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(TNS) Researchers at the University of Michigan have been exploring the need to set ethics standards and policies when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence, and they now have their own place to do so.

The university has created a new Center of Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC) that will focus on AI, data usage, augmented and virtual reality, privacy, open data and identity.

According to thecenters website, the name and abbreviation alludes to the ESC key on a computer keyboard, which was added to interrupt a program when it produced unwanted results.

In the same way, the Center for Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC pronounced escape) is dedicated to intervening when digital media and computing technologies reproduce inequality, exclusion, corruption, deception, racism or sexism, the centers mission statement reads.

The center will bring together scholars who are committed to feminist, justice-focused, inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to computing, the university said in a news release.

Associate Director Silvia Lindtner said the center has been in a soft launch phase since March 2019. The idea for ESC was born out of making a critical engagement with the politics and ethics of computing a central aspect of technology research and design, she said.

We established ESC to build on and give legitimacy to the long-term scholarship and activism in technology, engineering and design, and to create an interdisciplinary space to explore and apply critical, justice-oriented and feminist approaches to computing and technology research, Lindtner said.

Director Christian Sandvig said the center is hosting a visiting artist working on robotics this term, and that the center includes faculty from computer science, architecture, music and business schools.

We are fairly unique because we are aggressively pursuing research approaches and topics beyond what people normally think about as computing, Sandvig said.

Lindtner said the universitys public nature allows the center to engage deeply with the broader public, policy experts and actors in the social justice movement.

This is a topic that used to be on the fringes, but more recently has gotten broader attention as we have experienced many unintended consequences of technology, Lindtner said.

Some of the concerns the center will be tackling include gender and racial stereotyping in AI and data-based algorithms, as well as an overall lack of accountability and digital justice.

Sandvig said a lot of companies are now rushing to nominal ethics conversations as a solution to the negative perceptions of their products, but ESC is not interested in ethics-washing.

Were looking ahead to difficult debates about the future path we are steering with technology in society, Sandvig said. We need to make it normal that there is an extensive program of research about this topic ethics, justice, technology, people and the future and it must be central to the enterprise of developing technology and training students.

The center is sponsored by the School of Information; the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research, and the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts at UM.

2020 MLive.com, Walker, Mich..Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.

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University to Help Society Wrap Their Minds Around Artificial Intelligence - Governing

Google CEO Sundar Pichaiis calling for governments around the world to regulate artificial intelligence, saying the sensitive technology should not be used to "support mass surveillance or violate human rights."

However, Pichai the top executive at Google as well as its parent company Alphabet also argued that governments should not go too far as they work to rein in high-stakes technologies like facial recognition and self-driving vehicles.

His speech inEurope and companion op-edcome as Europe weighs newethics rules for artificial intelligence and the White House urges a light-touch approach to regulating technology.

"There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated," Pichai wrote in theFinancial Times. "It is too important not to. The only question is how to approach it."

Since 2018 Google has touted its AI principles as a potential framework for government regulation. The guidelines urge tech companies to ensure artificial intelligence technologies incorporateprivacy features, contribute to the greater social good and do not reflect "unfair" human biases.

Critics have pushed back onthe tech industry's stated support for AI regulation,claiming the companies are trying to dictate the terms of regulation in their own favor.

"Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms, especially in high-risk areas, with social opportunities," Pichai wrote.

Governments around the world have found themselves behind the curve as artificial intelligence advances at lightning speed, opening up new frontiers for potential regulation. Several cities in the U.S. have taken the lead by imposing all-out bans on facial recognition technology,which oftenmisidentifies people of color at higher rates.

Pichai has thrown his support behind a temporary ban onfacial recognition technology, which he says can be used for "nefarious" purposes.

"I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it, Pichai said at a conference in Brussels this week.It can be immediate, but maybe theres a waiting period before we really think about how its being used. ... Its up to governments to chart the course.

