#+TITLE: How to save the civil society in the forthcoming age of omnipotent machine learning algorithms
Hi there,
The most important thing is that the matter is urgent (like 12 max 24 h).
The essay/critical thinking review should be a deliberation on dangers
for civil (democratic) society that stem from the rapid development
and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies in every aspect of human life.
It should start with a brief description of stright forwad benefits of computers, internet and ML for society and individuals
(benefits that meet the initial expectations of bringing all humanity’s achievements to many, but yet not all).
However, the major focus should be on dangers of ML, like algorithmic colonialism,
possibilities of mass disinformation
(amplified by bots and its implications for democratic political process),
loss of privacy, mass surveillance
(and implications of big data and ML for a democratic political process)
and possibility of spoiling of democratic processes
(click-baits that keep people in bubbles of similar opinions, algorithms that feed viewer with more of what they already sought, but more intense/radical)
digital exclusion, failure of preventive policing (amplification of initial bias by a feedback loop).
Another important issue is cybersecurity of states, companies and individuals (vs right to privacy and free speech).
A good starting point worth considering is Chapter 3. Data Ethics in
Howard, J., & Gugger, S., Deep learning for coders with fastai and PyTorch.
Another must-have reference is Zuboff, S., The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power.
Two more books that would be nice to have cited are:
– Morozov, E., To save everything, click here: the folly of technological solutionism (), : PublicAffairs.
– Cosentino, G., Social media and the post-truth world order: the global dynamics of disinformation (), : Springer International Publishing.
Essay should provide examples with references for the above phenomena.
The main problem is the balance between individual freedom and the need
for ML big brother to better manage human affairs (e.g., economy, politics).
As a remedy a strong support for independent bodies similar to citizenlab
(https://citizenlab.ca/) should be advocated for. Also emphasis on inclusion
of data ethics in STEM field courses.
Cooperation between independent organizations like citizenlab and state security agencies.
Data ownership by individuals.
More links:
– https://citizenlab.ca/
– https://ethics.fast.ai/
– https://www.fast.ai/2020/08/19/data-ethics/
– https://rachel.fast.ai/
– https://www.nscai.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Full-Report-Digital-1.pdf
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RML9YKtVjts&t=1357s&ab_channel=HooverInstitution
– https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mainstream-groupthink-and-artificial-intelligence-could-stifle-dissent-in-an-orwellian-future/
– https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-pentagon-belongs-to-silicon-valley-now/
– https://www.truthdig.com/articles/artificial-intelligence-could-soon-determine-humanitys-fate/
– https://www.truthdig.com/articles/will-facebooks-system-to-detect-fake-news-lead-to-censorship/
– https://www.truthdig.com/articles/google-secretly-harvests-the-health-data-of-millions/
– https://youtu.be/ifX_JnBfxTY?t=1199
Other sources
– Chapter 3. Data Ethics in Howard, J., & Gugger, S., Deep learning for coders with fastai and PyTorch.
– Zuboff, S., The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power.
– Morozov, E., To save everything, click here: the folly of technological solutionism (), : PublicAffairs.
– Cosentino, G., Social media and the post-truth world order: the global dynamics of disinformation (), : Springer International Publishing.
– Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky.
– Yang, E., & Roberts, M. E., Censorship of Online Encyclopedias: Implications for NLP Models, In , Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency pp. 537–548.
A nice quote at the beginning of negatives description:
As noted by Eric Weinstein in https://youtu.be/ifX_JnBfxTY?t=1199,
in the context of public discourse and marketplace of ideas the
electronic and digital communication rendered every previous type
of communication practically irrelevant. Notably, much of this
“new communication” is streamlined by (so called) social media.
textcite:Cosentino2020a
textcite:Morozov2013a
textcite:Zuboff2019a
textcite:HowardGugger2020a
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|