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Daily Archives: February 27, 2023

The Future of Human Agency

“Advances in the internet, artificial intelligence (AI) and online applications have allowed humans to vastly expand their capabilities and increase their capacity to tackle complex problems. These advances have given people the ability to instantly access and share knowledge and amplified their personal and collective power to understand and shape their surroundings. Today there is general agreement that smart machines, bots and systems powered mostly by machine learning and artificial intelligence will quickly increase in speed and sophistication between now and 2035. As individuals more deeply embrace these technologies to augment, improve and streamline their lives, they are continuously invited to outsource more decision-making and personal autonomy to digital tools. Some analysts have concerns about how business, government and social systems are becoming more automated. They fear humans are losing the ability to exercise judgment and make decisions independent of these systems. Others optimistically assert that throughout history humans have generally benefited from technological advances. They say that when problems arise, new regulations, norms and literacies help ameliorate the technology’s shortcomings. And they believe these harnessing forces will take hold, even as automated digital systems become more deeply woven into daily life. Thus the question: What is the future of human agency? Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked experts to share their insights on this; 540 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, academics and activists responded. Specifically, they were asked: By 2035, will smart machines, bots and systems powered by artificial intelligence be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making that is relevant to their lives? The results of this nonscientific canvassing:

  • 56% of these experts agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will not be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making.
  • 44% said they agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making…”

The AI search engine for developers

“Phind (formerly Hello) is a search engine that simply tells users what the answer is. Optimized for developers and technical questions, Phind instantly answers questions with simple explanations and relevant code snippets from the web. Phind is powered by large, proprietary AI language models. It’s smart enough to generate answers based on information from multiple… Continue Reading

US says Google routinely destroyed evidence and lied about use of auto-delete

Ars Technica: “The US government asked a federal court to sanction Google for allegedly using an auto-delete function on chats to destroy evidence needed in an antitrust lawsuit while falsely telling the government that it suspended its auto-deletion practices. The US motion to sanction Google seeks a ruling that Google violated the rule against spoliation… Continue Reading

New Options for Member Alerts

In Custodia Legis – Congress.gov February 2023 New, Tip, and Top: “Congress.gov uses an iterative design process to get new features and enhancements to you quickly. With the January release Robert shared that member remarks are now included with sponsored and cosponsored legislation on member profile pages. With today’s release, we build on that by… Continue Reading

Weapons of control, shields of impunity: Internet shutdowns in 2022

accessnow: “From Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, authorities are imposing internet shutdowns at staggering rates. In 2022 alone, governments and other actors disrupted the internet at least 187 times across 35 countries — breaking our #KeepItOn record for the number of countries to hit the kill switch in a single year. Not only are shutdowns resurging after… Continue Reading

The 10 College Majors With the Highest (and Lowest) Post-Grad Unemployment Rates

Sacramento Bee: “U.S. unemployment may have hit its lowest rate in decades this January, but many Americans fresh out of college aren’t seeing gains like you might imagine from the robust job market. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest data on how recent graduates are faring in the labor market shows a college… Continue Reading

ABA – vast majority of criminal cases end in plea bargains

NPR: “In any given year, 98% of criminal cases in the federal courts end with a plea bargain — a practice that prizes efficiency over fairness and innocence, according to a new report from the American Bar Association. A task force that includes prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and academics cited “substantial evidence” that innocent people… Continue Reading