Alan F. Blackwell, "Moral Codes: Designing Alternatives to AI" (MIT Press, 2024)

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Oct 6, 2024

In this engaging discussion, Alan F. Blackwell, a Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at Cambridge, highlights the urgent need for improved programming languages over AI dominance. He argues that the current AI landscape often overlooks ethical considerations, and proposes a framework for better software that aligns with human creativity and fairness. Blackwell critiques the constraints of modern technology on communication and creativity, emphasizing the importance of moral codes in tech design. Insights from science fiction and the ethics behind AI development add depth to this thought-provoking conversation.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

From Engineering to AI Ethics

02:24 • 11min

The Intersection of Science Fiction and Technology Ethics

13:47 • 3min

AI, Literature, and Surveillance Capitalism

17:05 • 17min

Deconstructing AI: The Illusion of Machine Creativity

34:22 • 4min

Moral Codes in Technology

38:09 • 15min

Why the world needs less AI and better programming languages. Decades ago, we believed that robots and computers would take over all the boring jobs and drudgery, leaving humans to a life of leisure. This hasn’t happened. Instead, humans are still doing boring jobs, and even worse, AI researchers have built technology that is creative, self-aware, and emotional—doing the tasks humans were supposed to enjoy. How did we get here?

In Moral Codes: Designing Alternatives to AI (MIT Press, 2024), Alan Blackwell argues that there is a fundamental flaw in the research agenda of AI. What humanity needs, Blackwell argues, is better ways to tell computers what we want them to do, with new and better programming languages: More Open Representations, Access to Learning, and Control Over Digital Expression, in other words, MORAL CODE. Blackwell draws on his deep experiences as a programming language designer—which he has been doing since 1983—to unpack fundamental principles of interaction design and explain their technical relationship to ideas of creativity and fairness. Taking aim at software that constrains our conversations with strict word counts or infantilizes human interaction with likes and emojis, Blackwell shows how to design software that is better—not more efficient or more profitable, but better for society and better for all people. Covering recent research and the latest smart tools, Blackwell offers rich design principles for a better kind of software—and a better kind of world.

Alan F. Blackwell is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design in the Cambridge University department of Computer Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of Darwin College Cambridge, cofounder with David Good of the Crucible Network for Research in Interdisciplinary Design, and with David and Lara Allen the Global Challenges strategic research initiative of the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.

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