Transparency and Explainability (47)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 2 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Allison’s unhealthy eating habits are reinforced with comments she receives online to the point where she refuses to eat with her family and follows online advice on how to resist hunger. The technology in this clip is the online forum which has the goal of perpetuating and starting unhealthy eating habits.
- Kinolab
- 2014
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- 2 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Social Networks and Societal Norms
Allison’s unhealthy eating habits are reinforced with comments she receives online to the point where she refuses to eat with her family and follows online advice on how to resist hunger. The technology in this clip is the online forum which has the goal of perpetuating and starting unhealthy eating habits.
How do social networks, and certain enclaves within these networks such as a blog site, set the societal norms in the digital age? How do these platforms perpetuate illusions of how people should look and act? Did social media create these problems, or simply exacerbate them?
Men, Women and Children: Pretty Bitches Never Eat-
- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Donald and Helen, a married couple, are both dissatisfied with their marriage, particularly in their sexual relationship, and so unwilling to communicate with each other that they both want to cheat on each other. The technology in this clip are the websites on which they both succumb to the temptation of an affair.
- Kinolab
- 2014
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- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Infidelity and Social Networks
Donald and Helen, a married couple, are both dissatisfied with their marriage, particularly in their sexual relationship, and so unwilling to communicate with each other that they both want to cheat on each other. The technology in this clip are the websites on which they both succumb to the temptation of an affair.
Are websites like the ones shown in this narrative a justifiable affordance of social networks and digital technologies? Does the facility of making connections with other people make infidelity overall easier to accomplish? Does having these more private, secluded channels make communication between dissatisfied partners harder? In thinking particularly about the “Escort Edition” website, what is problematic about its quantification of women and “shopping” user interface?
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- 4 min
- TechCrunch
- 2021
On the day of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S Capitol, social media proved to be a valuable tool for telling the narrative of the horrors taking place within the Capitol building. At the same time, social media plays a large role in political polarization, as users can end up on fringe sites where content is tailored to their beliefs and not always true.
- TechCrunch
- 2021
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- 4 min
- TechCrunch
- 2021
Social media allowed a shocked nation to watch a coup attempt in real time
On the day of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S Capitol, social media proved to be a valuable tool for telling the narrative of the horrors taking place within the Capitol building. At the same time, social media plays a large role in political polarization, as users can end up on fringe sites where content is tailored to their beliefs and not always true.
How can social media platforms be redesigned or regulated to crack down more harshly on misinformation and extremism? How much can social media be valued as a set of platforms that “help tell the true story of an event” when they also allow mass denial of objective fact? Who should be responsible for shutting down fringe sites, and how should this happen?
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- 5 min
- MIT Tech Review
- 2020
With the surge of the coronavirus pandemic, the year 2020 became an important one in terms of new applications for deepfake technology. Although a primary concern of deepfakes is their ability to create convincing misinformation, this article describes other uses of deepfake which center more on entertaining, harmless creations.
- MIT Tech Review
- 2020
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- 5 min
- MIT Tech Review
- 2020
The Year Deepfakes Went Mainstream
With the surge of the coronavirus pandemic, the year 2020 became an important one in terms of new applications for deepfake technology. Although a primary concern of deepfakes is their ability to create convincing misinformation, this article describes other uses of deepfake which center more on entertaining, harmless creations.
Should deepfake technology be allowed to proliferate enough that users have to question the reality of everything they consume on digital platforms? Should users already approach digital media with such scrutiny? What is defined as a “harmless” use for deepfake technology? What is the danger posed to real people in the acting industry with the rise of convincing synthetic media?
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- 7 min
- CNN
- 2021
The South Korean company Supertone has created a machine learning algorithm which has been able to replicate the voice of beloved singer Kim Kwang-seok, thus performing a new single in his voice even after his death. However, certain ethical questions such as who owns artwork created by AI and how to avoid fraud ought to be addressed before such technology is used more widely.
- CNN
- 2021
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- 7 min
- CNN
- 2021
South Korea has used AI to bring a dead superstar’s voice back to the stage, but ethical concerns abound
The South Korean company Supertone has created a machine learning algorithm which has been able to replicate the voice of beloved singer Kim Kwang-seok, thus performing a new single in his voice even after his death. However, certain ethical questions such as who owns artwork created by AI and how to avoid fraud ought to be addressed before such technology is used more widely.
How can synthetic media change the legacy of a certain person? Who do you believe should gain ownership of works created by AI? What factors does this depend upon? How might the music industry be changed by such AI? How could human singers compete with artificial ones if AI concerts became the norm?
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- 5 min
- Time
- 2021
In 2021, former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to the fact that Facebook knew how its products harmed teenagers in terms of body image and social comparison; yet because of their interest in their profit model, they do not significantly attempt to ameliorate these harms. This article provides four key lessons to learn from how Facebook’s model is harmful.
- Time
- 2021
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- 5 min
- Time
- 2021
4 Big Takeaways From the Facebook Whistleblower Congressional Hearing
In 2021, former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to the fact that Facebook knew how its products harmed teenagers in terms of body image and social comparison; yet because of their interest in their profit model, they do not significantly attempt to ameliorate these harms. This article provides four key lessons to learn from how Facebook’s model is harmful.
How does social quantification result in negative self-conception? How are the environments of social media platforms more harmful in terms of body image or “role models” than in-person environments? What are the dangers of every person having easy access to a broad platform of communication in terms of forming models of perfection? Why do social media algorithms want to feed users increasingly extreme content?