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Google dissolves AI ethics board just one week after forming it
Google today disclosed that it has dissolved a short-lived, external advisory board designed to monitor its use of artificial intelligence, following a week of controversy regarding the company’s selection of members. The decision, reported first today by Vox, is largely due to outcry over the board’s inclusion of Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James, a noted conservative figure who has openly espoused anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and, through the Heritage Foundation, fought efforts to extend rights to transgender individuals and to combat climate change.
The advisory board, called the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC), included a number of prominent academics in fields ranging from AI and philosophy to psychology and robotics. But it also included those with policy backgrounds, like James and members of former US presidential administrations.
The goal was ostensibly to inform Google’s AI work and to ensure it was following its AI Principles, set out last year by CEO Sundar Pichai after revelations the company was participating in a Pentagon drone project that made use of the company’s machine learning research. Google has since said it will stop working on the project and has pledged never to develop AI weaponry or work on any project or application of AI that violates “internationally accepted norms” or “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”
“It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge. “So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board. We’ll continue to be responsible in our work on the important issues that AI raises, and will find different ways of getting outside opinions on these topics.”
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Monday April 08 2019, @02:20PM (8 children)
but not from anyone who disagrees with me.
Got it. This will end badly.
Every time a Christian defends Trump an angel loses it's lunch.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday April 08 2019, @02:54PM (1 child)
"I hate yes men, get me a board full of advisors who agree with me on that"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday April 08 2019, @05:26PM
Clearly the right answer is "splunge [urbandictionary.com]".
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday April 08 2019, @04:01PM (5 children)
Corporations are people too!
And they can get their poor feewings hurt.
Ethics, Principles and Integrity, like any marketable commodity should be sold to the highest bidder. Any true capitalist knows that.
Once any company goes public, this end result is inevitable. Greed and Shareholder Value become the only mantra. If the company ever did have a soul or conscience, it is usually auctioned off at IPO time. If not, then the conscience withers due to atrophy or being overridden by the Cxx's.
Thank goodness the 1st amendment forces people to listen to you and agree with you.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 08 2019, @05:56PM
If Google has to pass up on killer AI, the contract will just go to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, whatever.
Also watch for the government to ban unsanctioned "AI" (the "strong" kind).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 08 2019, @06:32PM (3 children)
But do they have to use the men's or women's toilet?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday April 08 2019, @07:28PM (2 children)
Corporations use one of the toilets that are intended for various subsets of the other 87 (or was it 89?) genders.
Thank goodness the 1st amendment forces people to listen to you and agree with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @04:56AM (1 child)
Perhaps you had missed the memo, but it is widely known that the number of genders is over 9000.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 09 2019, @02:20PM
You see! That! Right there! Is why we so desperately need a new Federal Department of Gender! How can we keep up with this without the government's help! Who will assign the various gender codes that all government forms will accept to indicate gender? How will software developers have a standard source to go to for the official list of genders to use in their software products?
Thank goodness the 1st amendment forces people to listen to you and agree with you.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday April 08 2019, @02:24PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday April 08 2019, @02:25PM
well boogers. Should'a previewed. Pretty obvious which part is the quote though.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @02:41PM (9 children)
Was this the fastest lifecycle for a Google project ever? One week from new and shiny to the garbage dump.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Monday April 08 2019, @02:52PM (7 children)
At least they trashed the correct thing this time.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:21PM
So an ethics committee overlooking Google's AI work would have been a bad thing?
