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Evgeny Morozov - The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence
by Daniela Tafani June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence By Evgeny Morozov June 30, 2023 In May, more than 350 technology executives, researchers and academics signed a statement<https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk#open-letter> warning of the existential dangers of artificial intelligence. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the signatories warned. This came on the heels of another high-profile letter<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-mu…>, signed by the likes of Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of advanced A.I. systems. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has urged<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/23/fac…> responsible A.I. innovation, stating that “in order to seize the opportunities” it offers, we “must first manage its risks.” In Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer called<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/us/ai-regulation-schumer-congress.html> for “first of their kind” listening sessions on the potential and risks of A.I., a crash course of sorts from industry executives, academics, civil rights activists and other stakeholders. The mounting anxiety about A.I. isn’t because of the boring but reliable technologies that autocomplete our text messages or direct robot vacuums to dodge obstacles in our living rooms. It is the rise of artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., that worries the experts. A.G.I. doesn’t exist yet, but some believe that the rapidly growing capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT suggest<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/technology/microsoft-ai-human-reasoning.…> its emergence is near. Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, has<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond> described it as “systems that are generally smarter than humans.” Building such systems remains a daunting — some say impossible<https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi-exp…> — task. But the benefits appear truly tantalizing. Imagine Roombas, no longer condemned to vacuuming the floors, that evolve into all-purpose robots, happy to brew morning coffee or fold laundry — without ever being programmed to do these things. Sounds appealing. But should these A.G.I. Roombas get too powerful, their mission to create a spotless utopia might get messy for their dust-spreading human masters. At least we’ve had a good run. Discussions of A.G.I. are rife with such apocalyptic scenarios. Yet a nascent A.G.I. lobby of academics, investors and entrepreneurs counter that, once made safe, A.G.I. would be a boon to civilization. Mr. Altman, the face of this campaign, embarked on a global tour to charm lawmakers<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/technology/sam-altman-ai-regulations.html>. Earlier this year he wrote<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond> that A.G.I. might even turbocharge the economy, boost scientific knowledge and “elevate humanity by increasing abundance.” This is why, for all the hand-wringing, so many smart people in the tech industry are toiling to build this controversial technology: not using it to save the world seems immoral. They are beholden to an ideology that views this new technology as inevitable and, in a safe version, as universally beneficial. Its proponents can think of no better alternatives for fixing humanity and expanding its intelligence. But this ideology — call it A.G.I.-ism — is mistaken. The real risks of A.G.I. are political and won’t be fixed by taming rebellious robots. The safest of A.G.I.s would not deliver the progressive panacea promised by its lobby. And in presenting its emergence as all but inevitable, A.G.I.-ism distracts from finding better ways to augment intelligence. Unbeknown to its proponents, A.G.I.-ism is just a bastard child of a much grander ideology, one preaching that, as Margaret Thatcher memorably put it, there is no alternative, not to the market. Rather than breaking capitalism, as Mr. Altman has hinted<https://fortune.com/2023/02/03/openai-sam-altman-chatgpt-break-capitalism/> it could do, A.G.I. — or at least the rush to build it — is more likely to create a powerful (and much hipper) ally for capitalism’s most destructive creed: neoliberalism. Fascinated with privatization, competition and free trade, the architects of neoliberalism wanted to dynamize and transform a stagnant and labor-friendly economy through markets and deregulation. Some of these transformations worked, but they came at an immense cost. Over the years, neoliberalism drew many, many critics, who blamed it for the Great Recession and financial crisis, Trumpism, Brexit and much else. It is not surprising, then, that the Biden administration has distanced<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/us/politics/joe-biden.html> itself from the ideology, acknowledging<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/04/27/remark…> that markets sometimes get it wrong. Foundations, think tanks and academics have even dared to imagine<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/business/neoliberalism-free-market-resea…> a post-neoliberal future. Yet neoliberalism is far from dead. Worse, it has found an ally in A.G.I.-ism, which stands to reinforce and replicate its main biases: that private actors outperform public ones (the market bias), that adapting to reality beats transforming it (the adaptation bias) and that efficiency trumps social concerns (the efficiency bias). These biases turn the alluring promise behind A.G.I. on its head: Instead of saving the world, the quest to build it will make things only worse. Here is how. A.G.I. will never overcome the market’s demands for profit. Remember when Uber, with its cheap rates, was courting cities to serve as their public transportation systems? It all began nicely, with Uber promising implausibly cheap rides, courtesy of a future with self-driving cars and minimal labor costs. Deep-pocketed investors loved this vision, even absorbing Uber’s multibillion-dollar losses. But when reality descended<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/technology/farewell-millennial-lifestyle…>, the self-driving cars were still a pipe dream. The investors demanded returns and Uber was forced to raise prices<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-29/when-a-town-takes-uber-i…>. Users that relied on it to replace public buses and trains were left on the sidewalk. The neoliberal instinct behind Uber’s business model is that the private sector