Microsoft has also released its own ideas around how to regulatefacial recognition tech, and says it abides by a strict set of AI ethics standards.

In 2018, Pichai spent his speech in Davos, Switzerland, toutingthe enormous potential of artificial intelligence, presenting a rosier view of the technologybefore it experienced an intense backlash over the past several years.

Now, as Europe and the U.S. creep closer to instituting rules around many of the products that Google creates, Pichai is raising his voice around what he sees as the best approach to AI.

"Googles role starts with recognizing the need for a principled and regulated approach to applying AI, but it doesnt end there," Pichai wrote. "We want to be a helpful and engaged partner to regulators as they grapple with the inevitable tensions and trade-offs. We offer our expertise, experience and tools as we navigate these issues together."

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Google CEO: 'Artificial intelligence needs to be regulated' | TheHill - The Hill

The Pentagon launched its Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in 2018 to strategically unify and accelerate AI applications across the nations defense and military enterprise. Insiders at the center have now spent about nine months executing that defense driven AI-support.

At an ACT-IAC forum in Washington Wednesday, Rachael Martin, the JAICs mission chief of Intelligent Business Automation Augmentation and Analytics, highlighted insiders early approach to automation and innovation.

Our mission is to transform the [Defense] business process through AI technologies, to improve efficiency and accuracybut really to do all those things so that we can improve our overall warfighter support, Martin said.

Within her specific mission area, Martin and the team explore and develop automated applications that support a range of efforts across the Pentagon, such as business administration, human capital management, acquisitions, finance and budget training, and beyond. Because the enterprise is vast, the center is selective in determining the projects and programs best fit to be taken under its wing.

For the JAIC, there are a couple of key principles that we want to go by, or that we're going to adhere to when we're looking at a project and whether we support it, Martin explained.

The first principle to be evaluated is mission impact. In this review, insiders pose questions like who cares? she said. They assess the user-base that would most benefit from the project and what the ultimate outcome would be across Defense if the JAIC opted to support it. Next, according to Martin, officials review data-readiness. In this light, insiders address factors like where the data to be used is storedand whether its actually prepped for AI, or more advanced analysis and modeling to run on top of it.

The third factor thats assessed is technology maturity. Martin said that contrary to what many seem to think, the JAIC is not a research organization but instead seeks to apply and accelerate their adoption of already-existing solutions across the department and where those improvements are needed most. Insiders are therefore not at all interested in spending heaps of time researching new, emerging AI and automation applications. Instead, they aim to identify what already exists and is ready to be deployed at this moment.

So that's a big one for us that we like to emphasize, Martin said.

The final assessment is whether the JAIC can identify Defense insiders who will actually use whatever they are set to build. When developing something new, Martin said insiders want to those itll eventually touch to weigh in on the development every step of the way.

We're not in the business of coming up with good ideas and then creating something and trying to hoist it on somebody else, Martin said. We really believe in a very user-centric approach.

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How the Pentagon's JAIC Picks Its Artificial Intelligence-Driven Projects - Nextgov

Sergey Tarasov - stock.adobe.com

Last Friday, the World Economic Forum (WEF) sent out a press announcement about an artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit for corporate boards. The release pointed to a section of their web site titled Empowering AI Leadership. For some reason, at this writing, there is no obvious link to the toolkit, but the press team was quick to provide the link. It is well laid out in linked we pages, and some well-produced pdfs are available for download. For purposes of this article, I have only looked at the overview and the ethics section, so here are my initial impressions.

As would be expected from an organization focused on a select few in the world, the AI toolkit is high level. Boards of directors have broad but shallow oversight over companies, so there is no need to focus on details. Still, it is wished that a bit more accuracy had been involved.

The description of AI is very nice. There are many definitions and, as Ive repeatedly pointed out, the meaning of AI and of machine learning (ML) continue to both be changing and to have different meanings to many. The problem in the setup is one that many people miss about ML. In the introductory module, the WEF claims The breakthrough came in recent years, when computer scientists adopted a practical way to build systems that can learn. They support that with a link to an article that gets it wrong. The breakthrough mentioned in the article, the level of accuracy in an ML system, is far more driven by a non-AI breakthrough than a specific ML model.

