If AI is going to help us in a crisis, we need a new kind of ethics

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06.25.2020

Good morning! Today: why we need to embed ethics into AI right from the start, and why venture capital isn't building the things we really need. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.

If AI is going to help us in a crisis, we need a new kind of ethics

A new kind of ethics: Jess Whittlestone at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge thinks that if artificial intelligence is going to help in a crisis, we need a new, faster way of doing AI ethics. She’s dubbed it ethics for urgency.

What that means: Anticipating problems before they happen, finding better ways to build safety and reliability into AI systems, and emphasizing technical expertise at all levels of the technology’s development and use. At the core of these recommendations is the idea that ethics needs to become simply a part of how AI is made and used, rather than an add-on or afterthought. Ultimately, AI will be quicker to deploy when needed if it is made with ethics built in, she argues. Read the full interview.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Why venture capital doesn’t build the things we really need

The numbers: Stats suggest that venture capital remains America’s financial engine of innovation: the amount of money VC firms manage swelled from $170.6 billion in 2005 to $444 billion in 2019. But not all the numbers look so positive. This largely white, largely male corner of finance has backed software companies that grow fast and generate large amounts of money for a shrinking number of Americans—companies like Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb. But they don’t create many jobs for ordinary people, especially compared with the companies or industries they disrupt. And they don’t produce the kinds of inventions society needs—a cure for covid-19, or better protective gear.

Why not? It’s the fact that money flows to wherever the most lucrative returns are—not where society’s needs are most urgent. It’s the sole founder myth that sets up one person as being responsible for ideas, as opposed to a collaborative group, relying on inventions originally created thanks to vast dollops of government money. It’s also the myopia that comes with extreme privilege. The pandemic has made the gap between the world venture capitalists live in and the world the rest of us inhabit seem even larger. Read the full story.

—Elizabeth MacBride

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And check out our list of 35 young innovators who are trying to change the world.

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)

+ A bearded dragon decided to take a 10-day, four kilometer hike before being found and reunited with its owner.
+ Musicians at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house performed a concert to some plants.
+ The Dolomites in Italy are stunning.
+ The sound of jello being shredded is really not what you’d expect.

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The top ten must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The US set a new record for covid-19 cases yesterday
38,672 in a single day, and that’ll be vastly underestimating. (The Verge)
+ New York will quarantine travelers from states with major outbreaks. (NYT $)
+ India recorded its biggest daily rise in covid-19 infections yesterday too. (The Guardian)

2 Could a forgotten pneumonia treatment help coronavirus patients?
Radiation therapy is being tested in at least five countries, including the US. (Slate)
+ Why covid-19 symptoms last for months for some people. (New Scientist $)

3 Boston just banned its public agencies from using facial recognition tech
It’s the biggest city on the East Coast to do so. (Buzzfeed)

4 Facebook has created a fact-checking exemption for climate deniers
A new rule says “opinion pieces” can’t be included. Even if they are not opinion pieces. (Popular Information)
+ How QAnon thrives on Facebook. (The Guardian)
+ Biden is pressurizing Facebook and Twitter to stop letting Trump make false claims about voter fraud. (CNN)
+ Trump is looking beyond the big social platforms to fire up his supporters. (WSJ $)

5 Google will auto-delete location and search history after 18 months
Presumably recent data is more useful than historical stuff. (CNBC)
+ How to make sure Google deletes your data on a regular basis. (Recode)

6 Instagram is becoming political
Out with the brunch pics, in with posts about topics like privilege and policing. (Recode)
+ Instagram is expanding its TikTok competitor feature, Reels. (TechCrunch)

7 Why are so few Black and Latino people working in tech?
It isn’t a “pipeline” problem. (LA Times)
+ Black Amazon workers want Jeff Bezos’s actions to match his words. (NYT $)
+ How good design can help to counter racial bias. (Quartz)

8 Inside the social media cult that convinces young people to give up everything
It started as mentoring then turned into a complex system of emotional, monetary and sexual control. (OneZero)

9 The UK’s plan to reopen pubs could be a data privacy nightmare
They’ll have to collect customer information when they open their doors again on July 4. (New Scientist $)

10 There’s been a boom (sorry) in firework conspiracy theories 🎆
Some people need to do a bit more chilling and a bit less tweeting. (The Atlantic)

Access, not academics.

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Quote of the Day

“It’s always going to be with us. I don’t think we can eliminate the virus long term. We are going to need to learn to live with the virus.”

—Simon James Thornley, an epidemiologist from New Zealand, tells the New York Times some uncomfortable truths.

Top image credit: MS TECH | PIXABAY

Please send jello to hi@technologyreview.com.

Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading!

—Charlotte