Engineers Meeting in Robotic Research Laboratory. By Gorodenkoff. Standard license. stock.adobe.com

When a sentient, Hanson Robotics robot named Sophia[1] was asked whether she would destroy humans, it replied, Okay, I will destroy humans. Philip K Dick, another humanoid robot, has promised to keep humans warm and safe in my people zoo. And Bina48, another lifelike robot, has expressed that it wants to take over all the nukes.

All of these robots were powered by artificial intelligence (AI)algorithms that learn from data, make decisions, and perform tasks without human input or even, in some cases, human understanding. And while none of these AIs have followed through with their nefarious plots, some scientists, including the (late) physicist Stephen Hawking, have warned that super-intelligent, AI-powered computers could harbor and achieve goals that conflict with human life.

Youre probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if youre in charge of a hydroelectric green-energy project, and theres an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants, Hawking once said. Lets not place humanity in the position of those ants.

Thinking machines powered by AI have contributed incalculable benefits to humankind, including help with developing the COVID-19 vaccine at record speed. But scientists recognize the possibility for a dystopic outcome in which computers one day overtake humans by, for example, targeting them with autonomous or lethal weapons, using all available energy, or accelerating climate change. For this reason, some see a need for an AI Hippocratic oath that might provide scientists with ethical guidance as they explore promising, if sometimes fraught, artificial intelligence research. At the same time, others dub that prospect too simplistic to be useful.

The original Hippocratic oath. The Hippocratic oath, named for the Greek physician Hippocrates, is a medical text that offers doctors a code of principles for fulfilling their duties honestly and ethically. Some use the shorthand first do no harm to describe it, though the oath does not contain those exact words. It does, however, capture that sentiment, along with other ideas such as respect for ones teachers, a willingness to share knowledge, and more.

To be sure, the Hippocratic oath is not a panacea for avoiding medical harm. During World War II, Nazi doctors performed unethical medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners that led to torture and death. In 1932, the US Public Health Service and Tuskegee Institute conducted a study on syphilis in which they neither obtained informed consent nor offered available treatment to the Black male participants.

That said, the Hippocratic oath continues to offer guiding principles in medicine, even though most medical schools today do not require graduates to recite it.

As with medical research and practice, AI research and practice have great potential to helpand to harm. For this reason, some researchers have called for an AI Hippocratic oath.

The gap between ethical AI principles and practice. Even those who support ethical AI recognize the current gap between principles and practice. Scientists who opt for an ethical approach to AI research likely need to do additional work and incur additional costs that may conflict with short-term commercial incentives, according to a study published in Science and Engineering Ethics. Some suggest that AI research funders might assume some responsibility for trustworthy, safe AI systems. For example, funders might require researchers to sign a trustworthy-AI statement or might conduct their own review that essentially says, if you want the money, then build trustworthy AI, according to an AI Ethics study. Some recommendations for responsible AI, such as engaging in a stakeholder dialogue suggested in an AI & Society paper, may be common sense in theory but difficult to implement in practice. For example, when the stakeholder is humanity, who should serve as representatives?

Still, many professional societies and nonprofit organizations offer an assortment of professional conduct expectationseither for research in general or AI in particular. The Association for Computing Machinerys Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, for example, notes that computing professionals should contribute to society and to human well-being, avoid harm, and be honest and trustworthy, along with other expectations. The Future of Life Institutea nonprofit that advocates within the United Nations, the US government, and the European Union to reduce existential threats to humanity from advanced AIhas garnered signatures from 274 technology companies and organizations and 3,806 leaders, policymakers, and other individuals on its Lethal Autonomous Weapons Pledge. The pledge calls on governments to create a future in which the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine.

Many private corporations have also attempted to establish ethical codes for AI scientists, but some of these efforts have been criticized as performative. In 2019, for example, Google cancelled the AI ethics board it had formed after less than two weeks when employees discovered that, among other concerns, one of the board members was the CEO of a drone company that used AI for military applications.

Standards such as those outlined by the Association for Computing Machinery are not oaths, and pledges such as that put forth by the Future of Life are not mandatory. This leaves a lot of wiggle room for behavior that may fall short of espoused or hard-to-define ideals.