When we studied AI in the 1980s, deep learning was known and models existed. What we couldnt do is run them. Hardware and operating systems didnt support the needed algorithms and the data volumes that were required to train them. Cloud computing is the real AI breakthrough. The ability to link multiple processors and computers in an efficient and larger virtual machine is what has powered the last decades growth of AI.

I was also amused about with list of core AI techniques where deep learning and neural networks are listed at the same level as the learning methods used to train them. Im only amused, not upset, because boards dont need to know the difference to start, but its important to introduce them to the terms. I did glance at the glossary, and its a very nice set of high-level definitions of some of these so interested board members can get some clarification.

On a quick tangent, their definition of bias is well done, as only a few short sentences reference both the real world issue of bias and the danger of bias within an AI system.

Ethics are an important component (in theory) to the management of companies. The WEF points out at the beginning of that module that technology companies, professional associations, government agencies, NGOs and academic groups have already developed many AI codes of ethics and professional conduct. The statement reminds me of the saying that standards are so important that everyone wants one of their own. The module then goes on to discuss a few of the issue of the different standards.

Where I differ from the WEF should be no surprise. This section strongly minimized governmental regulation. Its all up to the brave and ethical company. As Zuckerbergs decision that Facebook will allow lies in political advertisements as long as it makes the firm and himself wealthier, it is clear that governments must be more active in setting guidelines on technical companies, both in at large and within the AI arena. Two years ago, I discussed how the FDA is looking at how to handle machine learning. Governments move slowly, but they move. Its clear that companies need to be more aware of the changing regulatory environment. Ethical companies should be involved in both helping governments set reasonable regulations, ones that protect consumers as well as companies, and should be preparing systems, in advance, to match where they think a proper regulatory environment will evolve.

The WEFs Davos meetings are, regardless of my own personal cynicism about them, where government and business leaders meet to discuss critical economic issues. Its great to see the WEF taking a strong look at AI and then presenting what looks like a very good, introductory, toolkit for boards of directors, but the need for strong ethical positions means that more is needed. It will be interesting to see how their positioning advances over the next couple of years. F

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The World Economic Forum Jumps On the Artificial Intelligence Bandwagon - Forbes

ORLANDO -- Though golf has a tendency to move slower than most industries, the technology innovations we've seen this week beg to differ. Artificial intelligence and robotics have been terms perhaps thrown around in the past, implemented by only the biggest companies, but now we're actually seeing the results of intense research and development. And that's especially true in the golf instruction realm, where lessons can have so much added value with the right set of data and smart products.

There were too many items to say this is a definitive list. But this is at least what caught our eye at the 2020 PGA Merchandise Show in the ever-expanding tech/instruction space.

1 . Hack Motion wrist sensor. Teachers (and students) want the ability to capture swing data and analyze it immediately. The biofeedback from Hack Motion, a wrist-motion training system, is synced to your tablet or smartphone (or computer). It tracks your wrist movement in real time, measuring wrist flexion, extension and rotation via a device you wear like a watch, in addition to a Velcroed strap you wear around your forefingers. After a quick minute calibration, the system captures any swing you make and delivers the data to the app, where you can study it. There's also access to tour-player data the company has captured over the past two-plus years. A Latvian-based company, CEO Atis Hermanas says the company has sold units to more than 40 countries over the past two years. It had leading coaches David Orr, James Leitz, Brian Manzella and others speaking to the benefits of the technology at the PGA Show. With audio feedback and seven hours of battery life, there's a lot to like about Hack Motion.

