One year into the pandemic, in Germany we are encountering debate around apps (see #LucaApp or #ImmunityPassports) that promise to solve the Corona crisis. The current debate forgets important questions for public interest 1/x
Currently the debate is all about "data privacy". But, is that all that is at stake?
Are there other questions that journalists, politicians and civil society could be asking that could ensure these apps serve the public interest? 2/x
Mar 15, 2021 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
Ein Jahr nach Beginn der Pandemie erleben wir in Deutschland eine extrem verflachte Debatte über Apps (z.B. #LucaApp oder #ImmunityPassports), die bei der Bekämpfung der Corona-Krise helfen sollen. Problem: Diese Form der Debatte ist nicht hilfreich.
Aktuell konzentiert sich die Debatte auf "Datensicherheit".
Aber ist das die einzige relevante Frage?
Was sind die Fragen, die Journalist*innen, Politiker*Innen und die Zivilgesellschaft stellen sollten, wenn es darum geht, das Gemeinwohl nicht aus dem Blick zu verlieren?
Oct 24, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
"part of what we in an American university have to consider now, what it is for us to have been made custodians of those principles [of free speech] even as we are made to watch when they are dissolved in an infernal public private partnership." Fred Moten
"it is that this ought not to drive us to defend an abstract principle of free speech, which is only ever concretized, and usually at the same moment dishonestly and disgustingly sacralized, in exclusion."
Oct 4, 2020 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
For those interested in the political economy of AI this report has a lot of teasers. Many of them are aligned with some recent papers that talked about the concentration of research in the hands of a few (corporations and their research collaborators).
Report claims OpenAI and Deepmind, but also other big players in the industry are important players in research but do not/cannot publish their code (I hope all our colleagues who now do ethics at these companies consider these structural issues!)
Aug 25, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
When Alex Irpan of Google writes about compute as the way forward for AI, you wonder how much of this is AI pulling on compute vs. compute (and the investment into chips) pulling on AI.
The whole article is as much about economics as about AI, in fact it conflates the two 1/x
It starts with artificial general intelligence being equated with "economically valuable work":
"artificial general intelligence (AGI) [is] an AI system that matches or exceeds humans at almost all (95%+) economically valuable work
2/x
May 22, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
This WP article has highlighted important problems with Gapple's contact tracing efforts & quotes some of my mentors in tech policy. But, from my vantage point, it creates (unintentionally) a false dichotomy between national sovereignty and Gapple (1/x) washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
My gut response to the first Gapple announcement was not only lack of sovereignty but also democratic process. Sovereignty is not sufficient give the complexity of the relationship between governments & Gapple (2/x)
"Watched and still dying"
"I never imagined I would experience more loved ones dying in similar isolation and uncertainty [as AIDS] in my lifetime."
From the wise @Combsthepoet odbproject.org/2020/04/26/wat…
"I have spoken with several social justice organizers and survivors who confirmed the stigma that accompanied not only the patients, but family members, friends and anyone who came into contact with someone suspected of having HIV or AIDS."
Apr 10, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
"We raise this issue out of concern for the way "contact tracing apps" are being proposed without taking into account the complexity of the social. "
"We think it is necessary and overdue to rethink the way technology gets designed and implemented, because contact tracing apps, if implemented, will be scripting the way we will live our lives and not just for a short period."
Apr 9, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
"Palantir are completely aware that they’re creepy by design – their logistics platform is world class, though it’s more often used to move people closer to death than further away – and Facebook have the same naive arrogance in 2020 that they had in 2015"
"And, in the bigger picture, we must ask: would we do this for HIV? For whatever we do for COVID will be copied by others – first for COVID, and then by others for other conditions."
Mar 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"China’s high-tech revolution has been a backstory to COVID-19. The outbreak may have undermined the efficiency of China’s surveillance system, e.g., wearing face masks. Another argument would be that the system’s success has in fact fueled the epidemic." somatosphere.net/forumpost/coro…
"Public health is reliant upon the timely sharing of information, but the harvesting of data by a surveillance state acts as a check on this timeliness.[9] It impedes the kind of open communication that is the basis of prevention"
This piece from the UK was hinting some paths forward:
"Just as panic is contagious, so is solidarity." vice.com/en_asia/articl…
Feb 10, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
In the 70s, there were leftist police unions in Turkey. They would fight to stop torture and demand good labor conditions. They got wiped after the 80 coup. In the US, aspirations of radical engineers in 60s got coopted by establishment under the heading "responsible engineering"
What I read here is that critical work is being marginalized to ethics and change within companies is hard and falls on the shoulders of the already marginalized. We hear you and thank you for the hard work!
Question to all:
In UX 'dark patterns' are defined as designs that prod users into making choices that aren’t in their best interest, but benefit the company.
If I asked you to go beyond interface, and consider dark patterns up & down the stack, what would be your fav example?
Here are some examples from the dark patterns website.
