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Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
A scandal over an academic’s use of Facebook data highlights the need for research scrutiny.
Rethink Public Engagement for Gene Editing
The breadth of social and moral questions raised requires a new architecture for democratic debate, insists Simon Burall.
Artificial Intelligence Could Identify Gang Crimes—and Ignite an Ethical Firestorm
Artificial Intelligence Could Identify Gang Crimes—and Ignite an Ethical Firestorm
A new algorithm is trying to automate the process of identifying gang crimes. But some scientists warn that far from reducing gang violence, the program could do the opposite by eroding trust in communities, or it could brand innocent people as gang members.
Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It
Schools that helped produce some of Silicon Valley's most prominent leaders are hustling to bring a more medicine-like morality to computer science.
Universities Should Encourage Scientists to Speak Out about Public Issues
Universities Should Encourage Scientists to Speak Out about Public Issues
Opioids. Fracking. Zika. GMOs. Scientists should be speaking up about all sorts of science-based issues that affect our lives. Especially now, when Trump administration officials tell us that climate change is debatable.
Science Suffers from Harassment
The nearly 60,000-member American Geophysical Union took the bold step of revising its ethics policy to treat harassment, discrimination and bullying as scientific misconduct, with the same types of penalties for offenders. Other scientific organizations have not adopted that standard.
10 Human Rights Priorities for the Information and Communications Technology Sector
10 Human Rights Priorities for the Information and Communications Technology Sector
A primer on the most relevant, urgent, and probable human rights impacts for the ICT sector and opportunities for positive impact.
In the Trump Era, Biologists on the Cutting Edge Try to Keep a Low Profile
In the Trump Era, Biologists on the Cutting Edge Try to Keep a Low Profile
Scientists fear a crackdown on embryo research if President Trump pays attention to scientific advances.
The Rise and Fall and Rise again of 23andMe
How Anne Wojcicki led her company from the brink of failure to scientific pre-eminence.
Access, Ethics and Piracy
An article considering both the efficacy and ethics of piracy, placing ‘guerrilla open access’ within a longer history of piracy and access to knowledge.
Ethics of Internet Research Trigger Scrutiny
Concern over the use of public data spurs guideline update.
South Korean Researchers Lobby Government to Lift Human-Embryo Restrictions
Regulations are deterring research that could lead to disease treatments, say scientists.
Elon Musk and AI Leaders Call for a Ban on Killer Robots
Leaders in the fields of AI and robotics, including Elon Musk and Google DeepMind’s Mustafa Suleyman, have signed a letter calling on the United Nations to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
China’s Embrace of Embryo Selection Raises Thorny Questions
Fertility centres are making a massive push to increase preimplantation genetic diagnosis in a bid to eradicate certain diseases.
How AI Detectives Are Cracking Open the Black Box of Deep Learning
As neural nets push into science, researchers probe back
Scientist Screwed Up? Send' Em to Researcher Rehab
Plagiarism. Cheating. Lying. Should these scientists get a second chance?
Teaching Robots Right from Wrong
Artificial intelligence is outperforming the human sort in a growing range of fields – but how do we make sure it behaves morally?
Track How Technology Is Transforming Work
Without data on how artificial intelligence is affecting jobs, policymakers will fly blind into the next industrial revolution, warn Tom Mitchell and Erik Brynjolfsson.
Physiognomy’s New Clothes
Rapid developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning have enabled scientific racism to enter a new era, in which machine-learned models embed biases present in the human behavior used for model development.
Tech Made Cities Too Expensive. Here’s How to Fix It.
Technology is one of the country’s biggest growth industries, but it comes at a price.
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