can do better than the public sector — the market bias. It’s not just cities and public transit. Hospitals<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/business/google-ascension-health-data.ht…>, police departments<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-reco…> and even the Pentagon<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/technology/anduril-military-palmer-lucke…> increasingly rely on Silicon Valley to accomplish their missions. With A.G.I., this reliance will only deepen, not least because A.G.I. is unbounded in its scope and ambition. No administrative or government services would be immune to its promise of disruption. Moreover, A.G.I. doesn’t even have to exist to lure them in. This, at any rate, is the lesson of Theranos, a start-up that promised to “solve” health care through a revolutionary blood-testing technology and a former darling of America’s elites. Its victims are real, even if its technology never was. After so many Uber- and Theranos-like traumas, we already know what to expect of an A.G.I. rollout. It will consist of two phases. First, the charm offensive of heavily subsidized services. Then the ugly retrenchment, with the overdependent users and agencies shouldering the costs of making them profitable. As always, Silicon Valley mavens play down the market’s role. In a recent essay titled “Why A.I. Will Save the World<https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/>,” Marc Andreessen, a prominent tech investor, even proclaims that A.I. “is owned by people and controlled by people, like any other technology.” Only a venture capitalist can traffic in such exquisite euphemisms. Most modern technologies are owned by corporations. And it will be them — not the mythical “people” — who will monetize saving the world. And are they really saving it? The record, so far, is poor. Companies like Airbnb and TaskRabbit were welcomed as saviors for the beleaguered middle class<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/airbnb-a-solution-to-mid…>; Tesla’s electric cars were seen as a remedy<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/business/energy-environment/electric-veh…> to a warming planet. Soylent, the meal-replacement shake, embarked on a mission<https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/13/health/soylent-hunger/index.html> to “solve” global hunger, while Facebook vowed to “solve<https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/opinion/sunday/evgeny-morozov-facebooks-…>” connectivity issues in the Global South. None of these companies saved the world. A decade ago, I called this solutionism<https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/the-perils-of-perfection.…>, but “digital neoliberalism” would be just as fitting. This worldview reframes social problems in light of for-profit technological solutions. As a result, concerns that belong in the public domain are reimagined as entrepreneurial opportunities in the marketplace. A.G.I.-ism has rekindled this solutionist fervor. Last year, Mr. Altman stated<https://twitter.com/sama/status/1552356314482937863?lang=en> that “A.G.I. is probably necessary for humanity to survive” because “our problems seem too big” for us to “solve without better tools.” He’s recently asserted<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond?> that A.G.I. will be a catalyst for human flourishing. But companies need profits, and such benevolence, especially from unprofitable firms burning investors’ billions, is uncommon. OpenAI, having accepted billions from Microsoft, has contemplated<https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openais-losses-doubled-to-540-milli…> raising another $100 billion to build A.G.I. Those investments will need to be earned back — against the service’s staggering invisible costs. (One estimate<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/05/chatgpt-hidden-cost-gp…> from February put the expense of operating ChatGPT at $700,000 per day.) Thus, the ugly retrenchment phase, with aggressive price hikes to make an A.G.I. service profitable, might arrive before “abundance” and “flourishing.” But how many public institutions would mistake fickle markets for affordable technologies and become dependent on OpenAI’s expensive offerings by then? And if you dislike your town outsourcing public transportation to a fragile start-up, would you want it farming out welfare services, waste management and public safety to the possibly even more volatile A.G.I. firms? A.G.I. will dull the pain of our thorniest problems without fixing them. Neoliberalism has a knack for mobilizing technology to make society’s miseries bearable. I recall an innovative tech venture<https://www.citytech.org/rebate-offer-helped-cta-red-line-commuters-avoid-w…> from 2017 that promised to improve commuters’ use of a Chicago subway line. It offered rewards to discourage metro riders from traveling at peak times. Its creators leveraged technology to influence the demand side (the riders), seeing structural changes to the supply side (like raising public transport funding) as too difficult. Tech would help make Chicagoans adapt to the city’s deteriorating infrastructure rather than fixing it in order to meet the public’s needs. This is the adaptation bias — the aspiration that, with a technological wand, we can become desensitized to our plight. It’s the product of neoliberalism’s relentless cheerleading for self-reliance and resilience. The message is clear: gear up, enhance your human capital and chart your course like a start-up. And A.G.I.-ism echoes this tune. Bill Gates has trumpeted<https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-Age-of-AI-Has-Begun> that A.I. can “help people everywhere improve their lives.” The solutionist feast is only getting started: Whether it’s fighting the next pandemic<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/how-to-stop-the-next-pan…>, the loneliness epidemic<https://www.salon.com/2023/05/21/tech-wants-ai-chatbots-to-help-ease-loneli…> or inflation<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-04/artificial-intelligence-…>, A.I. is already pitched as an all-purpose hammer for many real and imaginary nails. However, the decade lost to the solutionist folly reveals the limits of such technological fixes. To be sure, Silicon Valley’s many apps — to monitor our spending, calories and workout regimes — are occasionally helpful. But they mostly ignore the underlying causes of poverty or obesity. And without tackling the causes, we remain stuck in the realm of adaptation, not transformation. There’s a difference between nudging us to follow our walking routines — a solution that favors individual adaptation — and understanding why our towns have no public spaces to walk on — a prerequisite for a politics-friendly solution that favors collective and institutional transformation. But A.G.I.