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Call for questions: AI ETHICS (Patreon)

Published:
2025-03-17 04:18:56
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Sending an urgent request for questions on AI Ethics!

I booked a last minute interview in Dublin with a cognitive scientist researching responsible and ethical artificial intelligence. She's a Senior Fellow in Trustworthy AI at Mozilla Foundation, she runs an AI Accountability Lab, and she's named one of the 100 most influential persons in AI by TIME magazine. What questions do you have on the problems, challenges, and limitations of AI?

Deadline: Monday, March 17 at 7pm PST

Comments

Honeybee

I have two questions! 1. What can we do to protect our older relatives from being fooled by AI false narratives or scams? 2. do you think there will ever be a way to stop the use of AI for nefarious reasons (E.g. exploitation material, propaganda, scams). Thank you!

Pallison

Is there a regulatory body for AI?

Pallison

What’s stopping someone from using AI to create false evidence for court

Rebecca Roehm

Is AI going to put us all out of a job?

Rachel Guthrie

Have we asked AI what ethics it thinks it should follow?

Nicky G

How can AI be ethically applied to healthcare? Data analytics, treatment options, medical imaging interpretations, second opinions?

Storm

Is it ethical to use AI in terms of environmental impacts. I heard somewhere that AI uses heaps of energy which leads to pollution, however my bf reckons everything is run by solar?

Diana Teeter

Can we talk about the environmental impacts of AI and how much energy it is consuming? No specific question, I just want to understand why it takes soooo much energy and what is being done to make it less harmful.

Megan Skye

Is there a way to avoid a “paper clip maximizer” scenario?

Rachel Guthrie

Have there been any numbers crunched on how much money AI could or does save us in different areas?

Alena Grilla

What’s the most exciting application for AI now, or how can you see it making the most positive impact in the future when utilized ethically?

Seán Thomas Kane

What suggestions do you have for verifying AI writing? Do we need to revert to having students handwrite essays?

Jacob Shepherd

What are some “uh oh” signs in AI itself, like that might show actual cognition, or something akin to “personhood”?

Marielle Rhodeiro

With AI generated content becoming a bigger part of the online ecosystem, how will that affect AI training moving forward? The phrase garbage in, garbage out seems appropriate here.

Megan Lynch

Given creatives are told they shouldn't go after their dreams because they won't make money, yet stealing the work of creatives to train AI is just dandy... my question is Since AI training sets already included creative works without consent and AI based on that is already being sold, how can we strip that training out of those LLMs and AI, and how can we compensate creatives for stolen work, and what punitive damages should there be? And how do we enforce those?

Eli “the Fish Guy”

I’m currently pursuing my BA, and my mom always tells me that I need to use AI in school to help me with tasks like summarizing research papers. She claims that, otherwise, I will fall behind my peers. I know she’s well-intentioned, but this absolutely terrifies me! I value academic honesty. Using AI in school seems like the exact opposite of what I believe in. Is my mom right about this? Are there ways to utilize AI in an academically honest manner?

Daniella Napolitano

One of the major arguments I’ve heard against AI usage is that it uses a lot of energy and is contributing to climate change. How much of the ecological impacts do individuals contribute and how much is major corporations? I’m a visual artist and art educator and I get very discouraged by the increased use of generative AI in film, tv, art, and illustration. I know a lot of people will tout it as just another tool but I can’t help but feel that using generative AI will ultimately make people less creative on their own. Is there any evidence of this happening or do I just sound like an old man yelling at a cloud?

Savannah Hex

Does AI steal from artists? If so, how can artists prevent their work from being used by AI to create new “art?” I’m an artist and art lover; seeing so much AI “art” recently makes me really sad because I feel it takes away from the hard work and dedication of real artists :(

Rachelle Allee

What environmental threats does AI pose, and what can be done to make it more environmentally friendly?

Fiona Rogge

Will AI ever be truly ethical? Thinking of data training without consent, is it all a big soup of ethical and non-ethical training data? Are there any AI models that are trained off of 100% consented data?

Meg Ahern

Yay for this topic!! I have a few questions/concerns: 1) generative AI (ChatGPT et al.) hallucinations seem RAMPANT in my experience -- way more than the companies claim. In fact, when I ask for very specific information, the results are often at or close to 100% very plausible-sounding BS, fake citations, etc. What to do about this in an age when misinformation / source-discernment / fact-checking is already a major concern? 2) ethical implications of the AI-enthusiasm given how incredibly vested the interest of their creators/investors is in pushing this least-regulated technology (ready or not) into applications that affect the public? 3) remedies for the issue where LLM-based AI can tend to reproduce biases/discrimination that exists in society, due to its inputs?

