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The Saga of the Car
The unfolding saga of the car illustrates why machines are likely to take over most human jobs. Right now, operating a car is a partnership between a human driver and technology, with the human being the senior partner. When we get to driverless cars (and we will), the car will become the senior partner and…
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What Happens Next?
The EU’s announcement today of its intention to promote “… a responsible, human-centric approach to artificial intelligence” is a nice first step, but only that. That goal is simply a bureaucratic pipe dream if what happens next fails to address the single most important threat the technology poses. That’s not cyber crime or identity theft,…
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The Second Step
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos just pledged $10B to help fight global warming. It’s a wonderful gift and an important first step toward dealing with this crisis. Now, Jeff, take the no less critical second step: pledging to be transparent about workplace cooling-the replacement of human workers with smart machines. Both crises are projected to hit…
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AI’s Blind Spot
AI will hit women hardest in the workforce. Why? Well, there are several reasons. Biased data, of course, is definitely a problem, but even more important is the lack of diversity among the people building the technology. According to the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn, just 22% of the AI research jobs worldwide are held…
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The First “Atta-Human” Award
The first “Atta-Human” is awarded to the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers which recently issued a report “calling for engineers to consider the impact their work will have on climate change, children, and society.” Finally, an organization has acknowledged that we face not one but two parallel existential challenges: the human behaviors causing global…
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Teaching Robots Bad Habits
According to news reports, Google is well on its way to building a “digital assistant” that can actually have a meaningful and useful conversation with humans. It earned a decent C grade (79%) on something Google calls the Sensibleness and Specificity Average. That’s certainly a potential boon for online retail, especially if it’s better at…
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Let’s Stop Shouting & Start Communicating
“A new study co-authored by an MIT economist shows that improved translation software can significantly boost international trade online — a notable case of machine learning having a clear impact on economic activity.” Great, now if we could just get a machine to improve communication among Representatives & Senators, progressives and conservatives, business leaders and…
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Overlapping Alerts
The World Health Organization alerted the public to the Coronavirus danger on Jan 9. An algorithm using artificial intelligence got the word out on Dec 31. It’s a good example of where the technology can be useful, but it’s not the only intelligence we need. A survey of leading scientists has predicted that there’s a…
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The Timidity of Today’s Leaders
The dithering approach to today’s two foremost crises has been on full display recently. The World Economic Forum has attracted business and government elites in Davos to focus on the challenge of global warming. (Never mind, most of them arrived in polluting private jets.) And at about the same time, the Google/Alphabet CEO was at…
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The Absence of Oversight
An article in the NYT this weekend illustrated why self-restraint and inhouse Ethics Panels are not the way to ensure AI development doesn’t inflict more harm than good on humans. It describes the unfettered development of another technology-facial recognition-which is now on the verge of eliminating human privacy. The company at the center of the…