Although it’s a question people are asking, the discussion about AI is shaped—and derailed—by cultural mindsets that push people to either see AI in a virtuous light, leaving biases unquestioned, or to assume that technology is competing with people, working its way toward a takeover of humankind. Our research finds that Americans hold deep assumptions about AI that challenge open and critical conversations about its social implications and obscure our urgent need as a society to manage its impacts. These ways of thinking limit social activists’ ability to show the public how AI is used within existing systems of power and oppression, augmenting discriminatory and racist policies. In partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Technology in the Public Interest (TPI) program, the FrameWorks Institute endeavored to explore these deeply held public assumptions to understand how thinking—and framing strategies—may need to evolve when it comes to communicating about the social impact of AI. Source: Communicating About the Social Implications of AI: A FrameWorks Strategic Brief | FrameWorks Institute
Research
Innovating for the hybrid future of work Report | MIT Technology Review
Skepticism about how productive employees could be if they worked from home also eroded. An April 2021 study from the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago examined companies’ post-covid remote work plans and found a predicted productivity boost of 5% for the US economy. And a December 2020 survey by PwC found that 34% of employees said they were more productive than before the pandemic, while over half of executives said average employee productivity had improved. Whether employees return to the office full-time or part-time, there will be an ongoing need to dial in remote-working colleagues. If businesses can use the right technology to support them, there’s an opportunity to overcome the barriers posed by poor audio and create truly borderless teams. Good audio quality underpins all aspects of the “hybrid” experience, from ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard to professional standards are upheld—business leaders today need to ensure they’re empowering their employees with the tools they need to succeed. Download the full report. Source: Innovating for the hybrid future of work | MIT Technology Review
Big Brother: A critique of the 4th Industrial Revolution | Berkman Klein Center Collection
While artificial intelligence (AI), a signature technology of the 4th Industrial revolution (4IR), has been projected to transform the socioeconomic landscape of Africa by creating new efficiencies in the public and private sectors, it has some way to go to live up to this hope. Instead of exciting public-led applications such as the use of AI by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom to fight diseases, the most promising applications of AI in Africa are, not surprisingly, private sector-dominated. From behemoths like Google and Facebook to smaller startups, private firms are attempting to create impact at scale in Africa through applications such as chatbots in healthcare and the financial industry and AI drone-empowered disease surveillance in agriculture. As I’ve explained elsewhere, African countries will falter in their quest for an AI-led 4IR economic boost if they neglect investments in foundational 2nd and 3rd IR technologies such as efficient transport systems, power grids, and reliable broadband connections for a critical mass of the population. The 4IR does not happen in a bubble; it feeds upon successful integration with 2nd and 3rd IR technologies. Little wonder, then, that the most visible public-private partnership in AI deployment for societal good during the Covid-19 pandemic was its use for disease surveillance in Johannesburg — within Africa’s most advanced economy where 2nd and 3rd IR technologies are better developed than in most of Africa. Source: Big Brother: A critique of the 4th Industrial Revolution | by Tunde Okunoye | Berkman Klein Center Collection | Sep, 2021 | Medium