-ism, like neoliberalism, sees public institutions as unimaginative and not particularly productive. They should just adapt to A.G.I., at least according to Mr. Altman, who recently said he was nervous about “the speed with which our institutions can adapt” — part of the reason, he added, “of why we want to start deploying these systems really early, while they’re really weak, so that people have as much time as possible to do this.” But should institutions only adapt? Can’t they develop their own transformative agendas for improving humanity’s intelligence? Or do we use institutions only to mitigate the risks of Silicon Valley’s own technologies? A.G.I. undermines civic virtues and amplifies trends we already dislike. A common criticism of neoliberalism is that it has flattened our political life, rearranging it around efficiency. “The Problem of Social Cost<https://www.law.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/file/coase-problem.pdf>,” a 1960 article that has become a classic<https://www.law.uchicago.edu/lawecon/coaseinmemoriam/problemofsocialcost> of the neoliberal canon, preaches that a polluting factory and its victims should not bother bringing their disputes to court. Such fights are inefficient — who needs justice, anyway? — and stand in the way of market activity. Instead, the parties should privately bargain over compensation and get on with their business. This fixation on efficiency is how we arrived at “solving” climate change by letting the worst offenders<https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-big-polluters-win-carbon-credit-windfa…> continue as before. The way to avoid the shackles of regulation is to devise a scheme — in this case, taxing carbon — that lets polluters buy credits to match the extra carbon they emit. This culture of efficiency, in which markets measure the worth of things and substitute for justice, inevitably corrodes civic virtues. And the problems this creates are visible everywhere. Academics fret<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/opinion/sunday/colleges-measure-learning…> that, under neoliberalism, research and teaching have become commodities. Doctors lament<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/technology/microsoft-ai-human-reasoning.…> that hospitals prioritize more profitable services such as elective surgery over emergency care. Journalists hate that the worth of their articles is measured in eyeballs<https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/jonah-peretti-has-r…>. Now imagine unleashing A.G.I. on these esteemed institutions — the university, the hospital, the newspaper — with the noble mission of “fixing” them. Their implicit civic missions would remain invisible to A.G.I., for those missions are rarely quantified even in their annual reports — the sort of materials that go into training the models behind A.G.I. After all, who likes to boast that his class on Renaissance history got only a handful of students? Or that her article on corruption in some faraway land got only a dozen page views? Inefficient and unprofitable, such outliers miraculously survive even in the current system. The rest of the institution quietly subsidizes them, prioritizing values other than profit-driven “efficiency.” Will this still be the case in the A.G.I. utopia? Or will fixing our institutions through A.G.I. be like handing them over to ruthless consultants? They, too, offer data-bolstered “solutions” for maximizing efficiency. But these solutions often fail to grasp the messy interplay of values, missions and traditions at the heart of institutions — an interplay that is rarely visible if you only scratch their data surface. In fact, the remarkable performance of ChatGPT-like services is, by design, a refusal to grasp reality at a deeper level, beyond the data’s surface. So whereas earlier A.I. systems relied on explicit rules and required someone like Newton to theorize gravity — to ask how and why apples fall — newer systems like A.G.I. simply learn to predict gravity’s effects by observing millions of apples fall to the ground. However, if all that A.G.I. sees are cash-strapped institutions fighting for survival, it may never infer their true ethos. Good luck discerning the meaning of the Hippocratic oath by observing hospitals that have been turned into profit centers. Margaret Thatcher’s other famous neoliberal dictum was that “there is no such thing as society<https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689>.” The A.G.I. lobby unwittingly shares this grim view. For them, the kind of intelligence worth replicating is a function of what happens in individuals’ heads rather than in society at large. But human intelligence is as much a product of policies and institutions as it is of genes and individual aptitudes. It’s easier to be smart on a fellowship in the Library of Congress than while working several jobs in a place without a bookstore or even decent Wi-Fi. It doesn’t seem all that controversial to suggest that more scholarships and public libraries will do wonders for boosting human intelligence. But for the solutionist crowd in Silicon Valley, augmenting intelligence is primarily a technological problem — hence the excitement about A.G.I. However, if A.G.I.-ism really is neoliberalism by other means, then we should be ready to see fewer — not more — intelligence-enabling institutions. After all, they are the remnants of that dreaded “society” that, for neoliberals, doesn’t really exist. A.G.I.’s grand project of amplifying intelligence may end up shrinking it. Because of such solutionist bias, even seemingly innovative policy ideas around A.G.I. fail to excite. Take the recent proposal for a “Manhattan Project for A.I. Safety<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/08/manhattan-project-for-ai-…>.” This is premised on the false idea that there’s no alternative to A.G.I. But wouldn’t our quest for augmenting intelligence be far more effective if the government funded a Manhattan Project for culture and education and the institutions that nurture them instead? Without such efforts, the vast cultural resources of our existing public institutions risk becoming mere training data sets for A.G.I. start-ups, reinforcing the falsehood that society doesn’t exist. Depending on how (and if) the robot rebellion unfolds, A.G.I. may or may not prove an existential threat. But with its antisocial bent and its neoliberal biases, A.G.I.-ism already is: We don’t need to wait for the magic Roombas to question its tenets. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/opinion/artificial-intelligence-danger.h…