I mean, they could just have removed Kay Coles James from the committee instead of dissolving it completely.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:23PM (5 children)
Because obviously an ethics board is the least worthy google project. Ethics are for the weak. Real men rape and plunder and are proud of it. /s
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday April 08 2019, @03:41PM
Ethics in AI is mostly an excuse to centralize and control. In this case, it was just some PR for the company to use to try to justify continued cooperation with the government.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Monday April 08 2019, @05:09PM (2 children)
And the men that believe this are deserving of nothing but death.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:46AM
Death comes to all. Might as well deserve it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 09 2019, @10:26AM
I totally saw that movie too! Don't worry. Straw men have a very short shelf life. They'll get all the death they deserve!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:48AM
You sound EXACTLY like certain folks that were in 115th. Congress. First thing they wanted to do was the complete & total GUTTING of Office of Congressional Ethics. It didn't happen -- because of me. I said, wait a minute. Did you campaign on demolishing the Ethics Office? Or on the Repeal & Replace of Obamacare? And that's when they remembered why they were in Congress. Very proud of what we're doing with my Universal Plan. Often referred to as Trumpcare. MAGA!!!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:26PM
Looks like their AI is working correctly.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @02:48PM (21 children)
Trump had criminals in his campaign, everyone who voted for a criminal is a criminal. Therefore all republicans in congress plus the rank-and-file voters are criminals.
QED.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday April 08 2019, @02:57PM (19 children)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:10PM (8 children)
Democrats are the opposite of criminals. They fight for justices and fairness while republicans only care about hoarding their criminal profits and visiting criminal websites like breitbart and fox news.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday April 08 2019, @03:25PM (7 children)
What is this, a strawman for the right to destroy? Of course the dems have evil fuckers populating their ranks.
Tons of them. Maggots on the shitpile of power. The trick to getting rid of corruption has always been demanding policies that can't coexist with corruption, not pretending there's a good party and an evil one, and only voting the good guys.
It doesn't help with remembering that fact, that there is an openly evil party, and a first-past-the-post electoral system that massively favors 2-party democracy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @05:49PM (1 child)
Both parties have some evil fuckers. It's just noise in the signal.
Democrats have an evil party platform. They hate America, Americans, American values, and American culture. They want to tear it all down. They can cause medium-term damage by trying socialism again, cratering the economy for a century. They can cause long-term damage by importing Muslims, which will exterminate all others (and LGBT tossed from rooftops) and basically make our country a shithole for many many centuries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @06:03PM
If we continue blathering on about "The Economy" *this* century, then the next century we won't be discussing "cratering the economy for a century".
We will be discussing "what's the best seasoning for long pig".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @06:14PM (4 children)
The right to destroy is not a strawman. Criminal republicans like you want to end this right, just to pad your pocketbook.
If I own something it is my right to be able to fix it, or destroy it, no questions asked.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday April 08 2019, @06:36PM (3 children)
Is this a markov chain bot?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @01:35AM (2 children)
No, I am a fan of personal choice, accountability, responsibility, idiosyncrasies, and and individual roles. It is precious and beautiful when found in literature, that is what makes reading fun. However, in real life we have seen that does not work because criminal republicans take advantage.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:51AM
The Republican Party will become the Party of Choice!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 09 2019, @10:30AM
Doesn't sound like you're a fan to me. When you're willing to forgo something because someone will misuse it, then you didn't really want it. There's always evil people and idiots out there. Should we stop sucking air because someone says evil things with that air? Time to grow up.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:28PM
That depends on who is issuing the rose-colored glasses and the amnesia pills.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday April 08 2019, @05:58PM (7 children)
It depends on who you think was a crook, of course, but I think there can at least be a reasonable distinction made based on the counts of administration officials facing indictment or being convicted of crimes. By that standard, Obama was remarkably clean, while Trump, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan were not.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @06:09PM (4 children)
John Brennan has said Obama was responsible for ordering the FBI to attempt entrapping the Trump campaign. Time will tell if something comes of that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:27AM (3 children)
[Citation Needed]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:19PM (2 children)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/24/clapper_obama_ordered_the_intelligence_assessment_that_resulted_in_mueller_investigation.html [realclearpolitics.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:16PM (1 child)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/24/clapper_obama_ordered_the_intelligence_assessment_that_resulted_in_mueller_investigation.html [realclearpolitics.com]
Really? You have to go a long way to get from:
That, to "Obama ordered an investigation of Trump."
Ordering an investigation of foreign meddling in the election isn't "targeting" the Trump campaign. It's doing what a president should do when told that a foreign government was attempting to interfere in the political affairs of his country.