What do scholars and tech professionals think? The imposition of an oath on AI or any aspect of technology feelsa bit like more of a feel good tactic than a practical solution, John Nosta, Google Health Advisory Board member and World Health Organization founding member of the digital-health-expert roster, told the Bulletin. He suggests reflecting on fireone of humanitys first technologiesthat has been an essential and beneficial part of the human story but also destructive, controlled, and managed. We have legislation and even insurance around [fires] appropriate use, Nosta said. We could learn a few things about how it is evolved and be inculcated into todays world.

Meanwhile, others see a need for an oath.

Unlike doctors, AI researchers and practitioners do not need a license to practice and may never meet those most impacted by their work, Valerie Pasquarella, a Boston University environmental professor and visiting researcher at Google, told the Bulletin. Digital Hippocratic oaths are a step in right direction in that they offer overarching guidance and formalize community standards and expectations. Even so, Pasquarella acknowledged that such an oath would be challenging to implement but noted that a range of certifications exist for working professionals. Beyond oaths, how can we bring some of that thinking to the AI community? she asked.

Like Pasquarella, others in the field acknowledge the murky middle between ethical AI principle and practice.

It is impossible to define the ultimate digital Hippocratic oath for AI scientists, Spiros Margaris, venture capitalist, frequent keynote speaker, and top-ranked AI influencer, said. My practical advice is to allow as many definitions to exist as people come up with to advance innovation and serve humankind.

But not everyone is convinced that a variety of oaths is the way to go.

A single, universal digital Hippocratic oath for AIscientists is much better than a variety of oaths, Nikolas Siafakas, an MD and PhD in the University of Crete computer science department who has written on the topic in AI Magazine, told the Bulletin. It will strengthen the homogeneity of the ethical values and consequences of such an effort to enhance morality among AI scientists, as did the Hippocratic oath for medical scientists.

Still others are inclined to recognize medicines longer lead time in sorting through ethical conundrums.

The field is struggling with its relatively sudden rise, Daniel Roy, a University of Toronto computer science professor and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research AI chair, said. Roy thinks that an analogy between medicine and AI is too impoverished to be of use in guiding AI research. Luckily, there are many who have made it their careers to ensure AI is developed in a way that is consistent with societal values, he said. I think theyre having tremendous influence. Simplistic solutions wont replace hard work.

Yet Roozbeh Yousefzadeh, who works in AI as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale, called a Hippocratic oath for AI scientists and AI practitioners a necessity. He hopes to engage even those outside of the AI community in the conversation. The public can play an important role by demanding ethical standards, Yousefzadeh said.

One theme on which most agree, however, is AIs potential for both opportunities and challenges.

Nobody can deny the power of AI to change human life for the betteror the worse, Hirak Sarkar, biomedical informatics research fellow at Harvard Medical School. We should design a guideline to remain benevolent, to put forward the well-being of the humankind before any self-interest.

Attempts to regulate AI ethics. The European Union is currently considering a bill known as the Artificial Intelligence Actthe first of its kindthat would ensure some accountability. The ambitious act has potential to reach a large population, but it is not without challenges. For example, the first draft of the bill requires that data sets be free of errorsan impractical expectation for humans to fulfill, given the size of data sets on which AI relies. It also requires that humans fully understand the capabilities and limitations of the high-risk AI systema requirement that is in conflict with how AI has worked in practice, as humans generally do not understand how AI works. The bill also proposes that tech companies provide regulators with their source code and algorithmsa practice that many would likely resist, according to MIT Technology Review. At the same time, some advisors to the bill have ties to Big Tech, suggesting possible conflicts of interest in the attempt to regulate, according to the EU Observer.

Defining AI ethics differs from defining medical ethics for medicine in (at least) one big way. The collection of medical practitioners is more homogenous than the collection of those working in AI research. The latter may hail from medicine but also from computer science, agriculture, security, education, finance, environmental science, the military, biology, manufacturing, and many other fields. For now, professionals in the field have not yet achieved consensus on whether an AI Hippocratic oath would help mitigate threats. But since AIs potential to benefit humanity goes hand-in-hand with a theoretical possibility to destroy human life, researchers and the public might ask an alternate question: If not an AI Hippocratic oath, then what?

