#TechEthics
"It is not only its use, but #technology itself that already constitutes domination (over nature and over people), a domination that is methodical, scientific, calculated and calculating. It is not only after the fact, and from outside, that certain ends and interests specific to domination are imposed on technology - these ends and interests are already part of the constitution of the technical apparatus itself. From the outset, technology is an entire socio-historical project."
#Quote from Herbert Marcuse, taken from his #book #Industrialisation and #Capitalism, 1964.
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#progress #governance #technocriticism #ethics #engineering #science #quotes #AIEthics #digitalization #tech #techEthics @ethics
It's a nice #techEthics topic because it exhibits one of the quintessential patterns:
(1) A new technology (#leafBlowers) is adopted with the promise to improve something (help make our outdoor spaces pleasant).
(2) Society adapts around the tech (careless landscaping planning becomes viable).
(3) We now depend on the tech (cleaning by blowing).
(4) But we've lost track of our original values (pleasant spaces).
(5) We're worse off than before (the outdoors are unpleasant for humans).
Leaf blowers would be an appropriate subject for a #techEthics case study.
Today's example: My apartment complex just put down new mulch. It's right next to the sidewalk, with no barrier between the mulch and the sidewalk. Predictably, it spills over -- which can be totally fine because now they're out there with #leafBlowers pushing it back in place.
The result is that landscaping (for enhancing quality of life?) yields a Saturday afternoon dominated by the sounds of angry machines.
Today: Dive deep into the intersection of tech & ethics at the TexNE - Tech Ethics eXchange NorthEast event. Learn, discuss, network, and shape the future of technology in ethical ways. For details: https://embeddedethics.seas.harvard.edu/TexNE-Tech-Ethics-eXchange-NorthEast #TexNE #TechEthics #Harvard
Uh, yeah.
"Execs see risks of operating without ethical tech standards | Deloitte"
https://venturebeat.com/games/execs-see-risks-of-operating-without-ethical-tech-standards-deloitte/ #ethics #techethics
Anyway, here's Sam Altman testifying to the Senate Judiciary committee: https://www.c-span.org/video/?528117-1/openai-ceo-testifies-artificial-intelligence
Ever wondered about the morality of #Google vs. large language models (#LLMs) like #GPT4? 🤔 Let's explore key questions to ask yourself! 🧐 #TechEthics #AI
What platforms do you use most often and are you willing to change to better alternatives? Reply...
More on: https://vero.co/seb_tmg/DF-rp2L3w7dMJNbRH66cqMDJ
#socialmedia #mentalhealth #wellness #privacy #safety #digitalwellness #digitaldetox #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #privacymatters #onlinesafety #dataprivacy #ethicaltech #ethicaltechmovement #digitalethics #techforgood #digitalwellnesscollective #techethics #mentalwellness #wellnessjourney #TMGcommunity
The irony detectors at this newsletter are malfunctioning.
In a story about Hinton leaving Google:
"There are only so many tech ethicists, privacy, security, and social impact watchdogs. The best harm reduction approach is to have those resources focused on the most impactful bad outcomes. Google and Microsoft (less so, Twitter) have teams dedicated to safeguarding launches and watching how the landings are going. They’ve got some coverage! It's not perfect! But bad actors have far less safety coverage right now. Am I suggesting Microsoft, Google, and other big corporations are all good? No. But there are far worse actors out there with the opposite of ‘privacy by design’ and ‘do not hoard/do no harm’ principles."
Literally the next paragraph of the newsletter:
"FTC Takes a Veiled Warning Shot at Microsoft
The FTC Business blog is turning into one of the juiciest tech reads these days. Michael Atleson took a warning shot at Microsoft, which laid off its ethics and society team in the first quarter of 2023, roughly the same time as it released Sydney, its ChatGPT-fueled bot that has already been retired after trying to convince New York Times reporter Kevin Roose he wasn’t in love with his wife."
It seems there's an acceleration of people working in #tech speaking out or resigning over lack of serious #ethics work while developing #AI (#Hinton). Now #chatGPT linked to #MRI successfully reads thoughts. While the study concludes: "subject cooperation is required both to train and to apply the decoder", we know the pace of #technology means this won't be an obstacle for long. Then what? Is saving 1 person with cerebral injury worth enslaving 1 million? #techethics https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/brain-scan-ai-chatgpt-thoughts-b2330628.html
Didn't Microsoft get in trouble with this between IE and Netscape? I'm getting some serious deja vu. #antitrust #techethics
https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-windows-google-chrome-feature-broken-edge-1850392901
No expert here but this seems like a problem:
LLMs “are also prone to inventing facts and reasoning incorrectly. Researchers do not yet understand how these models generate language …”
They don’t actually “reason” though so that’s a bit off.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/upshot/gpt-from-scratch.html
Researchers and healthcare professionals, in a study funded by UCSD/NIH, tested the empathy of conversations with chatbots vs. doctors. Nearly 200 Redditors participated. And...the chatbots were rated significantly higher.
