AI Ethics and Responsible AI are fields that attempt to make AI function in alignment with societal values. Or you could look at the goal as limiting the risk of harm being caused by AI-backed systems. The question I want to explore today is that can we ever truly have an “ethical” or “responsible” AI…
I know that AI labs are buying up books by the bulk load in order to feed more unique training text into their large language models. The reports of OpenAI and Anthropic engaging in this practice are more than a year old at this point, probably more. Ingesting physical books into their digital equivalent involves…
Responsible AI grounds system design within a framework of principles that define desired behavior and outcomes. These principles can align to a moral code of ethics, provide business risk mitigation, or a combination of the two. While the framework may consistent across organizations, each organization may have unique definitions for each principle. For example, RAI…
AI chatbots engaging in therapy-style conversations may seem like a new phenomenon that emerged with ChatGPT and its ilk. But we actually have to go back to 1966 to find the first AI-based therapy bot. This system was named Eliza and utilized simple grammatical rules to provide appropriate conversational feedback to user input. Eliza was…
Ring has actively courted and catered their video camera services to police departments. Most Ring devices store their captured video in the cloud. Police departments don’t need a warrant to view these videos; they simply ask Ring. Government agencies like ICE are not allowed to access these videos without a warrant. But, in practice, they…
Add one to your profile picture, drop your pronouns, and change your name to something masculine, and your LinkedIn posts will become 200+% more visible. I am seeing this claim trending on LinkedIn recently and find it concerning. Not because it exposes gender bias in LinkedIn’s recommendation algorithm, but because the claims are not backed…
There are two categories of AI systems: Symbolic AI and Deep Learning. Symbolic AI requires the builders to define the rules it will apply. If you are trying to understand language, you would need to add grammatical rules. Deep Learning, on the other hand, starts with no rules and creates rules that match the patterns…
For transformers and recommendation algorithms, it is all about attention. Social media platforms want to capture as much of your attention as possible in order to show you ads and collect metadata about you. LinkedIn recently notified users that it would utilize their content to train AI models unless they opt out. I’m curious if…
Tech companies, and frankly, most of the knowledge work industry, have jumped at the opportunity to replace human workers with AI. This possibility was so enticing that they didn’t bother to wait to see if the technology’s promises were real. They may have shown their hand too soon. I believe that we are fortunate that…
I grew up knowing today’s holiday as Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus received a pretty positive review throughout most of my early education. I am grateful that my kids are now learning the reality of his impact. Change is hard, and we are right to protect our traditions and values. When I first heard today’s holiday…