http://solveforinteresting.com/big-data-is-our-generations-civil-rights-issue-and-we-dont-know-it/
Note at the start: We gotta stop quote oore’s law in pop science peices. It is not an actual scientiofic law we are seeing out. Just a popular shorthand - and it is fueling the idea of unfettered and contiunuous growth.
Much like a lot of the issues facing us today, it largely has to do with the specter of where the lines of the system are drawn. The day a target ad would send maternity goods to a woman when she started to think about having a family was the day the concept of privacy went out the window. That is not to say throw it all out there is no point. If you accept that there will be a digital footprint that can be traced for virtually everyone, the faster you can start to talk about what is and isn’t fair game. A computer being able to predict a thing doesn’t absolvbe you of using the information in such a way to descriminate - though that hasn’t been that easy to prove traditionally anyway. So to a certain extent big data needs to have some element of self regulation - and there is nothing short of federal regulation that could start that. The agnostic, l;et the AI figure out the connections has yeilded great results, but AI is not a tech solution to take away bias. t does not absolve you. The information fed to the machines is all fed from a system that recorded and tracked those records - endorced theior authentricity. That in itself is a perspective. Assuming because it is numbers on a page it does not have a bias is rediculous. And that isn’t even getting to the point that the way we design the AI to start, the way we test it, the source of the data - it will grow on thoise inputs - but they will start from there. It is not evolution, it is not “smart” it is finding the “best” solution to the problem, as presented. And traditionally the most efficient solutions to problems we decide to tackle don’t end up working out so well for marginalized groups.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2017/11/21/self-driving-cars-ethics/804805001/
First just to start, Anyone reading this should treat tesla like Crypto - an Elon inflated bubble. The self driving division is far from real world ready, let alone have the company ruminate on ethical questions.
That being said, the trolly/blame problem is a tried and true one. From what I have seen of the studies and thought excersizes the last few years, the closest we could come to an thical roolout in our lifetime would be in enclosed systems. Have the sections of road be automation only. Make it into a public swork project to connect the cities with automated driverless cars and trucks. You cut down on a lot of the uncertainties of the tech when you seal off as much outside human interferenceday to day. The decision to make our society based on cars was already a bad one as we have seen. The impulse to see the shiny new tech as the solution - and keep that vision of it long after the reality sinks in is a trend not uncommon in late stage US. So the wory on the tech side in regards to ethics comes largely from that implulse. To see the tech and optimization as solutions to problems, rather than new tools built on the same foundations. With the same blindspots. And like with self driving cars - sadly we will likely see the discussion less about where blame and ethical karma lies, and more on how much the laws can be bent or change to make it not ILLEGAL before we really can talk it over.