Unlike other experiments, this was HIPPA-compliant, coordinated and run by seemingly trusted organizations, and handled with some level of conscientiousness.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2804309
#chatbot #chatbots #chatGPT #AIethics #TechEthics #healthcare
What role do you think technology should play in shaping our future? How can we ensure it's used responsibly and ethically for the benefit of all? #TechEthics #ResponsibleTechnology #FutureofTech
Registration is open for the Inaugural Conference of Tech Ethics Exchange NorthEast, a collaboration between Embedded EthiCS at Harvard, Social & Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT, and the Ethics Institute at Northeastern.
Keynote addresses by Helen Nissenbaum, Anita Allen, and @cfiesler
The conference will be livestreamed on Zoom, but not recorded. Please register at the link below.
@philosophy @facct #philosophy #TechEthics #AIethics #conference #ethics
Are you concerned about the potential risks of Generative AI? Check out our white paper for strategies to mitigate these risks. #AIrisks #AIresponsibility #techethics
The AI arms race highlights the urgent need for responsible innovation
#Technology #Tech #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #OpenAI #Ethics #Innovation #Microsoft #Chatbots #BigTech #ChatGPT #GPT4 #TechEthics #GenerativeAI #ArtificialIntelligenceEthics
https://the-14.com/the-ai-arms-race-highlights-the-urgent-need-for-responsible-innovation/
Stories like this are coming out while major corporations (like Microsoft) are dismantling their 'AI ethics' teams. Here, a child was removed from their parents after a hospital stay - the county uses am AI algorithm to determine risk factors. Powerful technologies provide opportunities as well as serious consequences for society...
And you fucking wonder why I despise Meta/Facebook and Google so much...
They're handing data over to police to help them prosecute people who seek or perform abortions.
And online pharmacies that sell abortion pills are sharing sensitive user information with 3rd-party sites like Google.
#TechEthics #TechForGood #Google #Meta #Facebook #FuckGoogle #FuckMeta #FuckFacebook #AbortionRights #ReproRights
For the full description of what happened and the clear refusal of #Tmobile to treat PII as critical customer data, see the link here. The breach started in Nov 2022 and was not discovered until Jan 2023: https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/customer-information-2023
It’s super disingenuous to lean into messaging like “a single API”. It doesn’t matter how big the hole was. What matters is the impact. And what is “a number”? Are we going to have to go to class action again to get more details? Who wants in? #uxdesign #techethics
So why are we not talking more about YET ANOTHER T-MOBILE SECURITY BREACH? I’m tired of companies pretending that as long as credit card info isn’t stolen it’s not an identity theft issue. DOB, address, and phone number are ABSOLUTELY SENSITIVE DATA and this is an insufficient response.
Furthermore, T-Mobile KNOWS folks aren’t proactively logging into their accounts every month. If I hadn’t been doing my taxes I might not have caught this. 😡 #technology #techethics
‟It just got easier for content platforms to use more ethical recommender algorithms” https://venturebeat.com/ai/it-just-got-easier-for-content-platforms-to-use-more-ethical-recommender-algorithms/ #techethics
Want to help develop #TechEthics in #HealthTech? I'm investigating informed consent in #telehealth - and I need your help!
👀 I need anonymous #study participants who've interacted with a GP to try a #prototype e-Consultation, and then answer a few questions about it.
🕐 Takes about 15 mins - all one session online, no talking to anyone!
⚠️ The study contains references to mental health.
:boostRequest: Please do boost and share the study with others! #TechForGood
🔗 https://southampton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4JaPbrls8PNDIJE?Q_CHL=social&Q_SocialSource=mastodon
#Uber stinks. Don't be like Uber.
https://restofworld.org/2023/newsletter-latin-america-uber-chile/
@aral The license¹ deployed by The Movement Cooperative² in their Parsons library³ — a #python ETL interface to a variety of utilities and tools used by progressive political orgs — includes such ethics clauses. It's derived from the Apache 2.0 license, which allows for mandatory redistribution of "NOTICE" text and "additional or different license terms and conditions for use".⁴ #TechEthics
¹ https://github.com/move-coop/parsons/blob/main/LICENSE.md
² https://movementcooperative.org
³ https://github.com/move-coop/parsons
⁴ https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
This is a stunning read, about how tech reducing our attention spans has also impacted our morality.
Be sure to slow down and read it - not just skim. (I started skimming, and had to force myself to stop.)
