Category: Blog Posts

Portal says that privacy is “built into every layer.” Despite the company’s reassurances about privacy, users are backing away.

Originally published in The Engineering Ethics blog, August 6, 2018.  In a recent New York Times opinion piece, science journalist Melinda Wenner…  Read More

What are the potential consequences of mistrust, fear, or simple disinterest in technologies that have become an actual or perceived necessity to millions?

The aim of this special issue is to evaluate the social impact and social implications of new and emerging technologies on governance, politics, public administration, and policy-making, and to evaluate the future prospects of digital democracy, and its transformative potential for increasing public engagement, community empowerment, and social entrepreneurship.

We welcome proposals for papers, parallel panel and workshop sessions focused on the relationship between technology, policy and social issues ranging from the economic and ethical to the cultural and environmental.

How does your culture view the potential for AI?

Do you want to attract the best people? Give them a problem with a purpose. Give them room to work. Give them recognition for their successes — not just internally, but encouraging them to share these at conferences, or in relevant peer communities.

We are asking for AI rationale that can be used to improve operations, or attribute liability. This effort is doomed to failure, and may lead to greater problems.

One result of increased AI integration will be increased empathy for robots. This transformation has potential upsides and risks.

“Why would a Russian oil company want to target information on American voters?” Chris asks in the article. Cambridge Analytica claims to have 4000-5000 data points on 230,000,000 U.S. adults.

Skilling-up for an AI-powered world involves more than science, technology, engineering and math. As computers behave more like humans, the social sciences and humanities will become even more important. Languages, art, history, economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology and human development courses can teach critical, philosophical and ethics-based skills that will be instrumental in the development and management of AI solutions.

Prior to 2016 there was little press with occasional hype about artificial intelligence. Somewhere in the last two years we…  Read More

What year will we return to the Moon? When will we have our first colony there? What are the corresponding dates for Mars?

Some cultures and many corporations have relinquished non-financial objectives to the sacred bottom line. Yet there are values beyond profit that tend to dominate our satisfaction as humans. It would be nice if some of these could become the measure of corporate return-on-investment, or the benefits of a given country.

National security issues arise when IoT reporting reveals information about troop movements and locations.

I have an expectation that machine consciousness will emerge unexpected, unsought, and perhaps undetected.

In “Finding the Wonder Woman Within,” values like courage, wonder, equality, grace, and power are addressed, often in very powerful ways.

The accumulation of data points for every person on earth continues at an amazing rate, and from an amazing diversity…  Read More

Zuckerberg’s acknowledgement of the need to address issues related to election influence, “fake news,” and social media addiction is a significant step.

The ability to grow animal muscle from a few cells into meat for the kitchen is a significant technological advance. The book Clean Meat proposes that beef and other meat be lab-grown.