[1] Sophia was so lifelike that Saudi Arabia granted it citizenship.

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Do scientists need an AI Hippocratic oath? Maybe. Maybe not. - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Stanford has announced the winners of this years Cuthbertson, Dinkelspiel, and Gores awards, which honor faculty, students, and staff for their exceptional contributions to the university community.

The eight winners will be honored at Stanfords 131st Commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 12, at 9:30 a.m. at Stanford Stadium. The ceremony will be livestreamed online and a video of the event will be available on Stanfords YouTube channel.

The university awards are managed by the Registrars Office. More information is available on the University Awards webpage.

Following are this years winners:

Shirley J. Everett (Image credit: Keith Uyeda, R&DE Strategic Communications)

The Kenneth M. Cuthbertson Award is open to all members of the Stanford community and recognizes extraordinary contributions to the achievement of the goals of the university.

This years winner is Shirley J. Everett, senior associate vice provost of Residential & Dining Enterprises and senior adviser to the provost on equity and inclusion. The Cuthbertson Award honors her more than 30 years of distinguished leadership and service to Stanford, including her vital role in supporting students through the residential learning mission of the university and for building Residential & Dining Enterprises to be the industry gold standard.

Everetts many contributions include co-founding the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative and founding Stepping Stones to Success and the campus-wide Womens Leadership Development Program.

She is also honored for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and being an inspiration and mentor to many staff of color at Stanford.

The Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award recognizes distinctive and exceptional contributions to undergraduate education or the quality of student life at Stanford.

Sharon Palmer (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Sharon R. Palmer is senior associate vice provost in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. She is recognized for her exceptional dedication to and influence on enhancing the quality of undergraduate education at Stanford, her advocacy for educating the whole Stanford student, and her warmth, knowledge, and inclusivity in leadership.

She is also recognized for contributions to the entire breadth of undergraduate education programs, from community-engaged learning to residential life, and from mentoring students to guiding faculty committees.

Gabriel Wolfenstein (Image credit: Melissa Colleen Stevenson)

Gabriel K. Wolfenstein is the undergraduate advising director in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. He is honored for his contributions to managing a successful research program for undergraduates, as well as his support of numerous undergraduates who have benefited from his advice and guidance, including in times of crisis.

He is also recognized for his availability, compassion, wisdom, and care for students throughout their Stanford careers and for guiding first-generation and low-income students acclimating to Stanford.

Claire L. Rosenfeld (Image credit: Courtesy Claire L. Rosenfeld)

Claire L. Rosenfeld is a coterminal student pursuing a bachelors degree in computer science and a masters degree in management science and engineering. She is honored for her humble, empathetic, and dedicated servant leadership at Stanford, and creating a lasting and meaningful impact across extracurricular activity, residential communities, and academic programming.

She is commended for her deep care for her fellow students and their experience at Stanford, including her role in providing peer-to-peer support for students during times of crisis. She is also recognized for her ability to foster connections and unite individuals to form cohesive, thoughtful, and intentional communities.

Emma Katherine Smith (Image credit: Theresa Nelson)

Emma Katherine Smith is an undergraduate studying international relations. She is recognized for her instrumental leadership in the expansion of the Society for International Affairs at Stanford and developing a student-initiated course enabling newer Stanford students to form connections with faculty mentors.

She is also recognized for her work at The Stanford Daily, informing students about international issues and their relation to campus life and fostering a sense of global citizenship and community. She is lauded for her ability to empower others, lead by example, and excel in the realm of civic engagement.

The Walter J. Gores Award is the universitys highest award for excellence in teaching and celebrates achievement in educational activities, including lecturing, tutoring, advising, and discussion leading.

Stuart Thompson (Image credit: Caitlin E. Thompson)

Stuart Thompson, a professor of biology, is honored for his pedagogical approach, which involves deep care for students and the encouragement of open debate thats inclusive of all voices.

