Category: Human Impacts

In June 2013 Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama signed a historic agreement to begin cooperation on cybersecurity. The mutual understanding developed through previous work in 2011 was to define critical terminology for a cyber conflict. I was part of the U.S. team that held the Russia-U.S. Bilateral discussions on cybersecurity. The aim was to build collaborative relationships between many nations in defining a common vocabulary so that mistakes would not be made because of misinterpretations of a certain word. It took us months just to agree on 20 terms

When an early-adopter buddy of mine stopped by recently in his brand-new electric Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, I was stunned at how impressed I was. For one thing, unlike other electric vehicles (EVs) I have seen up close (mostly Teslas), this one looked and felt like a real car: it had a real dashboard with real switches and knobs, a real brake pedal, and an overall design that did not look like something an eight-year-old doodled after seeing Blade Runner 2049. More importantly, it was by far the fastest vehicle I have ever driven, so much so that by the end of a quick spin I had an idiotic grin on my face I could not quite shake. It was, as Matthew Eisler reports in Age of Auto Electric, the “EV smile.”

Book review of The BBC: A Century on Air, by David Hendy

DCAI has the potential to revolutionize many industries and fields by enabling more efficient and effective decision-making based on insights extracted from data. Monitoring and evaluating the algorithm’s performance can help identify and mitigate biases over time, ensuring reliable and ethical results.

We urge that there be a federal mandate to include bionics in federal insurance programs and insurance companies regulated by Obamacare. As prostheses advance in sensory capabilities, insurance companies need to recognize prosthetic limbs as a part of the body susceptible to personal injury, not just as equipment, since they have haptic capabilities (i.e., the sense of touch) and can feel distress.

There have been many arguments made for why increasing diversity and improving the representation of women in this field is important such as workers shortage, estimated increase in countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) by including more women in this sector, creating software that better represents the needs of women overall—potentially addressing some of the existing biases in algorithms, and bringing about a general improvement in society.

Design for values is an umbrella term for approaches that pay systematic attention to social and moral values throughout the entire design process.

Donate to SSIT online at https://ieeefoundation.org/ieee_ssit

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming people’s access to and attitudes toward knowledge. It is an extremely powerful technology, but this transformation presents numerous social, environmental, political, and educational considerations.

What if education systems were doing more and thinking differently about preparing learners to thrive in the future? Join hosts Dr. Sean Leahy, and Professor Punya Mishra of Arizona State University for conversations on improving education and the futures of learning.

If we had a system in the United States where 50% of the time was dedicated to a single academic program for everyone, and the other 50% to social development, society would reap the benefits.

Dr. Guru Madhavan received the IEEE Norbert Wiener Award on Friday October 13, 2023, at the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), Villanova University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Co-design and development of technology with indigenous communities requires respect and close partnership. Here, we reflect on our experiences working with a Māori (indigenous New Zealand) community as Pākehā (non-Māori). In particular, we consider the importance of protection as an underlying principle.

Amid a global labor force crisis, we cannot turn a blind eye to technological solutions. However, we must approach them with caution and prudence to avoid exacerbating existing biases.

The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) lost one of its leading lights when Stephen H. “Steve” Unger passed away on 4 July 2023, at the age of 92 (https://technologyandsociety.org/ssit-csit-co-founder-stephen-h-unger-dies/).

The 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society will be held in Puebla, Mexico, from September 18-20, 2024, at the Universidad de Las Americas, Puebla (UDLAP). ISTAS24 will be the first ISTAS conference to be held in Latin America.

The 13th IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (IEEE GHTC 2023) will take place in person at Villanova University (Pennsylvania) from October 12 to 14, 2023.

Some topics addressed on the September 13 panel included climate change challenges related to health and healthcare, contributions of computing to the climate change problem in terms of energy use, along with the potential of computing to contribute to solutions to the crisis, agriculture and food security issues related to climate change, systems design, finding solutions and improving communication across IEEE societies, carbon removal, and economic and social aspects of the crisis including forced migration, water supplies, and the responsibilities of developed nations to developing nations in climate change mitigation.

The IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS 23) continued into its second day of regular programming on Thursday September 14, and included the presentation of a second panel related to climate change, this one focused on “Public Safety Technologies and Climate Change.”

We invite you to join us at Digital Platforms and Societal Harms, taking place 2 and 3 October at American University in Washington, D.C. and with keynote panels also available in hybrid mode to enable online attendance.