Digital Ethics

A Brooklyn couple got a call from relatives who were being held ransom. Their voices—like many others these days—had been cloned.

Search giant back in talks about building in Bissen

Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining company, is facing legal claims that it contaminated lakes with harmful levels of uranium and lead.

E-waste is soaring five times faster than recycling capabilities worldwide. Despite 2022's record 62m tonnes of e-waste, only 22.3% was officially recycled. For a sustainable future, recycling and reuse rates have to be improved.

Now that data is mostly out there, in the cloud, it seems easy to imagine that it’s “clean.” Time to think again.

Legal scholars, lawmakers and at least one Supreme Court justice agree that companies will be liable for the things their AIs say and do—and that the lawsuits are just beginning.

The Microsoft-powered bot says bosses can take workers’ tips and that landlords can discriminate based on source of income

In 2019, the Public Policy Programme, in collaboration with the UK’s Office for Artificial Intelligence and the Government Digital Service, published the UK Government’s official Public Sector Guidance on AI Ethics and Safety. This document provides public sector organisations with the Process-Based-Governance (PBG) Framework, a framework for applying principles of AI ethics and safety to the design, development, and deployment of algorithmic systems.

On July 24, 2020, Tesla’s Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a second U.S. “government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.” Someone responded to Musk soon after, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Musk then wrote: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

‘We won’t have electric cars,’ say local communities in South America ravaged by lithium mining for car batteries.

National Grid says "foundational technologies" like AI and quantum computing are driving power demand.

Portugal's data regulator has ordered Sam Altman's iris-scanning project Worldcoin to stop collecting biometric data for 90 days, it said on Tuesday, in the latest regulatory blow to a venture that has raised privacy concerns in multiple countries.

In a Q&A, MIT PhD student and recent Design Fellow Jonathan Zong discusses a new proposed framework to map how individuals can say “no” to technology misuses.

Ambient clinical documentation was the talk of the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida, this year.

The computing centers use vast amounts of power and water. That’s led to a battle over a bill meant to lure the lucrative operations into Colorado.

The ChatGPT phrase “As of my last knowledge update” appears in several papers published by academic journals.

Updates for old friends, and for new followers some links back to where we've been

New report on AI regulation in Africa! It’s the first I've seen and it's excellent. Some highlights and reflections. ➤ The report, by the Tech Hive Advisory,… | 40 comments on LinkedIn

The AI Industry’s Creation Myth

The discrepancies between the companies’ public promises — and their execution — raises questions about their commitment to providing accurate information during this high-stakes election year.

For years I’ve been interviewing data annotation workers who are the lifeblood of the AI industry. For years I’ve heard the same story: the platforms they work… | 13 comments on LinkedIn

“Nordic states are letting go of values and infrastructure resources that are dear to the welfare state", writes Julia Velkova, adding: "Rather than bending to Big Tech values and modes of operation, we should have them bend to comply with our Nordic, public values, if they are to operate in the region".

Firms like OpenAI and Meta use strict protocols to keep bad actors from abusing AI systems. But researchers argue these rules are chilling independent evaluations.

Impelled by the intertwined expansion of capitalist institutions and fossil-fueled industry, human activity has made devastating impacts on ecosystems and earth...

A growing chorus of academics say the sky-high cost of working with AI models is boxing researchers out of the field, compromising independent study of the technology.

Mapping the water footprint of AI.