Artificial Intelligence Archives - Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Fall 2023 Weekly News Profile

How the WGA Strike Could Accelerate AI Regulation

VCE September 11, 2023 Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning

As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA continue to strike, AI has become a significant sticking point for studios and unions. For writers, AI text generation could exacerbate existing low wages and enable studios to hire fewer writers. For actors, AI greatly accelerates digital duplicate technology, jeopardizing actors’ rights to their own image and potentially lowering their rehire rate. Both of these instances have unclear legal or corporate guidelines, especially in the United States. However, a strike resolution may set a new precedent for AI regulation in creative industries.

Spring 2023 Weekly News Profile

Ciao-GPT

In today’s world we are surrounded by the myriad applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Though it is capable of some incredible things, it can also be very dangerous without regulation. Leading AI developers have published an open letter warning against the continued development of powerful AI, but will the world heed this warning?

Spring 2023 Weekly News Profile

Using A.I. to Detect Breast Cancer

VCE March 7, 2023 Artificial Intelligence Cancer Diagnosis Medicine Screening

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have begun to deliver breakthroughs in breast cancer screening and detection, especially for signs that doctors miss in their examinations. Nevertheless, the use of cancer detection technology still faces many obstacles before it can be used ubiquitously in healthcare.

Spring 2023 Weekly News Profile

Why Bots Shouldn’t be the Hiring Tool of the Future

VCE February 6, 2023 Artificial Intelligence Employment Hiring Job Search

It is no secret that nearly all major companies now implement some sort of artificial intelligence- (AI) powered screening softwares in their employment practices. However, despite all of the advancements behind this technology, using AI to vet job candidates may actually involve many discriminatory practices.

Spring 2023 Weekly News Profile

New AI, New Problems: ChatGPT in the Classroom

VCE January 17, 2023 Artificial Intelligence Computer Science Education

The introduction of OpenAI’s AI text generator ChatGPT late last year has amplified the conversation surrounding AI use in classrooms. Aside from issues of dataset bias, OpenAI must also contend with critics who question whether ChatGPT is being used for academic assignments. Plagiarism software must now accelerate development in order to identify ChatGPT’s human-like responses.

Fall 2022 Weekly News Profile

The Rise and Conflict of AI-Generated Images

VCE September 18, 2022 Art Artificial Intelligence Computer Science Machine Learning

From art competitions to online horror stories, AI art has seen a massive spread online. These internet-based machine-learning models raise questions about misinformation, originality, and bias. While most results from AI-generated images have been developed as jokes, the internet may soon need to contend with these models as they become more realistic.

Spring 2021 Volume 5 Issue 1

Autonomous Weapon Systems: Our New Soldiers, or a Disaster Waiting to Happen?

VCE April 27, 2021 Artificial Intelligence Autonomous Weapon Systems War

Morality in the process of war, or “jus in bello,” is one of the two principles of the Just War Theory doctrine, created by ethicists in an attempt to reduce the immorality of war. Autonomous weapons, which function without human control and have been used by the United States military since the Obama administration, may thus be unable to fulfill the requirements of jus in bello. So, is it possible for fully autonomous weaponry to ethically take human life in the context of war? As autonomous weapons cannot be held liable for their actions, lack the capacity to make crucial decisions on their own, and would have a profoundly negative effect on the civilian population, this paper argues that they are therefore unable to be used ethically and should not be participants in war.

Spring 2021 Volume 5 Issue 1

The Ethics of Digital Voice Assistants

VCE April 27, 2021 Artificial Intelligence Computer Science Digital Voice Assistant

In 2019, there were a staggering 3.25 billion digital voice assistants in use across the globe, a figure that is predicted to rise to 8 billion by 2023. These assistants, which include Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and more, are not just computers; they have voices and personalities, and we develop social relationships with them just like we do with real people. However, the way they are currently designed, voice assistants enable and even encourage certain stereotypes and social behaviors in their users. This paper explores the ethicality of digital voice assistants and their effects on those who use them and suggests ways designers can approach their development to make sure such socially detrimental effects are mitigated.

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Facebook Finally Takes Responsibility, But Is It Enough?

VCE April 12, 2021 Algorithms Artificial Intelligence Facebook

Facebook’s oversight board wants to begin examining the company’s ad algorithm, but with the board’s lack of technical knowledge and absence of significant regulatory power, are they ethically qualified to do so?