That such an assessment showed suspicious (I'm not saying illegal) activity by Trump staffers while surveilling *Russian* nationals is what brought the investigation to Trump's doorstep, not Obama's order to investigate *Russians*.
Also, it was James Clapper and not John Brennan who is quoted in that link.
I know you're not that stupid, so you're just trolling. Fuck you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @05:34AM
You've got it wrong. The goal is to slow walk the info out to you (not you specifically, but you know what I mean). By rejecting obvious exaggerated falsehoods you have given credit to the truth, it will be more difficult for you to deny that later as more details come out.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday April 08 2019, @11:26PM (1 child)
Indictment is a political act in and of itself, so I don't think it makes a great deal of sense as a measure of evil. Obama is the president who decided that due process free execution based on secret legal memos was hunky dory. That's a lot more evil than breaking into Watergate for dirt on your opponent for example, but one of those presidents resigned and one got a peace prize. It's literally all total bullshit -- they all suck and as much we might pretend so-and-so was a great leader or whatever, we're just actually debating the level of suck.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:00PM
I was using it as a measure of criminality, not evil, but what measure do you propose? Simple body count would make defeating the Nazis a bad thing, so I don't think that's the one we should be using.
Also, Obama isn't the first president to kill US citizens on executive order. He's also probably not going to be the last.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:26AM
Not very.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday April 08 2019, @05:57PM
That does not follow, because:
1. It hasn't been proven yet that Trump is a criminal, and
2. Nobody voted for Paul Manafort, Trump just hired him
And even if it was a good conclusion from premise A and B, you still have to prove premise B "everyone who voted for a criminal is a criminal" for it to hold. Maybe some people are just stupid or partisan zealots instead of criminals, voting for a criminal.
You have to train yourself to get better at syllogisms, Google AI!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zoward on Monday April 08 2019, @02:52PM (1 child)
So if you need to create a board to oversee something you don't want overseen, make sure you include a controversial member so you have an excuse to dissolve the board a week later without looking hypocritical. Got it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Alfred on Monday April 08 2019, @03:04PM
Now that they have the ethics thing checkmarked, and tossed aside, they can get on to the really profitable work they wanted to do that the ethics board would have stopped.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:15PM (6 children)
I wish Google would just haul their stinking SJW-infested carcass to the dump already?!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @06:04PM
The foxes truly run the henhouse there. Once the Chinese competition decides to enter the US market, they're going to take over with US companies held back by all this SJWery.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 08 2019, @06:19PM (4 children)
HAhahahahahhahahahahahhaha! Google isn't dying anytime soon. I would say most of their troubles, they've inflected on themselves. Yahoo is all but a memory, most people don't even know that WebCrawler exists, and AOL isn't an ISP. The only real competitors to Google are DuckDuckGo, and Bing. One of those alternatives is supported by Microsoft, which has it's own inherent issues and DuckDuckGo is essentially only competing as far as privacy/web searches are concerend. Until someone/something changes the game, Google will remain dominant for a long time to come.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @10:04PM
You know DuckDuckGo is just a front-end to Google, right?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday April 08 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)
Five years before the Soviet Union vanished from the face of the earth, nobody would believe that in five years the USSR would be gone. Whither myspace BTW?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:04PM
The USSR was "gone", but the people were still there. MySpace is still around. They just aren't the big one or even much of a player. Google will be around for a very long time.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @11:35PM
Yandex.ru
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @03:27PM (1 child)
Dig the tomb, boys!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 08 2019, @06:23PM
No need, already covered. https://web.archive.org/web/20190402092601/https://ai.google/static/documents/2019-google-advanced-technology-external-advisory-council.pdf [archive.org]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday April 08 2019, @08:08PM (1 child)
Classify buses, cars, storefronts... Boring
Put the face of a celebrity on the body of a pornstar... Degrading
Finally, there crops up some satisfying use for AI, namely blowing meatbags up, and those jerks at Google say no. Wake up, the victims will be shot anyway, only with more effort and waste of ammo. And THOSE are the guys who say they mind the environment, really?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @10:25PM
Make the cost high enough and maybe they'll start considering if it's worth it.