principals at public K-12 schools and military leaders."
"Americans have mixed views of the job performance of those who hold positions of power and responsibility in eight major U.S. groups and institutions. A key element in shaping these views is their sense of whether members of these groups act ethically and hold themselves accountable for their mistakes, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The groups studied included members of Congress, local elected officials, leaders of technology companies, journalists, religious leaders, police officers, principals at public K-12 schools and military leaders."
Friday, September 20, 2019
People Are Looking At Your LinkedIn Profile. They Might Be Chinese Spies; NPR, September 19, 2019
Ryan Lucas, NPR; People Are Looking At Your LinkedIn Profile. They Might Be Chinese Spies
"Demers took over leadership of the National Security Division in February 2018 after being confirmed by the Senate. Since taking the helm, he has spent a considerable amount of time on China and what he calls its prolific espionage efforts against the United States.
They're vast in scale, he said, and they span the spectrum from traditional espionage targeting government secrets to economic espionage going after intellectual property and American trade secrets...
It's a play that has also been used to target folks in the business world and academia, where China is hungry for cutting-edge technology and trade secrets. For years, the Chinese intelligence services have hacked into U.S. companies and made off with intellectual property.
Now, U.S. officials say China's spies are increasingly turning to what is known as "nontraditional collectors" — students, researchers and business insiders — to scoop up secrets."
"Demers took over leadership of the National Security Division in February 2018 after being confirmed by the Senate. Since taking the helm, he has spent a considerable amount of time on China and what he calls its prolific espionage efforts against the United States.
They're vast in scale, he said, and they span the spectrum from traditional espionage targeting government secrets to economic espionage going after intellectual property and American trade secrets...
It's a play that has also been used to target folks in the business world and academia, where China is hungry for cutting-edge technology and trade secrets. For years, the Chinese intelligence services have hacked into U.S. companies and made off with intellectual property.
Now, U.S. officials say China's spies are increasingly turning to what is known as "nontraditional collectors" — students, researchers and business insiders — to scoop up secrets."
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Time to Build a National Data Broker Registry; The New York Times, September 13, 2019
Jordan Abbott, The New York Times; Time to Build a National Data Broker Registry
A federal clearing house would help separate the good and bad actors who deal in data.
"It’s time for a national data privacy law, one that gives consumers
meaningful rights — to know who has their data, how it is used and how
to opt out.
It’s in our country’s best interest to have a national standard that,
done thoughtfully, benefits both consumers and businesses by providing transparency, uniformity and certainty without deterring innovation and competition...
There is much work to do to ensure the
ethical use of information in our economy. With a concerted effort to
engage in mutual understanding, we can address consumer privacy on the
one hand, while supporting the inventive, valuable and responsible uses
of data on the other.
Jordan Abbott is the chief data ethics officer for Acxiom."
AI - ethics within data protections legal framework; Lexology, September 4, 2019
"Privacy and ethics: hand in hand
AI relies on huge volumes of data and often that data contains personal data. But processing such large volumes of data could be at odds with the legal framework contained in the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, which is based on ethical principles. As Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, stated: "Ethics is at the root of privacy and is the future of data protection".
Recent headlines draw out some of the main ethical and data protection challenges raised by AI. Interesting examples include the babysitter vetting app, Predictim, designed to create a risk rating based on a potential babysitter's social media and web presence (without his or her knowledge). China's social credit scoring system is another example of how significant decisions are being made automatically about people without any human input and without transparency, explanation or recourse."
UVA receives approval to form School of Data Science with $120M gift; WDBJ7, September 19, 2019
Taia White, WDBJ7; UVA receives approval to form School of Data Science with $120M gift
"Philip E. Bourne, Professor and Data Science Institute Director, was appointed dean of the School of Data Science by Provost Magill immediately after the vote conferred official status upon the school...
“We envision the new School of Data Science at UVA as a ‘school without walls,’” Bourne said. “In its very structure and foundation, we will build collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities through partnerships and physical spaces for shared research and education programs. The new school will combine a focus on research, education, and service to build bridges across academic, geographic, commercial and cultural boundaries using responsible, open data science.”
The school also will focus on ethics and the practice of responsible data science, building upon the Data Science Institute’s existing Center for Data Ethics and Justice.
“Data science offers incredible, revolutionary opportunities to understand and make an impact on our world and our future,” Bourne said. “Now it is more important than ever that everyone using those skills and tools – from students just beginning to learn statistics and programming, to leaders working at the cutting edge of the field – understands the importance of using data ethically and responsibly, and putting their skills to work to make a positive impact on society and our world.”"
"Philip E. Bourne, Professor and Data Science Institute Director, was appointed dean of the School of Data Science by Provost Magill immediately after the vote conferred official status upon the school...
“We envision the new School of Data Science at UVA as a ‘school without walls,’” Bourne said. “In its very structure and foundation, we will build collaborative and interdisciplinary opportunities through partnerships and physical spaces for shared research and education programs. The new school will combine a focus on research, education, and service to build bridges across academic, geographic, commercial and cultural boundaries using responsible, open data science.”