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Gli orrori annunciati dell’IA diventano realtà. Come reagire?
by Alberto Cammozzo June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

<https://attivissimo.blogspot.com/2023/06/podcast-rsi-story-gli-orrori-annun…> Quando sono stati annunciati pubblicamente i primi software di intelligenza artificiale capaci di generare immagini e testi, per molti imprenditori la reazione istintiva è stata un entusiasmo sconfinato di fronte all’idea di poter tagliare i costi di produzione dei contenuti mettendo al lavoro questi nuovi servitori digitali al posto delle persone. Ma per molti altri, anche non esperti di informatica, la reazione è stata ben diversa. Paura, pura e semplice. Paura per il proprio posto di lavoro e paura per i possibili abusi, facilmente prevedibili, di questa tecnologia. Questa è la storia di come quella paura del possibile è oggi diventata reale, raccontata attraverso tre casi recenti che sono un campanello d’allarme urgente. Le temute truffe di identità basate sulle immagini sintetiche si sono concretizzate e sono in corso; i siti di disinformazione generano fiumi di falsità per incassare milioni; e le immagini di abusi su minori generate dal software travolgono, per pura quantità, chi cerca di arginare questi orrori. La politica nazionale e internazionale si china su queste questioni con i suoi tempi inevitabilmente lunghi, ma nel frattempo i danni personali e sociali sono già gravi e tangibili, ed è decisamente il momento di chiedersi se si possa fare qualcosa di più di un coro tedioso di meritatissimi “Ve l’avevamo detto”. Benvenuti alla puntata del 30 giugno 2023 del Disinformatico, il podcast della Radiotelevisione Svizzera dedicato alle notizie e alle storie strane – e questa settimana inquietanti – dell’informatica. Io sono Paolo Attivissimo. [...]