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Learning to Trust Black Box Artificial Intelligence

VCE February 8, 2021 Artificial Intelligence Black Box Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce’s “AI 2.0” has a massive series of checks to ensure its integrity; should this be the standard for other “explainable” AIs?

Podcast

Featured Spring 2023 VCE Podcast

Electric Vehicles: Climate Saver?

VCE January 31, 2023

Hosts Maya and Josh discuss the ethics of lithium battery mining and electric vehicle use with a panel of engineering essayists.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Predictive Policing

VCE October 31, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind predictive policing.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Clean Energy

VCE October 31, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind clean energy.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Cryptocurrency

VCE October 24, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind cryptocurrency.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Autonomous Vehicles

VCE October 24, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind autonomous vehicles.

Grand Challenges Special Issue

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

Redefining Societal Progress for Engineers

VCE March 29, 2023

Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges focuses heavily on the pitfalls of technological determinism. This paper supports Cech’s argument through a discussion of current examples of the consequences of technological determinism, such as the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, medication accessibility, and facial recognition technology. Though the consequences of a zealous engineering mentality are commonplace in our society, there are also current examples of tech companies neglecting to develop technology due to its possible negative consequences.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

How the Technical Sciences and the Social Sciences Should Go Hand-in-Hand

VCE March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges presented by the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) fail to involve ethics as a part of the solution to these issues. Traditionally, engineers have kept their work separate from its societal implications. Engineers and their non-technical counterparts have an obligation to view all technical solutions under the moral lens of ethicists and futurists. Going forward, engineers must be aware of their limits and work with experts outside of their fields to develop solutions that will be cognizant of society as a whole.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Lies We Tell to Inspire: Responding to the Engineering Double Standard

VCE March 29, 2023

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges are critiqued by Dr. Erin Cech for what she describes as a double standard in engineering. Though Cech rightly discusses a lack of accountability and acknowledgement within the profession, her argument lacks nuance. The Grand Challenges were ultimately a promotional tool meant to inspire the next generation of engineers, yet Cech holds them to a standard of being professional rules and guidelines. This paper will discuss the distinctions that Cech’s argument lacks, including placing an unreasonable amount of responsibility on engineers and overstating their influence.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Grand Challenges: Authorial Particularism and a Lost Opportunity for an Equitable Society

VCE March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges were developed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in an effort to expose future generations to the wide range of innovation and technology that they could one day take part in. As detailed by the Challenges’ creators, the list includes challenges that are most significant to our current world. Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the Grand Challenges is that a lack of diversity in the panel of engineering experts led to a lack of oversight into issues that are actually pertinent to developing nations. Cech’s argument that the Grand Challenges are a missed opportunity for social justice holds validity, but her mischaracterization of the lack of diversity requires further consideration.

Weekly News Profile

Featured Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

Fighting for our Latino Migrant Workers after Baltimore’s Bridge Collapse

Janessi Diaz April 10, 2024

Tragedy struck on the night of March 26 when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore came tumbling down. The collapse occurred after a large container ship, the Dali, collided with the bridge. However, the collapse was far from the most heartbreaking news of the event; Six men who had been working on the bridge when it fell lost their lives. The six men, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Miguel Luna, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, Carlos Hernandez, Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, and Jose Mynor Lopez, were all migrant workers from Central America. As we remember and honor their lives, their deaths highlight the lack of care in the construction industry when it comes to protecting Latino migrant workers.

Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

AI’s Impact on Tomorrow’s Jobs

Mary Karapetyan April 2, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the workforce, with thousands of companies developing advanced systems to streamline productivity. Despite its promise to enhance efficiency, there is a growing concern over its potential to displace millions of jobs across various industries over the next five years. As AI models become more sophisticated, there is a need for a deeper understanding of their capabilities and implications for the future of work and society.

Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

Engineering Ways to Care for Astronauts’ Mental Health

Rachel Pak March 27, 2024

Amidst plans for space missions designed to establish a stronger human presence in space, concerns rise for the mental health of the astronauts. These astronauts, such as those selected for NASA’s Artemis missions, will embark on trips into deep space that will last months or even years away from Earth’s familiar environment and their loved ones. Since spacecraft tend to have an isolated and confined nature, NASA engineers are devising strategies to safeguard the mental health of their astronauts.