Tag: Ethics
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Algorithmic supremacists have a pretty bleak vision for the future. But how much damage can they do over the next four years? Well, to my mind, their understanding of the present is equally disturbing. Algorithmic supremacists show a disdain for the inefficient ways humans read, write, draw, compose, and create, wanting us to outsource those activities to machines that can spit out mathematical variations of what uncredited human artists produced with heart and soul.
David Weitzner, We must fight back against the rise of ‘algorithmic supremacists’ -
Any machine constructed for the purpose of making decisions, if it does not possess the power of learning, will be completely literal-minded. Woe to us if we let it decide our conduct, unless we have previously examined the laws of its action, and know fully that it’s conduct will be carried out on principles acceptable to us! On the other hand, the machine like the djinnee, which can learn and can make decisions on the basis of its learning, will in no way be obliged to make decisions as we should have made, or will be acceptable to us. For the man who is not aware of this, to throw the problem of his responsibility on the machine, whether it can learn or not, is to cast his responsibility to the winds, and to find it coming back seated on the whirlwind.
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society -
There’s talk of having AI agents which are trained on one’s own work to assist with tasks. The interesting question is who would have ownership and control of these models, the worker or the employer. Imagine a world where your current and former employers maintain models of you in perpetuity after you leave positions, and continue to use them to complete tasks.
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Book review: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil
As big data transforms our businesses, governments and society, it also presents us with new moral and ethical dilemmas that we need to consider. As is typical with new technology, we often tend to implement first, and consider the ethical…