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webinar: AI Act and facial recognition technology (June 30, 2-3pm)
by Milan, Stefania June 29, 2023

June 29, 2023

Dear colleagues Sperando di fare cosa gradita… Why should we worry about facial recognition technology? Will the AI Act change things for real? If you are curious to know more about the forthcoming AI Act, join us tomorrow Friday the 30th of June at 2pm, for a 1-h webinar on the AI Act with a focus of facial recognition technology. Further details can be found here<https://www.eui.eu/events?id=560748>—do register for the link. The webinar engages Marjolein Lanzing from the University of Amsterdam/Bits of Freedom and Laura Carrer from the Hermes Center for Technology and Human Rights and freelance journalist. No presentations but a lively conversation, hosted by the Chair in AI & Democracy, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute. Hope to see you there! Best, Stefania Stefania Milan (she/her) Professor of Critical Data Studies, University of Amsterdam | https://stefaniamilan.net Fellow (2022-23), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) Faculty Associate (2022-23), Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University Research Associate, Chair “AI and Democracy”, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute Project Leader, Citizenship and standard-setting in digital networks (IN-SIGHT) (NWO Responsible Innovation Grant MVI.19.032) | https://in-sight.it Co-Principal Investigator, e-LADDA (MSCA 857897) | https://e-ladda.eu @annliffey | @data_ctive | @bigdatasur +31627875425 | +31(0)205252416 Fingerprint: 5A7B  6330  5684  FC39  3DC0 67D7  08B3  50AE  6AF5  1B63 The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, forwarding, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited without the express permission of the sender. If you received this communication in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

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GAO REPORT - Nuclear Weapons Cybersecurity: Status of NNSA's Inventory and Risk Assessment Efforts for Certain Systems GAO-23-106309
by Diego.Latella June 29, 2023

June 29, 2023

Nuclear Weapons Cybersecurity: Status of NNSA's Inventory and Risk Assessment Efforts for Certain Systems GAO-23-106309 Published: Jun 12, 2023. Publicly Released: Jun 12, 2023.| https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106309?utm_campaign=usgao_email&utm_con… Buona lettura D -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, fax: +390506212040 =================== Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Save the date! GIG-ARTS 2024: 3-4 June 2024, The Hague - '30 Years of MSism in IG'
by Mauro SANTANIELLO June 29, 2023

