Transparency and Explainability (49)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 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?
Men, Women and Children: Extramarital Affairs-
- 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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- 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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- 6 min
- CBS News
- 2021
In light of the recent allegations of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that the platform irresponsibly breeds division and mental health issues, AI Specialist Karen Hao explains how Facebook’s “algorithm(s)” serve or fail the people who use them. Specifically, the profit motive and a lack of exact and comprehensive knowledge of the algorithm system prevents groundbreaking change from being made.
- CBS News
- 2021
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- 6 min
- CBS News
- 2021
Facebook algorithm called into question after whistleblower testimony calls it dangerous
In light of the recent allegations of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that the platform irresponsibly breeds division and mental health issues, AI Specialist Karen Hao explains how Facebook’s “algorithm(s)” serve or fail the people who use them. Specifically, the profit motive and a lack of exact and comprehensive knowledge of the algorithm system prevents groundbreaking change from being made.
Do programmers and other technological minds have a responsibility to understand exactly how algorithms work and how they tag data? What are specific consequences to algorithms which use their own criteria to tag items? How do social media networks take advantage of human attention?