Transparency and Explainability (47)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
FILTERreset filters-
- 6 min
- Wired
- 2019
Spreading of harmful content through Youtube’s AI recommendation engine algorithm. AI helps create filter bubbles and echo chambers. Limited user agency to be exposed to certain content.
- Wired
- 2019
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- 6 min
- Wired
- 2019
The Toxic Potential of YouTube’s Feedback Loop
Spreading of harmful content through Youtube’s AI recommendation engine algorithm. AI helps create filter bubbles and echo chambers. Limited user agency to be exposed to certain content.
How much agency do we have over the content we are shown in our digital artifacts? Who decides this? How skeptical should we be of recommender systems?
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- 10 min
- The Washington Post
- 2019
After prolonged discussion on the effect of “bots,” or automated accounts on social networks, interfering with the electoral process in America in 2016, many worries surfaced that something similar could happen in 2020. This article details the shifts in strategy for using bots to manipulate political conversations online, from techniques like Inorganic Coordinated Activity or hashtag hijacking. Overall, some bot manipulation in political discourse is to be expected, but when used effectively these algorithmic tools still have to power to shape conversations to the will of their deployers.
- The Washington Post
- 2019
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- 10 min
- The Washington Post
- 2019
Are ‘bots’ manipulating the 2020 conversation? Here’s what’s changed since 2016.
After prolonged discussion on the effect of “bots,” or automated accounts on social networks, interfering with the electoral process in America in 2016, many worries surfaced that something similar could happen in 2020. This article details the shifts in strategy for using bots to manipulate political conversations online, from techniques like Inorganic Coordinated Activity or hashtag hijacking. Overall, some bot manipulation in political discourse is to be expected, but when used effectively these algorithmic tools still have to power to shape conversations to the will of their deployers.
How are social media networks architectures that can be manipulated to an individual’s agenda, and how could this be addressed? Should any kind of bot accounts be allowed on Twitter, or do they all have too much negative potential to be trusted? What affordances of social networks allow bad actors to redirect the traffic of these networks? Is the problem of “trends” or “cascades” inherent to social media?
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
In his hunt for a missing android child, the robot police officer K visits Dr. Ana Stelline to determine if a memory of his own from his childhood is real or fabricated. Dr. Stelline is in the business of creating false memories to implant into robot’s heads in order to make them seem more believably human. She argues that having memories to lean on as one experiences the world is a cornerstone of the human experience.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Fabricated Memories and Believability
In his hunt for a missing android child, the robot police officer K visits Dr. Ana Stelline to determine if a memory of his own from his childhood is real or fabricated. Dr. Stelline is in the business of creating false memories to implant into robot’s heads in order to make them seem more believably human. She argues that having memories to lean on as one experiences the world is a cornerstone of the human experience.
Do you agree with Dr. Stelline’s assessment in this narrative? Does achieving singularity through fabricated memories truly make AI any more human, or would they still be nothing more than replicants? Conversely, what are the issues raised by uploading authentic human memories into a robot? How does that affect agency and identity of real humans, on small and large scales? What makes us human, if not our memories and consciousness, and if AI have that as well, do they achieve personhood? How do digital technologies already abstract the concept of memory, and can that be extended any further or not?
Blade Runner 2049: Ana Stelline-
- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
In this film, actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself as an actress whose popularity is declining. Her agent Al exposes her to deep fake technology which creates a virtual version of an actor to play a role in any number of scenarios or films. These “actors” are 3D holographs with AI that have been trained to replicate the real person which they imitate. However, Robin is disconcerted with the lack of agency that she would have in deciding how her image and identity appeared in these movies.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Digital Performers and the Gift of Choice
In this film, actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself as an actress whose popularity is declining. Her agent Al exposes her to deep fake technology which creates a virtual version of an actor to play a role in any number of scenarios or films. These “actors” are 3D holographs with AI that have been trained to replicate the real person which they imitate. However, Robin is disconcerted with the lack of agency that she would have in deciding how her image and identity appeared in these movies.
What sorts of problems are implicated with the ability to manipulate another person’s body and likeness in a piece of media without their consent? Does technology like this actually have the potential to free actors from some of the constraints of the film industry, as Al says? How would acting be valued as an art, and actors paid accordingly and properly, if this technology became the norm?
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself who traverses through both the real world and the mixed reality of Abrahama city in this narrative. As Miramount Studio animator Dylan explains to her, the rules of the mixed reality allow people to appear as an avatar which they please, editing their human features into more imaginative ones. With this capability, many people choose to remain in the mixed reality permanently, leaving the real world in a grim stupor.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Removed from Reality
Actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself who traverses through both the real world and the mixed reality of Abrahama city in this narrative. As Miramount Studio animator Dylan explains to her, the rules of the mixed reality allow people to appear as an avatar which they please, editing their human features into more imaginative ones. With this capability, many people choose to remain in the mixed reality permanently, leaving the real world in a grim stupor.
Who has a responsibility to ensure that mixed and virtual realities are not tantalizing enough to absolve humans from the responsibility for caring for the real world? How can addiction to digital realities be ameliorated? What issues of identity and presentation to others arise from the capability to appear however one pleases? How is this empowering, and how is this dangerous?
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Brandy and Tim are two teens who attempt to live normal lives through interacting with their peers through social media platforms. For Brandy, this means using a secret Tumblr account to express herself, since her mother has passwords to all her other accounts and is able to constantly collect data from her daughter’s devices. Tim finds similar comfort in chatting with anonymous friends in an online game chat room. Tim and Brandy’s developing relationship is threatened once both of their parents overstep and violate their children’s privacy and trust.
- Kinolab
- 2014
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Interaction Records and Privacy from Parents
Brandy and Tim are two teens who attempt to live normal lives through interacting with their peers through social media platforms. For Brandy, this means using a secret Tumblr account to express herself, since her mother has passwords to all her other accounts and is able to constantly collect data from her daughter’s devices. Tim finds similar comfort in chatting with anonymous friends in an online game chat room. Tim and Brandy’s developing relationship is threatened once both of their parents overstep and violate their children’s privacy and trust.
Since social media and smartphones can contain complete records of interactions between people, how can parents intervene in their children’s social lives more thoroughly in the digital age? Is letting teenagers have complete control over their social media use and privacy part of letting them be children in the digital age? How do digital chat rooms make it difficult to verify the true identity of those with whom people interact? How does this anonymity allow people to act differently than they might in real life? Is digital addiction a true problem, or is this simply the truth of social life in the digital age?