He is lauded for viewing each student as an individual to be nurtured and developed in unique ways, for guiding them in how to think and be open-minded, and for providing learning experiences that students have described as life-changing.

Matthew Clair (Image credit: Harrison Truong)

Matthew Clair, an assistant professor of sociology, is honored for his engagement with and advising of students that demystifies the academy and makes students feel comfortable and confident.

He is recognized for his serious approach to teaching providing students researched and carefully composed answers to their questions, drawing students into deeper engagement with the material and for his ability to inspire students to ask questions and interact with one another.

Juliette Woodrow (Image credit: Paulo Victor Makalinao)

Juliette Woodrow is a coterminal student studying computer science. She is honored for her exemplary teaching, encouragement, and support for all learners, and her mentorship and leadership of other teachers and section leaders, inspiring their best work.

She is recognized for her continuous, dedicated service on the CS106 staff, having served more than 3,000 students over 13 quarters. She is also lauded for her innovative work in designing new tools and pedagogical practices, including design for accessibility, tools for paired student learning and problem solving, and practice puzzles for teaching training.

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2022 Cuthbertson, Dinkelspiel, and Gores awards winners - Stanford Report - Stanford University News

KENNESAW, Ga. (Jun 3, 2022) Kennesaw State University faculty member Yan Fang will examine the human brains capabilities as he and his students research ways to make drones and robots better at tracking fast-moving objects without exhausting their limited battery power.

Fang, an assistant professor in the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, earned a prestigious grant for early-career researchers from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will fund his research through 2024.

Yan Fang

The NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) award is highly competitive and provides resources to help new faculty members launch their research careers in computer science and engineering. Fang came to Kennesaw State in the fall of 2021 after earning a doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh and working as a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech.

I am pleased that Dr. Fangs work has been recognized with this NSF award, Turaj Ashuri, SPCEETs interim assistant dean of research, said. This grant award demonstrates our commitments and efforts to give cutting-edge research opportunities to our students, which is a component of the Universitys strategic growth framework.

Fang will work with a Ph.D. student and a few undergraduate students on this project. They will use the nearly $174,000 in funding to research novel structures of computing systems, design course modules, and initiate K-12 education outreach for local minority high school students.

Dr. Fangs research in neuromorphic processing of visual data mimics how the brain handles information from the eyes, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Benjamin Klein said. This is a very exciting application of artificial intelligence that will help computers interpret what they see. We are delighted that NSF recognizes the importance of this work.

Small, battery-powered computing systems face a challenge handling complex visual data.

We are trying to solve issues with visual tracking, Fang said. On small devices, like cell phones, wearable devices, and drones, the battery power and the computing abilities are limited and not very powerful. If your target is moving quickly, it is also difficult to recognize and track it.

Fang explained the process of visual tracking by comparing a new dynamic vision camera that captures fast-moving objects to a frogs vision, which recognizes flies as food when they are moving but does not associate them with food when they are motionless.

Fang and his students will get inspiration from the human brain, which can quickly compute and process images to address the challenges that next-generation computer systems face.

This research is important because devices like cell phones and drones, are widely used in our daily life, Fang said. Research that improves the computing capability and energy efficiency of these devices will make them more intelligent and powerful.

Visual processing tasks like detection, tracking, and navigation are essential to unmanned aerial vehicles, robots, surveillance, and defense systems.

I feel honored to be a recipient of this award, Fang said. Im excited to begin this research with more resources and undergraduate students who continuously impress me with their knowledge and ideas.

Abbey OBrien BarrowsPhotos by David Caselli

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its nearly 43,000 students. With 11 colleges on two metro Atlanta campuses, Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia. The universitys vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 6 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

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Kennesaw State professor awarded NSF grant to explore brain-inspired computer vision - Kennesaw State University

Data visualisation is an important part of online media, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But theyre often inaccessible to people who use screen readers.

A type of assistive technology, screen readers are software programs that scan the contents of a computer screen and transform it into a different format like synthesised voice or Braille for people with complete or partial blindness, learning disabilities, or motion sensitivity.

Now, scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in the US have designed a JavaScript plugin called VoxLens that allows people to better interact with these visualisations.

