Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
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Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#2Hey HN, I'm the author of this article (also the precursor predicting this, which was on the front page yesterday). My impression is that the best place to look for an explanation is actually the facebook post by Luciano Floridi: https://www.facebook.com/floridi/posts/10157226054696031. My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Obviously, protests by Google employees played a role too.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#3Hey HN, I'm the author of this article (also the precursor predicting this, which was on the front page yesterday). My impression is that the best place to look for an explanation is actually the facebook post by Luciano Floridi: https://www.facebook.com/floridi/posts/10157226054696031 . My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Obviously, protests…
> My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point.
Well, that's the point, isn't it? If the AI ethics council is meeting four times a year for a couple hours at most, and and has people who can't even agree on "Which bathroom should this person use," how are they going to produce productive advice for actual hard questions that haven't been well-explored?
There is a place for debate between people who don't agree on worldview. This council was never going to be it.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#4Not only could the panelists themselves not work together constructively. Googler's were so enraged by the inclusion of certain people that any recommendation with those people's sign-on would have been DOA.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#5So what now? No ethics board at all and it just proceeds without ethics oversight?
Isn’t that state worse than having someone you disagree with on some principles but in theory provide constructive criticism where the politics don’t intersect?
I mean, making some jobs obsolete or making decisions on recidivism etc I think are distinct from what a panelist thinks about an unrelated issue.
Moreover this person didn’t provide s majority view. Presumably the other panelists would have good arguments against her controversial views.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#6Not only could the panelists themselves not work together constructively. Googler's were so enraged by the inclusion of certain people that any recommendation with those people's sign-on would have been DOA.
This is the cause of Googler rage: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273360/how-african-american...
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#7Why can’t leadership at Google stand by any of their decisions, instead of caving in to the demands of a small yet vocal group of people.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#8Hey HN, I'm the author of this article (also the precursor predicting this, which was on the front page yesterday). My impression is that the best place to look for an explanation is actually the facebook post by Luciano Floridi: https://www.facebook.com/floridi/posts/10157226054696031 . My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Obviously, protests…
> My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Well, that's the point, isn't it? If the AI ethics council is meeting four times a year for a couple hours at most, and and has people who can't even agree on "Which bathroom should this person use," how are they going to produce productive advice for actual hard questions that haven't been well-explored?…
Presumably there would be many more issues beside bathroom policies. Moreover one person isn’t s majority among eight.
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#9Hey HN, I'm the author of this article (also the precursor predicting this, which was on the front page yesterday). My impression is that the best place to look for an explanation is actually the facebook post by Luciano Floridi: https://www.facebook.com/floridi/posts/10157226054696031 . My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Obviously, protests…
> My sources at Google just couldn't see the panelists constructively working together on a panel at this point. Well, that's the point, isn't it? If the AI ethics council is meeting four times a year for a couple hours at most, and and has people who can't even agree on "Which bathroom should this person use," how are they going to produce productive advice for actual hard questions that haven't been well-explored?…
You're right about all of that, but shouldn't a meaningful board at least make some show of trying to include diverse opinions? The key word of course is "meaningful", and I think you're right on the money that Google wasn't interested in having a panel to discuss meaningful issues in the first place; it seems more likely that they wanted to be able to point to a source of "external" "unbiased" opinions to justify what they were planning to do already.
(Obviously the people who complained about a prominent right-wing figure would just argue something hypocritical like "only the right kind of diversity of opinion", but that's beside the point; the panel was a dumb idea to begin with, coming from a group with so much of a stake in trying to advance AI for the sake of advertising)
Re: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry
#10We need an independent AI ethics oversight panel (not just for Google), period. But with everything ethical so tainted with insanely polarized politics it is unfortunately impossible to envisage such a board operating with the required general legitimacy. Which doesn't bode well for human control over technology in the future.