2 . TrackMan's new A.I. technology (Tracy). TrackMan's continued iterations on its existing technology will be fun to follow. It will continue to innovate on its launch-monitor technology to expand its offerings, including its simulator business. Perhaps most impressive is its new Tracy technology, which TrackMan unveiled at the PGA Show, with a soft June 1 launch. Tracy, adapted from tracer, is a mode you can turn on and off, which will recommend what you should work on based on a minimum of six shots on a TrackMan device. It will audibly communicate with you (if you want it to), with voice commands that ask game-analysis questions, and it will make recommendations based on the (estimated) 500-million-plus shots the company has collected around the world. As the company says, it pinpoints what you need to work, not how to work on itencouraging you to seek the advice of an instructor.

3 . V1 + BodyTrak partnership. Applying ground force in the golf swing with proper sequencing is one of the hot instruction applications these days, as we continue to study how tour pros apply such force to their tee shots. A partnership between BodiTrak, which measures vertical force and velocity through a portable pressure matand V1 Sports, one of the first to penetrate the instruction/app spacehopes to deliver a complete way to capture data and study the kinematic sequencing. The package goes for $3,500.

RELATED: PGA Show 2020: Five affordable new launch monitors geared for the everyman

4 . K-Motion's Smart Tiles. You've likely seen or heard about K-Motion's K-Vest motion-capture technology, which allows 3-D swing data to be captured and analyzed. With the system's new Smart Tiles, debuting at the PGA Show, a player's wrist and body movements are immediately captured and stored in the system's cloud-based improvement panel, allowing your teacher to provide feedback immediately. Color-coded cues also make it easy to understand which area of your swing you need the most help, along with auditory feedback to specify the positions you need to get into. (K-Player, the individual, consumer version of the technology goes for $2,495. And K-Coach, which includes the Smart Tiles, is $5,495.)

RELATED: Our best golf instruction: Jack Nicklaus' best tips

5. Dragonfly. A new player in this space, Guided Knowledgea British based companyhas introduced a smart suit with 18 sensors that a golfer can wear underneath their golf clothes and take it on the course. 3-D data is captured in real time as you play your round, and it's viewable via a remote coaching app with hundreds of performance metrics. Instead of being tied to the range or a pro's teaching facility, you can play your round and have sensors, from head to toe, measure your movements for improvement. "Players no longer have to be in a lab or a teacher's facility," says Jon Dalzell, chief science officer of Guided Knowledge. "What used to be an appointment is now available anywhere, anytime."

RELATED: You can now rent (or own) your own robotic putting simulator unit (if you have the money)

6 . Uneekor Eye XO launch monitor. The incredible explosion of simulators and launch monitors within golf has been fun to follow. The new Eye XO from Uneekor is a little different. It's an overhead launch monitor with non-marking ball technology, which will work outsidea convenience for some. With two cameras, down the line and face-on capturing 200 frames per second, in addition to a stereographic lens overhead, the system is able to provide a very crisp, sharp video of the golfer making contact with the ball, with video from each angle showing the ball traveling off the face, without any pixelation. Doug Bybee, with experience over 25 years within the industry as a fitter with Mizuno and Cobra among others, says he whiteboarded the concept for the company's new product just two days before his team in South Korea developed a software and cloud solution. He unveiled the prototype at the PGA Show, with the product marked for a June 1 launch ($10-12,000 for the complete program, or $1,250 for the pair of straight cameras.

RELATED: A GPS and a speaker all in one: Bushnell unveiled its innovative product this week

7 . U.S. Kids teaching app. One of the leaders in youth golf, U.S. Kids unveiled a new app this week that will allow instructors to organize and track kids' progress to deliver feedback to the player and coach. The digital Player Pathway scoreboard includes color-coded levels for each player, too, for easier sorting and tracking. Just like the other items above, it's making life easier on the teacher, so they can be more efficient with their time, and help more players ... a win for all.

RELATED: Golf instruction truths: The one move you need to make better iron contact

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7 new ways golf instruction is embracing artificial intelligence and innovative technology - Golf Digest