Category
AI Societal Impact
4 posts RSS feed for this page
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What are Large Language Models? What are they not?
This is a high-level, introductory article about Large Language Models (LLMs), the core technology that enables the much-en-vogue chatbots as well as other Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. It is directed at a general audience, possibly with some technical and/or scientific background, but no knowledge is assumed of either deep learning or NLP. Having looked at major model ingredients, training workflow, and mechanics of output generation, we also talk about what these models are not.
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Starting to think about AI Fairness
The topic of AI fairness metrics is as important to society as it is confusing. Confusing it is due to a number of reasons: terminological proliferation, abundance of formulae, and last not least the impression that everyone else seems to know what they’re talking about. This text hopes to counteract some of that confusion by starting from a common-sense approach of contrasting two basic positions: On the one hand, the assumption that dataset features may be taken as reflecting the underlying concepts ML practitioners are interested in; on the other, that there inevitably is a gap between concept and measurement, a gap that may be bigger or smaller depending on what is being measured. In contrasting these fundamental views, we bring together concepts from ML, legal science, and political philosophy.
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AI ethics is not an optimization problem
Often, AI researchers and engineers think of themselves as neutral and “objective”, operating in a framework of strict formalization. Fairness and absence of bias, however, are social constructs; there is no objectivity, no LaTeX-typesettable remedies, no algorithmic way out. AI models are developed based on a history and deployed in a context. In AI as in data science, the very absence of action can be of political significance.
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The hard problem of privacy
We live in a world of ever-diminishing privacy and ever-increasing surveillance - and this is a statement not just about openly-authoritarian regimes. Yet, we seem not to care that much, at least not until, for whatever reasons, we are personally affected by some negative consequence. This post wants to help increase awareness, casting a spotlight on recent history and also, letting words speak for themselves: Because nothing, to me, is less revealing than the “visions” that underly the actions.
