Digital Ethics

This article is based on Rachel Thomas’s keynote presentation, “Analyzing & Preventing Unconscious Bias in Machine Learning” at QCon.ai 2018. Thomas talks about the pitfalls and risk the bias in machine learning brings to the decision-making process. She discusses three use cases of machine learning bias.

Filtering content is often done with good intent, but filtering can also create equity and privacy issues.

🗑 I’d rather not have the trash bin know me personally @jblefevre60 #facialrecognition #ai #ml #recycling pic.twitter.com/QrUKxGXOCZ— Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel) September 1, 2019

just learned with horror that deleting any of the "family" emojis in google slides does not remove the emoji, but rather kills off each individual family member one by one, starting with the children pic.twitter.com/0v2s8Bx91n— Brooke Watson (@brookLYNevery1) August 29, 2019

In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in America, loved ones grieve, gun control advocates call for common-sense reforms, and politicians suggest new “solutions” that won’t do anything about guns. These proposals frequently focus on mental health, but a new plan before the White House to monitor “neurobehavioral” predictors of violence isn’t just misguided, it’s terrifyingly dystopian.

What a mischievous technique to trick people into giving in all the data by accidentally clicking the wrong click of action. / cc: @harrybrhttps://t.co/oJUKIOiP09 pic.twitter.com/y3sGqtGpZt— Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag) August 30, 2019

[Update 08/20/2019: This project has 2 open positions for UROPs/visiting students or interns. One position focuses around electrical engineering, another one...

Developing a sector-specific ethics framework without being overwhelmed by the AI ethics explosion

Ring has disclosed that it has inked deals with 405 agencies to "facilitate conversations around crime and safety among all members of the community."

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using predictive policing systems to forecast criminal activity and allocate police resources. Yet in numerous jurisdi

New normal — At least twice a month I have clients denied entry because of something in their WhatsApp. Most of the time its pictures or videos forwarded to them in a WhatsApp Group. Many tools being used to stop immigrants from legally entering. pic.twitter.com/ewIUswSCsy— Abed A. Ayoub (@aayoub) August 22, 2019

As smart speaker makers such as Amazon improve emotion-detecting AI, researchers are coming up with ways to protect our privacy.

The long read: Social media was supposed to liberate us, but for many people it has proved addictive, punishing and toxic. What keeps us hooked?

By Julia Gamolina, cover portrait by Maggie Peters Jessica Helfand is an artist, designer, and writer. She is a co-founder of Design Observer, and the co-host of two podcasts:  The Observatory , and  The Design of Business | The Business of Design . She has

Google's hate-speech detection tool Perspective, which Alphabet subsidiary Jigsaw helped create, has become racially biased, according to a new study.

Feature ‘disconnects’ data from a user’s account and shows extent of tracking apparatus

There is an urgency to AI ethics & accountability work, because there are currently real people being affected.AI is not just some futuristic issue.@rajiinio @DataInstituteSF pic.twitter.com/hqUpQYAxvS— Rachel Thomas (@math_rachel) August 20, 2019

The nature of how organizations capture and store the public’s biometric data, such as fingerprints and images of faces, came under renewed scrutiny this week by security experts and regulators.

Investigation uncovers widespread use in museums and shopping centres

Ethical codes, ethics committees, and respect for autonomy have been key to the development of medical ethics — elements that digital ethics would be advised to emulate.

Exclusive: Hannah Fry says ethical pledge needed in tech fields that will shape future

Facial recognition technology has grown tremendously in both capability and availability over the last few years. It can help us solve difficult problems,

The secrecy surrounding AI products makes even basic information about them a scandal.

Facebook Inc. this week confirmed that it ran a program to allow contractors to listen to and transcribe some users’ audio clips. The social network said that the only people who were affected were those who agreed to have their audio messages transcribed.

The first Swiss think tank for digital ethics explores the risks of digitization.

Artificial intelligence will be the next GDPR.

Sexual harassment. Hate speech. Employee walkouts. The Silicon Valley giant is trapped in a war against itself. And there’s no end in sight.

Fingerprints, facial recognition and other personal information from Biostar 2 discovered on publicly accessible database

“There is something specifically exhausting about receiving sexual advances and explicit messages on LinkedIn.”