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Artificial intelligence risks GM-style public backlash, experts warn

Researchers say social, ethical and political concerns in the UK about artificial intelligence (AI) are mounting and greater oversight is urgently needed, according to the Guardian. Otherwise, we could expect to see the kind of social disruption that greeted the advent of genetically-modified (GM) foods during the past decades. The Guardian’s report notes that there are no testing standards or requirement for AI to explain their decisions. There is also no organisation equipped to monitor and investigate any bad decisions…

Social media stars breaching rules on promoting brands, watchdog says

The Guardian reports on a rise in complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK advertising regulator, who says ‘influencers’ on social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter fail to declare that they are being paid to publicise products. The newspaper defines ‘influencers’ thus: Social media celebrities who have large and engaged followings online. They get paid money to publicise products and can command tens of thousands for one post. This is about disclosure where the influencer publicising a…

Who should die when a driverless car crashes? Q&A ponders the future

In the 2004 science fiction film I, Robot, the police detective hero played by Will Smith is in a car crash resulting in his vehicle and another sinking in a river. The other car contains a trapped 12-year-old girl. With imminent death by drowning confronting both characters, a rescue robot appears and rescues the hero from his doomed car but leaves the girl to die. Why? Because, the robot’s logic tells it, her survival was statistically less likely than the…

#Hashtag10: the best hashtag fails in a decade

How did we manage before Twitter? is a question I often hear, asked by a range of different people from casual personal users to immersed influence marketers. I’ve found it a great tool over the past decade to help me connect with others, share thoughts and opinions, bookmark ideas and join up the dots in conversations. It’s that latter aspect that is especially useful thanks to the hashtag, a device created by Chris Messina that came to the fore a…

Artificial intelligence survey finds UK public broadly optimistic

Support for ‘machine learning’ depended on what it would be used for, with mass unemployment among main fears