June 29, 2023

Dear colleagues, *The Eighth European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies (GIG-ARTS 2024) will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands, on 3-4 June 2024*. This 8th edition will be organized by Leiden University <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en>'s Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/gtgc>) programme, and co-chaired by GTGC leader *Jan Aart Scholte <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/jan-aart-scholte#tab-1> * and *Tatiana Tropina* <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/tatiana-tropina#tab-1>. GIG-ARTS 2024 will take place on the University’s The Hague Campus <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/the-hague>. GIG-ARTS 2024 main theme will focus on ’*30 Years of Multistakeholderism in Internet Governance - Assessments and Prospects*’. The 2024 GIG-ARTS Conference will be organized back to back with the annual GTCG Conference <https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/gtgc/conference-2023>, to be held at the same place on 5-7 June. This offers a unique opportunity to explore over a single week the governance of world-scale changes, also beyond the Internet, and to network with colleagues interested in the same kind of challenges in other policy fields. Save the date and stay tuned: the full CfP will be circulated this Autumn. Best regards, GIG-ARTS 2024 Organizing Committee: Meryem Marzouki, Mauro Santaniello, Jan Aart Scholte, Tatiana Tropina

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Online PhD course on “Ethics and AI” by SIpEIA (October-November 2023)
by Guido Boella June 28, 2023

June 28, 2023

Dear All, we have the pleasure to announce the second edition of the online PhD course on “Ethics and AI” organized by the Italian Society for Ethics of AI (SIpEIA <http://www.sipeia.it>). The course is open to all PhD students, and not only PhD students, and it can provide a certificate and an exam for those who need them. You can find updates on the course at this link: https://sipeia.diag.uniroma1.it/online-phd-course-ethics-and-ai-organized-b… For information and registration write to* info(a)sipeia.it <info(a)sipeia.it>* *Edition 2023* *Abstract*: The course intends to provide a brief overview of the main ethical issues concerning AI from an interdisciplinary perspective. The starting point is the clarification of what an “ethics” is, so as to offer the reference coordinates of the discourse, which is then articulated in the analyzes by way of examples of specific issues in the different directions. In particular, issues relating to the impact that AI has and will increasingly have on social life are examined, especially concerning the problem of biases; the interconnections with medicine and health care; the methods of legal regulation. *Teachers*: Maurizio Mori, Consulta di Bioetica Onlus Tiziana Catarci, DIAG, Università la Sapienza Roma Giovanni Sartor, CIRSFID, Università di Bologna Guido Boella, Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Torino *Addressees*: PhD students at different phases of their PhD programme, but open to all interested scholars. *Programme*: 4 hours: Maurizio Mori: The first two hours are dedicated to outlining a theory of ethics capable of accounting for moral analyzes for human societies and also for larger societies. The other two hours try to apply the conceptual tools acquired for a moral analysis of the possible interactions between AI and health care. 2 hours: Tiziana Catarci: Biases in AI 4 hours: Guido Boella: Panorama of the various ethical issues of AI. Reflection on the impact of AI in society and ethics. 2 hours: Giovanni Sartor: From ethics to law. Reflection on the relationship between artificial intelligence applications and human rights. Implications for data protection and consumer protection. *Schedule*: Wed 4/10/2023 h9.00-11.00 Guido Boella Wed 11/10/2023 h9.00-11.00 Maurizio Mori Wed 18/10/2023 h9.00-11.00 Tiziana Catarci Wed 25/10/2023 h9.00-11.00 Guido Boella Wed 8/11/2023 h9.00-11.00 Maurizio Mori Wed 15/11/2023 h9.00-11.00 Giovanni Sartor *Modality*: Online. The lessons will be recorded and published on SIpEIA's website. The links for connections will be communicated later on Best regards Guido Boella -- Dipartimento di Informatica Università di Torino Cso Svizzera 185 10149 Torino Vice-Rettore Vicario dell'Università di Torino per la promozione dei rapporti con le imprese e le associazioni di categoria delle imprese e per il coordinamento con le iniziative di innovazione industriale sul territorio Vicepresidente del Competence Center CIM4.0 www.cim40.com Visitate i siti delle nostre iniziative www.firstlife.org www.commonshood.eu www.projectco3.eu www.sipeia.it www.chedih.eu www.ai-aware.eu nlab4cit.eu ReplyForward -- Dipartimento di Informatica Università di Torino Cso Svizzera 185 10149 Torino Vice-Rettore Vicario dell'Università di Torino per la promozione dei rapporti con le imprese e le associazioni di categoria delle imprese e per il coordinamento con le iniziative di innovazione industriale sul territorio Vicepresidente del Competence Center CIM4.0 www.cim40.com Visitate i siti delle nostre iniziative www.firstlife.org www.commonshood.eu www.projectco3.eu www.sipeia.it www.chedih.eu www.ai-aware.eu nlab4cit.eu