The school also will focus on ethics and the practice of responsible data science, building upon the Data Science Institute’s existing Center for Data Ethics and Justice.
“Data science offers incredible, revolutionary opportunities to understand and make an impact on our world and our future,” Bourne said. “Now it is more important than ever that everyone using those skills and tools – from students just beginning to learn statistics and programming, to leaders working at the cutting edge of the field – understands the importance of using data ethically and responsibly, and putting their skills to work to make a positive impact on society and our world.”"
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
University Launches Ethics-Forward Data Science Major; Washington Square News, NYU's Independent Student Newspaper, September 16, 2019
Akiva Thalheim, Washington Square News, NYU's Independent Student Newspaper; University Launches Ethics-Forward Data Science Major
"The new major seeks to specifically address and prevent these issues through a required course in the ethics of data science, [Center for Data Science Director Julia] Kempe explained. She added that the course was developed with the assistance of a National Science Foundation grant.
“We are hoping to educate young people to be data savvy and also data critical, because nowadays, everything is about data but often it’s done in a very uncritical way,” Kempe said. “We have to understand where the biases are [and] how to use data ethically — it’s something that we want to impart on every student, if we can.""
"The new major seeks to specifically address and prevent these issues through a required course in the ethics of data science, [Center for Data Science Director Julia] Kempe explained. She added that the course was developed with the assistance of a National Science Foundation grant.
“We are hoping to educate young people to be data savvy and also data critical, because nowadays, everything is about data but often it’s done in a very uncritical way,” Kempe said. “We have to understand where the biases are [and] how to use data ethically — it’s something that we want to impart on every student, if we can.""
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
There’s a reason we don’t know much about AI; Politico, September 16, 2019
Arthur Allen, Politico; There’s a reason we don’t know much about AI
"Though many university professors and tech-funded think tanks are
examining the ethical, social and legal implications of technologies
like Big Data and machine learning, “it’s definitely happening outside
the policy infrastructure,” said John Wilbanks, a philosopher and
technologist at the Sage Bionetworks research group.
Yet these technologies could have profound effects on our future, and they pose enormous questions for society...
As it happens, there is a good precedent for the federal government stepping up to examine the ethical and legal issues around an important new technology. Starting in 1990, the National Institutes of Health set aside 5 percent of the funding for its Human Genome Project for a program known as ELSI—which stood for the ethical, legal and social implications of genetics research.
The ELSI program, which started 30 years ago, “was a symbol that NIH thought the ethical issues were so important in genomics that they’d spend a lot of money on them,” says Isaac Kohane, chief of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Biomedical Informatics. “It gave other genetics researchers a heads-up—police your ethics, we care about them.”
ELSI’s premise was to have smart social scientists weigh the pros and cons of genetic technology before they emerged, instead of, “Oops, we let the genie out of the bottle,” said Larry Brody, director of Genomics and Society program at the National Human Genome Research Institute."
The U.S. government used to study new technologies to flag ethical or social problems. Not anymore.
Yet these technologies could have profound effects on our future, and they pose enormous questions for society...
As it happens, there is a good precedent for the federal government stepping up to examine the ethical and legal issues around an important new technology. Starting in 1990, the National Institutes of Health set aside 5 percent of the funding for its Human Genome Project for a program known as ELSI—which stood for the ethical, legal and social implications of genetics research.
The ELSI program, which started 30 years ago, “was a symbol that NIH thought the ethical issues were so important in genomics that they’d spend a lot of money on them,” says Isaac Kohane, chief of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Biomedical Informatics. “It gave other genetics researchers a heads-up—police your ethics, we care about them.”
ELSI’s premise was to have smart social scientists weigh the pros and cons of genetic technology before they emerged, instead of, “Oops, we let the genie out of the bottle,” said Larry Brody, director of Genomics and Society program at the National Human Genome Research Institute."
Real-Time Surveillance Will Test the British Tolerance for Cameras; The New York Times, September 15, 2019
Adam Satariano, The New York Times; Real-Time Surveillance Will Test the British Tolerance for Cameras
Facial
recognition technology is drawing scrutiny in a country more accustomed
to surveillance than any other Western democracy.
"“Technology is driving forward, and legislation and regulation follows ever so slowly behind,” said Tony Porter,
Britain’s surveillance camera commissioner, who oversees compliance
with the country’s surveillance camera code of practice. “It would be
wrong for me to suggest the balance is right.”
Britain’s
experience mirrors debates about the technology in the United States
and elsewhere in Europe. Critics say the technology is an intrusion of
privacy, akin to constant identification checks of an unsuspecting
public, and has questionable accuracy, particularly at identifying people who aren’t white men."
Steal This Book? There’s a Price; The New York Times, September 15, 2019
Richard Conniff, The New York Times; Steal This Book? There’s a Price
I have about 400 offers to buy illegal copies of my own work. Something is very wrong.