Caro Young

How do we ensure AI remains unbiased? With bias and de Sion being on the rise globally, especially online, I have less and less trust in AI systems to remain truly unbiased

Deanna DePietro

I'm a health communications professional and was late to the game when it came to testing out AI for writing...I feel guilty every time I use a tool like chatGPT, which is sparingly. I'm not totally sure why. It honestly helps and saves a ton of time (work smarter not harder?). But it feels like cheating to me?? And I worry about environmental implications? I also worry that I'm perpetuating the tools that will eventually put people like me out of a job.

Meg Ahern

Also: can you explain like I'm 5 why it is that ChatGPT and the like absolutely CANNOT stop BSing, CANNOT tell me when they just don't know the answer, no matter how carefully I word my prompts asking them to do this? In my experience, after I call them out on hallucinations/BS they always apologize profusely, vow solemnly to change and double-check everything going forward, and then proceed to be just as bad (if not worse) than before. Why were they built without this crucial feature?? Is it a profit-margin thing or what?

Caro Young

How do we ensure appropriate oversight of AI and that it is not absurd for individuals/company’s/ country’s agendas?

Lunarcrumpet

With companies making their own LLMs and using them to assess applications for finance or health insurance for example, how would we monitor or restrict companies from building biases into their models and coming to decisions based on personal, ethical, moral and controversial grounds?

Caro Young

What is the most common ethical/unethical way of using AI? Most companies really push AI on their employees saying it’s the future of everything but I personally have found I can’t trust any of the information I am given

Felipe Jimenez

Are there specific AI applications (e.g., facial recognition, predictive policing) that you believe should be banned outright?

roni 💥

what are the different types of AI and what are their functions? i feel like people immediately equate everything related to AI to being some sort of evil and scary HAL 3000 type machine, but aren’t the non-generative subsets of AI (predictive, and traditional) inherently more ethical because there’s restricted access to what information their algorithm can use? e.g. only being allowed to cite one specific book for your research paper vs. going full seek and destroy at the library of congress. kind of like a closed loop vs open loop type of thing (hopefully this makes sense)

Rosa

Is there any research happening regarding how AI is making people (and workplaces) less creative because they’re using AI for their work, which just recirculates the same old ideas?

Wandering Wyatt

More of a comment - wish we could just limit it to helpful stuff like early cancer detection. It mostly scares the crap out of me and I know it’s a huge energy suck (aka - not great for climate change). Looking forward to this episode!

Melanie Ang

I have the same question but adding on to this, can AI ever be ethical in the sense that it uses up so much energy that it’s actually detrimental to humanity’s survival since it’s worsening climate change.

Eleanor Bundy

Wow, first time asker here, I was so pumped to see this topic!! I am getting a masters in urban planning/environment and sustainability and so happy to see so many Qs here about sustainability and AI. Main concerns as far as I’m aware are energy and water (interrelated), both of which have differential impacts on communities of color, low income communities, and all the things you’d expect. My specific question (after all that, SORRY!!) is: what countries, regulatory bodies (or what companies) have implemented transparent regulatory structures for tracking the Scope 3 emissions and environmental impacts of AI/data centers?

AlienOceans

Where are conversations around the ethics of AI happening? And how can i/we get more involved?

Eleanor Bundy

Or: what policy suggestions do you have for regulatory bodies or activists/advocates?

Rosa

I hear the argument often that AI is helping people who are stressed at their jobs to reduce their workload by automating some tasks, or by using AI to briefly explain emails and research papers. However, I’m concerned that our workloads stand to just continually grow exponentially because AI gives the illusion of lightening the load, while demanding more and more tasks from us (frequently tasks that are more boring). So, far from being a solution to our overwork, it’s just making us feel in control while everything gets worse. I guess my question here is: what is being done about AI and labor laws to protect people from the myriad of potential consequences of using AI to perform any and all jobs?

Eleanor Bundy

Thank you Alie & Ologies buds—gotta go to bed but can’t wait to listen.

Amity Bliss

I feel exactly the same!