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22585287/technology-smartphones-gmail-attention-morality
#TechEthics #AttentionEconomy #PersuasiveTech #HumaneTech #MaliciousDesign #STS #ScienceTechnologySociety
"It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators," Getty Images wrote in a press statement released Tuesday.
Good interview with someone in a questionable line of work: CEO of a data brokerage company.
https://gizmodo.com/acxiom-ceo-chad-engelgau-data-broker-interview-privacy-1849977330
This will certainly not be the last kind of #legal action we'll see in response to #AI gen services....
"...we’ve filed a class-action lawsuit against Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney for their use of Stable Diffusion, a 21st-century collage tool that remixes the copyrighted works of millions of artists whose work was used as training data."
Whatever you think of the Stable Diffusion litigation,¹ it's pretty nice that they linked to a bunch of #MachineLearning and #DataScience tutorials and arXiv papers and anyway I've saved those to my Instapaper and I can't help but see a bit of irony in that.
Reminder: we are accepting submissions of extended abstracts for presentations at the Inaugural Conference of the Technology Ethics eXchange of the NorthEast (teχnē). This conference will take place at Harvard in May. Deadline is Feb 3.
Also announcing our keynote speakers! We will have talks from Helen Nissenbaum, Casey Fiesler @cfiesler, and Anita Allen!
More information:
https://philevents.org/event/show/105209
@philosophy @facct
#philosophy #TechEthics #AIethics #ResponsibleComputing #CFP #conference
The ethics of deploying generative AI models onto political messaging is now an interview discussion topic for joining my team.
#TechEthics #aiEthics #PoliticalTech
In my AI & Machine Learning course, I have each student choose and read a book about the social context of AI. Here's the current list of options:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IfAQx8gbiDUQaQFDGcW0o353BKtizoR3N4Jp7zy1MkQ/edit?usp=sharing
I'd be interested in your suggestions, with the following constraints:
1) It has to be nonfiction.
2) It must be no more than ten years old.*
Thanks!
#ai #ml #MachineLearning #ethics #TechEthics #bias #privacy #justice #equality #AlignmentProblem
*Every time I open this to suggestions, someone comes out of the woodwork to suggest that students read some Really Important book that was written in 1974. That may very well be, but they should do it in a course in philosophy or the history of technology, not this one. The world has changed too much.
#AI generators are becoming a hot topic in professional #architecture and #design spaces - as a digital strategist in the industry, I thought it important to perform a review of a few pragmatic concerns - including terms of service, copyright, and training data - that may unknowingly impact professional use.
Here is my blog on the subject: https://provingground.io/2023/01/10/a-splash-of-cold-water-considering-ai-terms-of-service-training-data-and-copyright/
I'm not allowed to vote in my own poll but my Computer Science degree included a #TechEthics class requirement. FWIW I'm [slightly] skeptical of the recurrent claim that "if we made #STEM majors study more humanities we wouldn't have all these problems!" On an individual level, though, I loved my Tech Ethics class, and my university mandated something like 10% of our course credits comprise of social sciences, arts, histories, and communication.
Did you study a #STEM major and did your university require an #Ethics class? #TechEthics
Anyway, my favorite article this week is @maggie's fascinating post exploring the idea of a Reverse Turing Test. "Our new challenge as little snowflake humans will be to prove we aren't language models."¹ #aiEthics #TechEthics
Do companies have an ethical obligation to disclose if they are using machine-generated content? What if a human curates or edits the content? Does the type of content change the need for disclosure?
A few thoughts for those operating in the AI content space:
✅ Demonstrate how the underlying source data was collected and implemented into AI training models.
✅ Explain what AI algorithms are being implemented on your backends and conformity with any required licensing.
✅ Alert users of the use of any copyrighted works used to support AI training (with proof of consent)
✅ Explain how user inputs and data are used to further train and refine the AI models.
✅ More...?
New year, new instance, similar intro: I'm a #philosopher mostly working in #techethics and #AIEthics in particular. Much of my previous work was on issues on moral status, welfare, and evolutionary biology. I lead AI and data ethics initiatives at Northeastern's Ethics Institute. You can find me at johnbasl.net.
Outside of philosophy, I collect hobbies and obsess over coffee.
