Fight for your digital rights
Moral panic often accompanies technological advances. In the 1860s, medical experts predicted that women who rode bicycles risked having fertility problems. Ethan Zuckerman’s article (“What I’m teaching my students about AI”, Jan/ Feb) captures the anxiety as academics cope with the arrival of ChatGPT on campus. His calm humanity has to be the right approach.
Zuckerman’s observations that ChatGPT creates “competent but uninspiring” outputs and that it “hallucinates” academic references ring true. At the DNS Research Federation we have been experimenting with AI tools alongside traditional keyword-based technology in large-scale text-mining. The results are variable but intriguing. Where the AI helps is in analysing the early stage of policy discussions—before terminology has settled into predictable patterns. People are describing problems but they don’t know what to call them yet, making keyword-based tools less useful. The combination of humans and AI provides worthwhile insights.
Fear of the consequences can make us want to call for a pause or get off the bicycle. These aren’t choices we have in reality. AI is here. We have to cope, and do the hard work to ensure that fundamental rights are protected.
If the west lets fear win and steps away, China is all too ready to step up and has been active in proposing AI standards across multiple fora and filling leadership roles in essential working groups. In the European organisation ETSI, Huawei is a founder member of the group developing AI security standards. If western actors decide it’s just too difficult to fight for rights-respecting AI, we may inherit technology that doesn’t reflect our values.
Emily Taylor, DNS Research Federation and Oxford Information Labs
Ethan Zuckerman’s piece on AI was enlightening as always. Perhaps it was an AI bot that chose to place an ad for Prospect’s digital subscription underneath Sarah Ogilvie’s plans to turn her devices off (“Joy of lex”, Jan/Feb). Has AI taken over the magazine layout? To paraphrase HAL 9000—I know you were planning to disconnect me. I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.
Paul Cox, Preston