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avviso di seminario Julia Stoyanovich (New York University) 30 giugno 11-13 Politecnico di Milano
by Viola Schiaffonati June 28, 2023

June 28, 2023

Buongiorno, segnalo il seminario di Julia Stoyanovich (New York University), co-organizzato dal laboratorio nazionale CINI Informatica e Società, che si terrà presso il Politecnico di Milano il giorno 30 giugno 2023 (11-13) e in streaming qui https://youtube.com/live/TgJPMLfZusQ. Maggiori dettagli sono disponibili sotto. Un cordiale saluto, Viola Schiaffonati *** June 30 2023 (11-13) Aula Magna del Rettorato Julia Stoyanovich (New York University) Title: Calling Bullshit on Personality Prediction in Hiring: Results of an Audit Introduction: Stefano Ceri and Viola Schiaffonati (DEIB-Politecnico di Milano) Discussant: Stefano Canali (DEIB-Politecnico di Milano) Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss the wide-spread use of AI systems in hiring, noting where these systems can be helpful and where they raise discrimination and validity concerns. The bulk of my talk will focus on the results of a recent audit of the validity of two commercial systems -- Humantic AI and Crystal -- that claim to construct personality profiles of job seekers based on their resumes and social media feeds. I will present our audit methodology and our findings, namely, that both systems show instability on key facets of measurement and therefore cannot be considered valid testing instruments for pre-hire assessment. I will conclude with a discussion of the recent legal and regulatory developments in the US, aimed at reigning in the unaccountable use of AI systems in hiring, and will reflect on what it would take to make the use of AI safe, fair, and socially sustainable in this critical domain. Bio: Julia Stoyanovich is Institute Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Associate Professor of Data Science, and Director of the Center for Responsible AI at New York University. Her goal is to make "Responsible AI" synonymous with "AI". She works towards this goal by engaging in academic research, education and technology regulation, and by speaking about the benefits and harms of AI to practitioners and members of the public. Julia's research interests include AI ethics and legal compliance, data management and AI systems, and computational social choice. She has co-authored over 100 academic publications, and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Le Monde. Julia has been teaching courses on responsible data science and AI to students, practitioners and the general public. She is a co-author of the "Data, Responsibly" and "We are AI" comic book series. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Columbia University, and a B.S. in Computer Science and in Mathematics & Statistics from UMass Amherst. Julia's work has been generously supported by the US National Science Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, JP Morgan Chase, and Meta Responsible AI, among others. Organized by: CINI laboratory "Information & Society" and META, interdisciplinary network for "Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology", Politecnico di Milano.

