Werd I/O

[By Sarah Gilbert, Michael Zimmer, and Nathan Matias at the Coalition for Independent Technology Research]

A strong statement from the Coalition for Independent Technology Research:

"On April 26, moderators of r/ChangeMyView, a community on Reddit dedicated to understanding the perspectives of others, revealed that academic researchers from the University of Zürich conducted a large-scale, unauthorized AI experiment on their community. The researchers had used AI bots to secretly impersonate people for experiments in persuasion."

But:

"There is no question: this experiment was unethical. Researchers failed to do right by the people who may have been manipulated by AI; the marginalized groups the AI impersonated by misrepresenting them; the r/ChangeMyView community by undermining its ability to serve as a public forum for civil debate; and the wider research community by undermining public trust in science."

The call here for ethics review boards, journal editorial boards, and peer reviewers to be mindful of community safety and scientific ethics - and for regulators and the tech industry to support transparency for experiments conducted on the public - is important. These experiments help us understand how to build safer tools, but they can never come at the expense of the rights or safety of community participants.

#Science

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“It was Franklin who was sabotaged. Three times her pivotal results were shared by male scientists with other male scientists without her permission and behind her back — once when a PhD student gave Wilkins the picture, once when Wilkins showed it to Watson and again when a grant administrator showed a summary of her work to Crick.” #Science

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“The idea of a building that can learn, that can adjust this dynamic array on its own to optimize for seasonal and daily changes in solar conditions, is very exciting for us.” No kidding! #Science

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““There are millions of beehives all over the world, and they don’t have a good health care system compared to other animals,” she said. “Now we have the tools to improve their resistance against diseases.”” Vaccines for bees! #Science

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“Bumble bees play, according to new research led by Queen Mary University of London published in Animal Behaviour. It is the first time that object play behavior has been shown in an insect, adding to mounting evidence that bees may experience positive "feelings.”” I can’t believe it’s taking this long to get to the obvious idea that all animals have feelings. #Science

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“Focusing on the suppression of melatonin — the hormone that regulates sleep cycles — star visibility, and insects' response to light, the researchers found that all categories were negatively affected. The level of melatonin suppression in humans has gone up since 2013, stars are less visible, and the insects' response to light was unnaturally altered.” #Science

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“The problem: Overwhelming evidence shows that your child almost certainly hasn’t been duped. Although some people do reconsider or reverse their transition, once a person starts identifying as trans, it’s quite unlikely they’ll change their mind. No matter how strongly you believe that the internet, social contagion, and positive representations of transgender people turned your child trans, chances are your child disagrees.” #Science

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“But a few days later, Klein revealed that the photo he tweeted was not the work of the world’s most powerful space telescope, as he had in fact tweeted a slice of chorizo sausage.” #Science

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