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Media Bits and Bytes - Artificial Intelligence and More

AI in daily life, war, repression, surveillance, and work; historians on Twitter

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How AI Will Rewire Us

By Nicholas A. Christakis
April 2019
The Atlantic

For better and for worse, robots will alter humans’ capacity for altruism, love, and friendship.

The AI Wars

By Allegra Harpootlian and Emily Manna
April 28, 2019
TomDispatch

Pentagon officials recently made it clear that they want to expand the use of artificial intelligence in warfare in order to maintain America’s “strategic position and prevail on future battlefields.” Unfortunately, it’s not just future battlefields that the public needs to worry about. 

 

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Some AI Just Shouldn’t Exist

By Sigal Samuel  
April 19, 2019
Vox

Attempts to “fix” biased AI can actually harm black, gay, and transgender people.

How Artificial Intelligence Systems Could Threaten Democracy

By Steven Feldstein
April 22, 2019
The Conversation

The advent of digital repression is profoundly affecting the relationship between citizen and state.

How Robots Became a Scapegoat For the Destruction of the Working Class

By Jeff Spross
April 29, 2019
The Week

The problems of inequality, stagnation, and unemployment (which get blamed on the robots) are due to policy choices and power dynamics in the U.S. economy.

The Revolution Need Not Be Automated

By Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo
March 29, 2019
Project Syndicate

For centuries after the Industrial Revolution, automation did not hinder wage and employment growth, because it was accompanied by new technologies geared toward maintaining the role of human labor in value creation. But in the era of artificial intelligence, it will be up to policymakers to ensure that the pattern continues.

When Bad Actors Twist History, Historians Take to Twitter. That’s a Good Thing.

By Waitman Wade Beorn
March 19, 2019
The Washington Post

The abuse of history for present aims is dangerously ubiquitous, and false and manipulated versions of the past can spread easily. It was inevitable that the abuse would migrate to Twitter, a free-for-all of digital lawlessness. Historians have not stood idly by, however.