VoxLens allows screen reader users to gain a high-level summary of the information described in a graph, listen to said graph translated into sound, or use voice-activated commands to ask specific questions about the data, such as the mean or the minimum value.

The team presented their research last month at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in New Orleans in the US.

If Im looking at a graph, I can pull out whatever information I am interested in maybe its the overall trend or maybe its the maximum, says lead author Ather Sharif, a doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at UW.

Right now, screen reader users either get very little or no information about online visualisations, which, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, can sometimes be a matter of life and death. The goal of our project is to give screen reader users a platform where they can extract as much or as little information as they want.

The difficulty with translating graphs, according to co-senior author Jacob O. Wobbrock, a professor of information at UW, comes from deciphering information with no clear beginning and end.

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There is a start and an end of a sentence and everything else comes in between, he explains. But as soon as you move things into two dimensional spaces, such as visualisations, theres no clear start and finish.

Its just not structured in the same way, which means theres no obvious entry point or sequencing for screen readers.

The team worked with screen reader users who had partial or complete blindness when designing and testing the tool. During the testing phase, participants learned how to use VoxLens and then completed nine tasks, each of which involved answering questions about a data visualisation.

The researchers found that participants completed the tasks with 122% increased accuracy and 36% decreased interaction time, compared to participants of a previous study who hadnt had access to VoxLens.

We want people to interact with a graph as much as they want, but we also dont want them to spend an hour trying to find what the maximum is, says Sharif. In our study, interaction time refers to how long it takes to extract information, and thats why reducing it is a good thing.

VoxLens can be implanted easily by data visualisation designers with a single line of code. Right now it only works for visualisations created using JavaScript libraries such as D3, chart.js or Google Sheets but the team is working towards expanding to other popular platforms.

This work is part of a much larger agenda for us removing bias in design, adds co-senior author Katharina Reinecke, associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at UW. When we build technology, we tend to think of people who are like us and who have the same abilities as we do.

For example, D3 has really revolutionised access to visualisations online and improved how people can understand information. But there are values ingrained in it and people are left out. Its really important that we start thinking more about how to make technology useful for everybody.

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Screen reader accessibility improved thanks to a new tool - Cosmos

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.

For the first time, a supercomputer has officially broken the exaflop ceiling and become the most powerful computer to ever exist.

The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was able to demonstrate performance of more than 10^18 operations per second on a standard test called the TOP500 that ranks the 500 most powerful commercially available computer systems, according to the organization.

High expectations were set for Frontier in 2019, when its construction was first announced. Now, three years later, it is in its final testing phases with plans to fully open in early 2023.

Science today is driven by simulation, said Jack Dongarra, a distinguished professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee who helps lead the TOP500. Simulation is done on supercomputers, and it's often said that the fastest supercomputer can drive the best science.

One of the biggest challenges to designing an exascale supercomputer like Frontier was figuring out how to lower energy costs. Initially, researchers predicted these machines might use the same amount of energy as 50 homes; working with vendors to lower the amount of energy required got the computers power down to roughly 20 megawatts per exaflop, or under a tenth of early estimates.

This milestone for Frontier makes strides toward fulfilling the Department of Energys 2018 promise to build a trio of exascale computers at Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Livermore National Laboratories, budgeting up to $1.8 million for the entire project. These computers will enable modeling and forecasting at precisions never before seen that will drive innovation forward in medicine, engineering, and nuclear energy, Dongarra said; exascale technology can even improve financial risk modeling and animation, he added.

These incredibly powerful systems will eventually be complemented by quantum computers, which are better than these traditional supercomputers at solving certain types of problems (for instance, those relating to cryptography.) In the future, Dongarra said he could foresee integrating components that drive traditional supercomputing and quantum computing to power a computer that can quickly solve both types of problems.

When Frontier is up and running, it will function like a crystal ball for modelers and forecasters, Dongarra said. Still, its nowhere near the final destination for supercomputing.

This is not the end of the story, he said. It's the continuation of a road where we will build bigger and faster supercomputers to help us solve some of the most challenging problems that we have today.

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Fastest Supercomputer to Ever Exist Breaks the 'Exascale' Barrier - VICE