Tag: ethics
-
Focus on designing valid assessments
Assessment validity is more important than cheating in higher education. This post presents a position paper arguing that focusing on valid assessments addresses cheating without moralising. It suggests that anti-cheating measures can sometimes harm validity and inclusion. We should emphasize the importance of ensuring graduates can demonstrate the capabilities our assessments claim to measure, rather…
-
BIP AI – AI in research: Opportunities and challenges
In this Blended Intensive Programme on AI, Guillem Jabardo and I explore the potential of generative AI to support all stages of the research process. However, while extremely powerful, these tools still have limitations, necessitating critical review. The ability of generative AI to augment human cognition represents a paradigm shift for academia.
-
BIP in Digital Health – Responsible use of digital health technologies
In this Blended Intensive Programme in Digital Health, Joost van Wijchen and I discussed responsible digital health technologies, focusing on security, regulatory, and ethical considerations, and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. We also discussed challenges in physiotherapy education and practice, emphasising the importance of proactively addressing risks and harnessing the benefits of digital health innovations.
-
AI assistants will be everywhere
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/an-ai-haunted-world “In the near future, AIs will work in their own hierarchies of intelligence, all communicating with each other, perhaps mostly autonomously. If you want to grab a bite to eat, it may be that your more “intelligent” premium AI assistant can guess what restaurant you might like based on reasoning about you and your…
-
On the ethics concerns around requiring students to use AI
Note: I wrote this over the course of a busy day full of meetings. At the end of the day I just wanted to get it out there. I’m not sure that I’m fully on board with the arguments, but the thing that I love about blogs is that it doesn’t matter. So these are…
-
Workshopping AI in higher education with students
I’m thinking about contributing to a workshop activity that involves students working on practical issues related to the implementation of AI-based services in higher education. Here are some ideas that I think might be worth exploring.
-
Generative AI is useful
in AIGenerative AI is useful, in the same way that electricity is useful. I use Claude for a wide range of tasks, every day. And today is the worst that Claude will ever be. Claude – and other generative AI services – will never ever again be as crap as it is today. Make no mistake,…
-
Taylor and Francis clarifies their position on the use of AI for academic content creation
https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/taylor-francis-clarifies-the-responsible-use-of-ai-tools-in-academic-content-creation/ “Taylor & Francis recognizes the increased use of AI tools in academic research. As the world’s leading publisher of human-centered science, we consider that such tools, where used appropriately and responsibly, have the potential to augment research outputs and thus foster progress through knowledge.” They go on to say: “…AI tools must not be…
-
With great power comes great ambiguity – ENPHE conference
I was invited to give a keynote address at the 2023 ENPHE conference, on the topic of AI in health professions education, I used the metaphor of the antihero to emphasise the complex ethical implications of this technology. By rejecting simplistic views of AI as solely beneficial or harmful, I advocate for nuanced human-machine partnerships.…
-
Podcast – Being Good and Doing Good (Making Sense #44)
https://samharris.org/podcasts/being-good-and-doing-good/ In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Oxford philosopher William MacAskill about effective altruism, moral illusions, existential risk, and other topics. William MacAskill is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was educated at Cambridge, Princeton, and Oxford. He is one of the primary voices in…
-
PSA: Peter Singer’s “The life you can save” is available for free
In 2009, Peter Singer wrote the first edition of The Life You Can Save to demonstrate why we should care about and help those living in global extreme poverty, and how easy it is to improve and even save lives by giving effectively. This morning I listened to an 80 000 hours podcast with Peter…
-
Podcast – Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
Stuart Russell’s newest work, Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control, is a cornerstone piece, alongside Superintelligence and Life 3.0, that articulates the civilization-scale problem we face of aligning machine intelligence with human goals and values. Not only is this a further articulation and development of the AI alignment problem, but Stuart also…
-
Summary: OECD Principles on AI
The OECD has recently published a set of recommendations that aim to promote the development of AI that respects human rights and democratic values.
-
First compute no harm
Is it acceptable for algorithms today, or an AGI in a decade’s time, to suggest withdrawal of aggressive care and so hasten death? Or alternatively, should it recommend persistence with futile care? The notion of “doing no harm” is stretched further when an AI must choose between patient and societal benefit. We thus need to…
-
The AI Threat to Democracy
With the advent of strong reinforcement learning…, goal-oriented strategic AI is now very much a reality. The difference is one of categories, not increments. While a supervised learning system relies upon the metrics fed to it by humans to come up with meaningful predictions and lacks all capacity for goal-oriented strategic thinking, reinforcement learning systems…
-
How to ensure safety for medical artificial intelligence
When we think of AI, we are naturally drawn to its power to transform diagnosis and treatment planning and weigh up its potential by comparing AI capabilities to those of humans. We have yet, however, to look at AI seriously through the lens of patient safety. What new risks do these technologies bring to patients,…
-
AI at Google: Our principles
Be socially beneficial Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias Be built and tested for safety Be accountable to people Incorporate privacy design principles Uphold high standards of scientific excellence Be made available for uses that accord with these principles Source: AI at Google: Our principles This list isn’t a bad start if you’re looking for…
-
IPE course project update
This post is cross-posted from the International Ethics Project site. My 4th year students have recently completed the first writing task in the IEP course pilot project. I thought I’d post a quick update on the process using screenshots to illustrate how the course is being run. We’re using a free version of WordPress which…
-
Introducing the Humanities into physiotherapy education
This post has been modified and published on The Conversation: Africa as Physiotherapy students have much to learn from the humanities. I’m increasingly drawn to the idea of integrating some aspect of the Humanities into undergraduate physiotherapy education. We focus (almost) all of the curriculum on the basic sciences and then the clinical sciences, which has a certain…