Harvard Thinking The promise and peril of AI
14 snips
Apr 10, 2024 
Legal expert Sheila Jasanoff, computer scientist Martin Wattenberg, and statistician Susan Murphy discuss the ethics of AI development, including individual perspectives, embedding ethics in research, democratizing AI while mitigating risks, and the positive impacts of AI in healthcare and creativity.
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Vague Apocalypse Narratives Distort Debate
- Public fear of AI often links it to extinction without clear pathways or mechanisms.
- Sheila Jasanoff warns this mismatch between vague threat and specific promise distorts productive debate.
Observation Trumps Prediction Alone
- Rapid technological change produces many unanticipated harms beyond the obvious ones.
- Martin Wattenberg argues careful observation and deliberate monitoring are essential to discover emergent risks.
Put Ethics Inside CS Courses
- Embed ethics modules directly into computer science courses alongside technical content.
- Martin Wattenberg recommends making ethical thinking part of students' everyday engineering practice.