I've been thinking about what will happen when #MachineLearning models start meme'ing each other.¹ @maggie has a fascinating article exploring the looming need for a Reverse Turing Test. "Our new challenge as little snowflake humans will be to prove we aren't language models."² #aiEthics #TechEthics
¹ https://mastodon.social/@MattHodges/109461990838125182
² https://maggieappleton.com/ai-dark-forest
It's 2023 -- Please don't use an overlay if you care about web accessibility, disability inclusion, and a digital world that works for everyone. And please don't call me a "role model" and write about me on your website if you are using an overlay --like a company called Accessibility Checker did. Instead - read the Overlay Fact Sheet and spread the word. https://overlayfactsheet.com/ Happy New Year - let's get accessibility right in 2023!! #a11y #disability #TechEthics
Technology can often be described as a force-multiplier. In the old days, you could be banned from the local bar if they didn't like you. Now, you can be auto-banned from large swaths of commercial venues if someone in the organization doesn't like your employer. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/face-recognition-tech-gets-girl-scout-mom-booted-from-rockettes-show-due-to-her-employer/4004677/
#technology #security #FacialRecognition #ban #TechEthics
Today I said goodbye to Twitter (at least until things... doubtful... improve), and I think #TwitterMigration will increase, so another introduction!
I'm an information science professor who researches #techethics #aiethics #onlinecommunities #hci #cseducation and #fandom (also, at least once, all of those things at the same time!)
I also do a lot of science communication (and occasional silliness) on #TikTok (@professorcasey) and my #YouTube (CaseyFieslerPhD) is full of #gradschool advice!
GaTech Digital Media #PhD apps are due Dec 15! I'm looking for a student interested in studying how to create environments & infrastructures to help people to do the work of #TechEthics, using qualitative & design methods.
I usually approach these from a mix of perspectives from #HCI, #STS, #Design, #CriticalDesign, #CriticalTechnicalPractice
Program info: https://dm.lmc.gatech.edu/admissions/prospective-students/ph-d-applicants/
And some of my current research areas: https://richmondywong.com/index.php?page=research
@yatil we need an #A11y ethics alert hashtag: #A11yEthicsAlert? Today I learned about this— diverting attention from the real https://overlayfactsheet.com/ AND @shilpi alerted us that a company ripped off the content from Barrier Break to set up a so-called accessibility company!! #TechEthics
Intro post time (again)!
Hi! I'm Smitha. I'm currently in #Pittsburgh, PA.
Professionally, I'm a #UX/user experience designer/researcher/strategist, looking for a new job (my last role was in #CivicTech). I care about #TechEthics + #TechForGood.
Personally, I play #violin + #viola (+ sing for fun), study #Japanese, and geek out over #geology and #aviation. I'm a #JETProgram alumna (#Tokushima 2005-2007) and involved with our local #JETAA chapter.
Antiracist. Antifascist. Black Lives Matter.
Hi 🐘! I'm new here so I figured I'd post an #introduction.
I don't post on social media all that often, but here are some things I love to talk about:
🎲 #boardgames (love Wingspan, Everdell, and Root 😍)
🎮 #jrpgs
🖥️#databias and #techethics
📷 #photography
Also really into #movies and used to use the bird app to keep up to date with what's going on in the film festival circuit.
my partner and i were talking about the #Democrats winning the #MidtermElections and I noted that bots for scraping IG were getting banned for tighter security for the elections. Maybe the same applied for Facebook.
to which my partner replied: SANA ALL ELECTIONS. Pilipinas natalo (wish that were true for all elections, #Philippines already lost).
An introduction:
I'm a PhD Candidate in #STS and #Communication at UCSD. My dissertation theorizes biobanking as the epistemic infrastructure of contemporary #genomics, looking at case studies in autism biobanking, microbiomics, and tissue expression research.
I'm also involved in #CriticalDataStudies: I run a working group at UCSD, and am a new assistant editor for Big Data + Society
You can also find me misunderstanding common topics in #philbio, #techethics, and #cscw
👋 Hi, good morning! I realized I never did a proper #introduction post!
My “brand” Over There has largely been #PoliticalTech. I post about US #Elections 🇺🇸 — I suspect that firehose will be a lot smaller On Here — and I work to elect #Democrats 💪 I like to find people who are experts + community members in #CivicTech 🧑🔧 #DataViz 📊 #TechEthics 🤔 #AIethics 🤖 #OpenData 💽 #ElectionTwitter 🗳️ #ElectionMastodon 🎺 #GovTech 🏛️ #CivicDesign 🎨 #a11y 🤝 #TechForGood 🖤 I’ll occasionally geek out about #code 🧑💻
#AIethics reading chat!
Let's see if we can run a 24-hr window chat around a #TechEthics #ResponsibleAI paper.
I gathered three suggestions from @VCalambur @baxterkb and old me @BecJ@mastodon.social
I will open a poll for 3 days (close Tuesday) to choose paper.
Next Sunday 13th Nov for a 24hr window (to incl all timezones) let's discuss!
Choices:
1) https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.04737
2) https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.12761
3) https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.11344v1
This should also be a good way for the AI ethics diaspora to find each other!