"Maybe, though, it’s too narrow to focus on the way our society has
discounted its authors. No doubt musicians, and local retailers, and
hometown newspapers, and schoolteachers, and factory workers all feel
discounted in much the same way. We have surrendered our lives to
technocrat billionaires who once upon a time set out to do no harm and
have instead ended up destroying the world as we knew it. Convenience
and the lowest possible price, or no price at all, have become our
defining values. We have severed ourselves from our communities and from
the mutual give-and-take that was once our ordinary daily life. Now we
sit alone in our rooms, restlessly scrolling for something free to read."
AI and ethics: The debate that needs to be had; ZDNet, September 16, 2019
Aimee Chanthadavong
, ZDNet; AI and ethics: The debate that needs to be had
"Building ethical AI with diversity
Part of the solution to help overcome these systemic biases that are built into existing AI systems, according to Lazar, is to have open conversations about ethics -- with input from diverse views in terms of culture, gender, age, and socio-economic background -- and how it could be applied to AI.
"What we need to do is figure out how to develop systems that incorporate democratic values and we need to start the discussion within Australian society about what we want those values to be," he said."
Like anything, frameworks and boundaries need to be set -- and artificial intelligence should be no different.
"Building ethical AI with diversity
Part of the solution to help overcome these systemic biases that are built into existing AI systems, according to Lazar, is to have open conversations about ethics -- with input from diverse views in terms of culture, gender, age, and socio-economic background -- and how it could be applied to AI.
"What we need to do is figure out how to develop systems that incorporate democratic values and we need to start the discussion within Australian society about what we want those values to be," he said."
TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S. audience; The Washington Post, September 15, 2019
Drew Harwell and Tony Romm, The Washington Post; TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S. audience
"TikTok’s surging popularity spotlights the tension between the Web’s global powers: the United States, where free speech and competing ideologies are held as (sometimes messy) societal bedrocks, and China, where political criticism is forbidden as troublemaking."
"TikTok’s surging popularity spotlights the tension between the Web’s global powers: the United States, where free speech and competing ideologies are held as (sometimes messy) societal bedrocks, and China, where political criticism is forbidden as troublemaking."
Artificial intelligence in medicine raises legal and ethical concerns; The Conversation, September 4, 2019
Sharona Hoffman
, The Conversation; Artificial intelligence in medicine raises legal and ethical concerns
"The use of artificial intelligence in medicine is generating great excitement and hope for treatment advances.
AI generally refers to computers’ ability to mimic human intelligence and to learn. For example, by using machine learning, scientists are working to develop algorithms that will help them make decisions about cancer treatment. They hope that computers will be able to analyze radiological images and discern which cancerous tumors will respond well to chemotherapy and which will not.
But AI in medicine also raises significant legal and ethical challenges. Several of these are concerns about privacy, discrimination, psychological harm and the physician-patient relationship. In a forthcoming article, I argue that policymakers should establish a number of safeguards around AI, much as they did when genetic testing became commonplace."
"The use of artificial intelligence in medicine is generating great excitement and hope for treatment advances.
AI generally refers to computers’ ability to mimic human intelligence and to learn. For example, by using machine learning, scientists are working to develop algorithms that will help them make decisions about cancer treatment. They hope that computers will be able to analyze radiological images and discern which cancerous tumors will respond well to chemotherapy and which will not.
But AI in medicine also raises significant legal and ethical challenges. Several of these are concerns about privacy, discrimination, psychological harm and the physician-patient relationship. In a forthcoming article, I argue that policymakers should establish a number of safeguards around AI, much as they did when genetic testing became commonplace."
Monday, September 16, 2019
Maths and tech specialists need Hippocratic oath, says academic; The Guardian, August 16, 2019
Ian Sample, The Guardian; Maths and tech specialists need Hippocratic oath, says academic
"“We need a Hippocratic oath in the same way it exists for medicine,” Fry said. “In medicine, you learn about ethics from day one. In mathematics, it’s a bolt-on at best. It has to be there from day one and at the forefront of your mind in every step you take.”...
The genetics testing firm 23andMe was a case in point, she said.
“We literally hand over our most private data, our DNA, but we’re not just consenting for ourselves, we are consenting for our children, and our children’s children. Maybe we don’t live in a world where people are genetically discriminated against now, but who’s to say in 100 years that we won’t? And we are are paying to add our DNA to that dataset.”"
"“We need a Hippocratic oath in the same way it exists for medicine,” Fry said. “In medicine, you learn about ethics from day one. In mathematics, it’s a bolt-on at best. It has to be there from day one and at the forefront of your mind in every step you take.”...
The genetics testing firm 23andMe was a case in point, she said.
“We literally hand over our most private data, our DNA, but we’re not just consenting for ourselves, we are consenting for our children, and our children’s children. Maybe we don’t live in a world where people are genetically discriminated against now, but who’s to say in 100 years that we won’t? And we are are paying to add our DNA to that dataset.”"
Sunday, September 15, 2019
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.”"
"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.”"
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