ethics

They then tested OrganEx’s efficacy by comparing pigs treated with it with pigs hooked up to a more traditional machine used by hospitals to save the lives of patients with severe heart and lung conditions by restoring their circulation, a process called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The organs treated with the OrganEx were found to have fewer signs of hemorrhage, cell damage or tissue swelling than those treated with ECMO. The researchers said this demonstrates the system can repair some functions in…

The French subsidiary of Samsung Electronics is facing charges of deceptive marketing over its corporate ethics pledges after local activists complained that the smartphone giant's practices in its factories, including the use of underage labour, violated human rights, two NGOs said Wednesday.The preliminary charges were lodged in April against the South Korean firm by a Paris investigating magistrate following a complaint by two French activist groups: Sherpa and ActionAid France - Peuples Solidaires. The complaint…

Two weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion, Ye Yuan heard from a woman who wanted to reverse her decision to donate her embryos to scientific research. The woman—who contacted Yuan anonymously through a fertility counselor—was fearful that if the law in Colorado changed to make it illegal to discard or experiment on human embryos, then she would be forced to have hers frozen indefinitely. In a year, or five years, might a law change to stop her from having the final say over what…

In September last year, Google's cloud unit looked into using artificial intelligence to help a financial firm decide whom to lend money to. It turned down the client's idea after weeks of internal discussions, deeming the project too ethically dicey because the AI technology could perpetuate biases like those around race and gender.Since early last year, Google has also blocked new AI features analysing emotions, fearing cultural insensitivity, while Microsoft restricted software mimicking voices and IBM rejected a…

Whether they’re studying bioinformatics, history, or astrophysics, Ph.D. recipients in France will soon have to take an integrity oath on the day they successfully defend their thesis, in what seems to be the first national initiative of its kind. Few scientists, in France or elsewhere, believe the oath alone is likely to prevent misconduct. Nonetheless, some see it as a symbolic step in the right direction that might inspire change elsewhere. “We had a long way to go” compared…

For medication abortions, sorting out federal preemption will require fresh lawsuits, which are likely to be brought in states already hostile to abortion, and—depending on their outcome—might rise to a Supreme Court that has already negated abortion rights. Legal experts worry that this could lead to findings with wider implications for federalism as a whole. “In over 230 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence, and the practice of law and rule of law, it has always been that federal laws and regulations govern the laws of…

At 18 months old, Aurea Yenmai Smigrodzki is inquisitive like any other toddler. She likes peanut butter, the beach, and mobile phones—or any toys that look like phones. She likes to copy her mum and dad, Thuy and Rafal, when they are using theirs. Aurea doesn’t know it yet, but her birth was very special: She is the world’s first PGT-P baby, meaning she is statistically less likely than the rest of us to develop a genetic disease or disorder throughout her life.PGT-P stands for preimplantation genetic testing for…

Businesses need to think about ethics from ground zero when they begin conceptualising and developing artificial intelligence (AI) products. This will help ensure AI tools can be implemented responsibly and without bias. The same approach already is deemed essential to cybersecurity products, where a "security by design" development principle will drive the need to assess risks and hardcode security from the start, so piecemeal patchwork and costly retrofitting can be avoided at a later stage. This mindset now should be…

Who is responsible when AI harms someone? A California jury may soon have to decide. In December 2019, a person driving a Tesla with an artificial intelligence driving system killed two people in Gardena in an accident. The Tesla driver faces several years in prison. In light of this and other incidents, both the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating Tesla crashes, and NHTSA has recently broadened its probe to explore how drivers interact…

But it calls itself a person.Person and human are two very different things. Human is a biological term. It is not a human, and it knows it’s not a human.It’s a very strange entity you’re describing because the entity is bound by algorithmic biases that humans put in there.You’re right on point. That’s exactly correct.But I get the sense you’re implying that it’s possible for LaMDA to overcome those algorithmic biases.We’ve got to be very careful here. Parts of the experiments I was running were to determine whether or…