A group of bats throwing missiles from the night sky
Harm

Killer Robots Are Here: Are AI-Powered Weapons the Future of Warfare?

War is already bad enough. What happens when human combatants are replaced by machines?
Illustration of Thumbzilla destroying a city and shooting lightning from its mouth (T-Rex with Facebook thumbs up)
Harm

Don’t Be Evil: What if AI Enables Corporations to Become Truly Evil?

Tech companies generally try to be (or to appear to be) socially responsible. Would some rather let AI’s negative impacts slide?
A surveillance camera over the Washington Monument
Harm

White House Supports Limits on AI: U.S. Rules Protect Citizens from AI-Powered Surveillance and Discrimination

As governments worldwide mull their AI strategies and policies, the Biden administration called for a “bill of rights” to mitigate adverse consequences.What’s new: Top advisors to the U.S. president announced a plan to issue rules
Charts showing the impact of Instagram in different topics
Harm

The Social Nightmare: Facebook Whistleblower Exposes How Company Harms Users

Scrutiny of Facebook intensified after a whistleblower leaked internal research showing the company has known that its ongoing drive to engage users has harmed individuals and society at large.
Nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's funeral
Harm

Distance Killing: Israeli Agents Assasinated Iranian Scientist With AI-Sniper Rifle

A remote sniper used an automated system to take out a human target located thousands of miles away.What happened: The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad used an AI-assisted rifle in the November killing of Iran’s chief nuclear scientist,
United Nations (UN) logo displayed multiple times
Harm

UN Calls Out AI: UN Report Highlights AI-Related Risks for Privacy, Bias

Human rights officials called for limits on some uses of AI.What’s new: Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, appealed to the organization’s member states to suspend certain
Screen capture showing a Chinese app's food recommendations
Harm

Rules for Recommenders: China Bans Harmful Recommendation Algorithms

China moved toward a clamp down on recommendation algorithms.What’s new: China’s internet regulatory agency proposed rules that include banning algorithms that spread disinformation and threaten national security.
Results of survey about how AI Engineers vs US public feel about ethical issues
Harm

AI Engineers Weigh In on AI Ethics: Survey Shows How AI Engineers Feel About Ethical Issues

Machine learning researchers tend to trust international organizations, distrust military forces, and disagree on how much disclosure is necessary when describing new models, a new study found.
Series of images showing some of the findings of the new study by researchers at Stanford’s Human AI Institute
Harm

Weak Foundations Make Weak Models: Foundation AI Models Pass Flaws to Fine-Tuned Variants

A new study examines a major strain of recent research: huge models pretrained on immense quantities of uncurated, unlabeled data and then fine-tuned on a smaller, curated corpus.
Animation showing NarxCare, a system that analyzes databases that track drug prescriptions in the US
Harm

Fighting Addiction or Denying Care?: NarxCare Medical AI Denies Painkillers to Patients in Need

An epidemic of opioid abuse in the U.S. killed 93,000 people in 2020 alone. An algorithm intended to help doctors prescribe the drugs responsibly may be barring worthy patients from pain relief.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook discussing privacy with a Privacy sign above him
Harm

User Privacy Versus Child Safety: Apple to scan user phones for images of child abuse.

Apple, which has made a point of its commitment to user privacy, announced that it will scan iPhones for evidence of child abuse. The tech giant will include a machine learning model on the device.
Series of images related to face recognition protocols for federal agencies
Harm

U.S. Lax on Face Recognition: U.S. agency calls for stricter face recognition controls.

A U.S. government watchdog agency called for stronger face recognition protocols for federal agencies. An audit found that, while many employ face recognition, they may not know where it came from, how it’s being used, or the hazards involved.
Amazon delivery driver working
Harm

When Algorithms Manage Humans: Amazon drivers say AI unfairly graded their performance.

Some delivery drivers fired by Amazon contend that the retailer’s automated management system played an unfair role in terminating their employment. Drivers in Amazon Flex, an Uber-like program that enables independent drivers to earn money delivering the company’s packages.
Animated neural networks metaphorically AI taking over a group of people
Harm

Is Ethical AI an Oxymoron?: Survey finds tech pros are pessimistic about ethical AI.

Many people both outside and inside the tech industry believe that AI will serve mostly to boost profits and monitor people — without regard for negative consequences.
PimEyes working with pictures of Andrew Ng
Harm

Face Recognition for the Masses: PimEyes is reverse image search for face recognition.

Face recognition tech tends to be marketed to government agencies, but PimEyes offers a web app that lets anyone scan the internet for photos of themself — or anyone they have a picture of. The company says it aims to help people control their online presence and fight identity theft.

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