Digital Ethics

Cheryl Tevis Bubbling up beneath the surface of the Iowa Utility Board’s pending decision whether Summit Carbon’s proposed pipeline is justified by “public convenience and necessity” is the equally critical question of whether granting permits allowing Summit to siphon significant amounts of public water resources meets the state’s legal standard of being “put to beneficial

New artificial intelligence data centers are coming online so fast that the electricity demand is straining global power grids and threatening clean energy goals.

Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geo-locate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available…

An investigation uncovers a web of influence in the powerful coalition aligned behind the European Commission’s proposal to scan for child sexual abuse material online, a proposal leading experts say puts rights at risk and will introduce new vulnerabilities by undermining encryption.

It turns out, that the EU's push to completely abolish digital privacy might not actually be an altruistic move to save children from abuse. Several tech companies, including one headed by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, stand to profit substantially from the decision. Which is why they massively influenced it.

Foundational innovation in cloud technology and artificial intelligence will require more energy than ever before—shattering any illusion that we will restrict supplies.

What does the rise of partisan sectarians portend for the rest of us?

AI and data center grifting: example 2345 Data centers create few jobs. Michigan wants to give them big tax breaks. Why do governments all over the world want…

A WIRED investigation shows that the AI search startup Perplexity is surreptitiously downloading your data.

What happens when AIs invade our feeds?

Data centers use tremendous amounts of electricity and water, but often the public is kept in the dark about such things.

"The concept of efficiency — how much one can accomplish per unit of time (or per dollar, etc.) — requires a quantitative numerator as well as a denominator… | 32 comments on LinkedIn

·      Billionaires are responsible for a million times more CO2 than normal person ·      125 ultra-wealthy individuals emit more CO2 than 85…

"LLMs don't memorize things. They *grok*. They pattern match. But they can't replicate their input data." It's an argument I hear daily. It's a nice idea,… | 42 comments on LinkedIn

Could AI’s rhetorical edge lead us astray? New research suggests that we find computer-generated moral reasonings more appealing than those penned by humans.

Big tech is playing its part in reaching net zero targets, but its vast new datacentres are run at huge cost to the environment, says economics professor Mariana Mazzucato

The debate about the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence dates from the 1960s (Samuel in Science, 132(3429):741–742, 1960. 10.1126/science.132.3429.741; Wiener in Cybernetics: or control and communication in the animal and the machine, ...

by Rockwell Anyoha Can Machines Think? In the first half of the 20th century, science fiction familiarized the world with the concept of artificially intelligent robots. It began with the “heartless” Tin man from the Wizard of Oz and continued with the humanoid robot that impersonated Maria in Metropolis. By the 1950s, we had a generation of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers with the concept of …

Apple and Google are getting up close and personal with user data to craft memos, summarize documents and generate images.

Microsoft’s total carbon emissions have grown by about 30% since 2020, driven largely by indirect emissions from constructing new data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Kids "easily traceable" from photos used to train AI models, advocates warn.

A conversation with Adam Wierman, the Carl F Braun Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and director of Information Science and Technology

Google is reportedly making attempts to stay ahead of the problem. Report reveals astronomical problems as Google launches itself into evolving world of AI: ‘We’re working to address the impact’ first appeared on The Cool Down.

Parents and teens alike are trading in their smartphones for "dumber" models to help stay offline.

While artificial intelligence has the potential to process vast amounts of data, generate new insights, and unlock greater productivity, its widespread adoption may entail unforeseen consequences....

The Batch AI News and Insights: A barrier to faster progress in generative AI is evaluations (evals), particularly of custom AI applications that generate...

By Rafael Hernandez de Santiago In the sprawling city of Techville, there is a new player on the scene — and it is not your typical Silicon Valley startup or cutting-edge gadget.  No, dear...

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission agreed to divide responsibility for investigating three major players in the artificial intelligence industry.

A project departs from the stereotype of Ghana as “dustbin of the world” to show a complex e-waste system that provides opportunity and harm.