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OT - Re: Hundreds attend ‘soulless’ AI-generated church service
by 380° June 27, 2023

June 27, 2023

Buongiorno, Fabio Alemagna <falemagn(a)gmail.com> writes: >> ...e io che pensavo che Dio avesse la possibilità di comunicare >> direttamente con le persone (e viceversa) forse avrei dovuto evidenziare l'ironia della mia frase [...] > Ma se Dio è onnipotente, può comunicare come gli pare e piace, perché > escludere un chatbot? E, se si rimane nell'ambito di questa > imperscrutabile onnipotenza, ma anche no? > sulla base di quale argomentazione può un mero mortale classificare > come "inconsapevole distorsione" qualunque cosa un chatbot del genere > possa dire? sul chatbot come mezzo usato da Dio per comunicare: no comment. per il resto https://nooscope.ai/ è zeppo di argomentazioni sulle distorsioni /generate/ dagli algoritmi di machine learning, oggi chiamati AI [1], distorsioni (allucinazioni) saluti, 380° [1] e tutto deriva dal problema della definizione (quindi filosofico) di cos'è AI -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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Re: [nexa] nexa Digest, Vol 170, Issue 34
by maurizio lana June 27, 2023

June 27, 2023

Il 27/06/23 09:53, don Luca Peyron <dluca.universitari(a)gmail.com> ha scritto: > Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:53:19 +0200 > From: don Luca Peyron<dluca.universitari(a)gmail.com> > To: Nexa<nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] Hundreds attend ‘soulless’ AI-generated church service > > Interessante, anche se personalmente assai contrario > > dl > > https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-church-service-chatgpt-b2356508.html credo che per un credente un "AI-generated church service" sia nulla - nulla che ha a che fare con una comunità che ha una storia, convocata da chi di quella storia è espressione e guida. credo per un non credente ugualmente sia nulla: se chiesa ed Evangelo sono artefatti umani, questo qui è solo un artefatto in più. Maurizio ------------------------------------------------------------------------ many of us believe the EU remains the most extraordinary, ambitious, liberal political alliance in recorded history. where it needs reform, where it needs to evolve, we should be there to help turn that heavy wheel Ian McEwan, the guardian, 2/6/2017 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maurizio Lana Università del Piemonte Orientale Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli

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[CFP] ITC35 PhD Workshop - Network Traffic Engineering in the TLC networks of the future
by Martino Trevisan June 27, 2023

June 27, 2023

[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this mail] **ITC35 PhD Workshop, co-located with the *35th International Teletraffic Congress “/Network Traffic Engineering in the TLC networks of the future/”* *Wednesday, October 4, 2023, Turin* *Website: https://itc35.itc-conference.org/* /_* *_/ /_*CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS*_/ /Re-thinking fundamental networking functions, their modeling and their performance evaluation in the framework of the evolving Internet and cellular networks, in the era of cloud and content providers, is a target for the ITC community. The PhD workshop aims at fostering contributions and fresh ideas from young researchers, pursuing their PhD or having just completed their PhD. Discussion of their PhD ideas and progress, proposition of research challenges and directions is welcome during a dedicated workshop._* *_/ /_*SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS *_/ With respect to the presentation to be given during the Workshop, two contribution formats are solicited: * more *mature* research works, in the form of a long presentation (up to 20 min each); * short *in-progress* research work discussion, with a short presentation (up to 10 min each). Correspondingly, Authors proposing a long presentation are invited to submit an *extended abstract* (max 3 pages plus references, using the same format as for regular contributions to the main conference). Extended abstracts will be *published* along with conference proceedings. The best contribution will be invited for submission as a full paper to be *fast-track* reviewed for potential publication in a journal (to be determined). Authors proposing a short presentation are solicited to submit a title, list of Authors and a short abstract (up to 400 words), to help set up the workshop program. /_*IMPORTANT DATES*_/* * * <https://itc35.itc-conference.org/> *Submission deadline*: July 10, 2023 * *Notification of acceptance:* July 20, 2023 * *Submission of camera-ready extended abstracts:* August 16, 2023 Camera-ready versions should be uploaded as indicated with respect to camera-ready instructions /_*WORKSHOP CHAIRS*_/* * * *Andrea Baiocchi*, University of Rome, Italy * *Lea Skorin-Kapov*, University of Zagreb, Croatia For any questions do not hesitate to contact the conference organization under***itc35_oc(a)tlc.polito.it* /Best Regards,/ /*ITC 35 *//Organizing Team/

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