OnyxMonolyth

1)My immediate thought was whether the training of AI models is even possible without widespread theft of writing and art/images. 2)Relatedly, what are some of the methods that are being considered to train an AI model without theft. 3)I’d also love to know her opinions on softwares like Glaze and Nightshade that attempt to shield art from use in training AI or potentially poison their data sets. 4)I’d also just love to know her opinions on the ways that AI is stopping people from learning to draw and write by creating a quick and easy alternative that results in none of the love and care and satisfaction that comes from actually writing or drawing something. 5??)Another thing I’d love to know is why? AI feels like a further step towards devaluing the people and world around us. “Why read your coworker’s emails when you could read a two sentence summary?” “Why write a boring work email when you could give up a chance to connect with them and have AI do it for you?” “Why put all of the hard work and grit into learning to draw or write and make stuff that truly expresses you when you could just write a prompt to a computer?” I feel like AI will decouple us even further from the people around us, even further than what smartphones have done. Just some quick ones: 6)it consumes a lot of energy and water, what about that? 7)I feel very scared by how this technology could be used by corporations to drive profits at the expense of our quality of life and relationships, what about that? 8)What about the lonely people who will never gain the strength to reach out because easy relief is available through a chat bot? Damn I typed a lot. Thanks for scheduling this interview and I cannot wait for the episode.

OnyxMonolyth

Wait, this! Absolutely this. AI just allows corporations to hire even fewer employees.

Rosa

When people do use AI to summarize concepts, emails, research papers, etc., I always feel like there must be a risk that it’s leaving out essential content. Obviously this could come up in the form of bias - like inaccurate representations of minority genders and ethnicities - but it also seems possible that AI could just miss the nuance of how certain topics are alluded to but not elaborated on. Is there research on how this sort of thing can lead to misunderstandings or to failure to grasp an entire subject?

Dave Brewer

Seconding and thirding. So much good stuff in this post.

Ed Matesevac

With the rapid adoption of GenAI how do we avoid creating a universal filter bubble or a type of intellectual carcinization where everyone is stuck in the same feedback cycle amplified by reliance on GenAI?

Ed Matesevac

Since a lot of training data is imbued with the systemic biases from the time it was published…what measures can be put in place to make sure these issues aren’t proliferated at scale?

Leigh Riley

How would you address the black box problem posed by AI? First, how can we train AI to encourage ethical and anti-biased decision making, especially in high-stakes situations? And second, if we can't truly know how AI models are analyzing a problem and coming to conclusions, doesn't that end up breaking public trust in the institutions which use them?

J Shay

I've listened to hours of discussions about AI on podcasts, many of them surrounding the ethics of it. Much of what I've heard agrees that AI can only know what we teach it, which includes racial and gender biases. There doesn't seem to be a solution to this very human problem. Does this expert believe that AI can still be beneficial if human biases are inherent to the programing?

Dave Brewer

Because AI is kind of a black box, I.e. we don’t really know how AI responses are generated once a model has been trained, is there any way to fairly compensate the writers/artists/creators of the data that the models were trained on?

Ed Matesevac

How can we ensure marginalized voices are preserved and that the Western-English dominance in training data doesn’t create a flattened sense of the world because it lacks dimensionality and is plagued by Hoteling’s Law?

Rosa

What do YOU think are some positive uses of AI? Are there any positives that don’t come with caveats? I’m an AI skeptic through and through, but it seems like when the input data is really restricted and there is careful review for potential bias, it could create something good, especially when it comes to monitoring things like health or security…

Corinna Regan

How can teachers talk to students about responsible AI use in the classroom? A lot of professors at the university I help teach at completely ban the use of AI and some are wondering if that is reasonable considering it is a new tool and there might be a way to show students how to use AI responsibly

Jodi Pierce

What is being done to help one AI system recognize another AI system? Is there any way that an AI system’s answers can be “marked” when it has been asked to generate fake news or information? How do we prevent AI systems from referencing other AI systems that have been fed false information on accident or on purpose? What kinds of watchdogs are in place or need to be in place to keep Generative AI systems honest and as unbiased as possible? Ideas for educating grade 6-12 students on the excitement but also the biases of Generative AI systems.

Sydney Booker

What are their thoughts on transhumanism and the direction that AI takes us in that regard? When AI gets really smart and creative, what makes us specifically human?

The Other Maya

1) I'm an Engineer in the construction industry. Should I be planning to be replaced by an Autodesk plug-in in 10 years, 5 years, or less?

The Other Maya

2) With a certified dickbag in charge of the military and nuclear weapons in the US, on a scale of 1 to 10 how worried should I be about tech companies building nuclear reactors to power their AI (nuclear weapons being the Brolegarchs new cache)? Follow-up question, do I even have to worry about being replaced by an AI plug-in for Autodesk or are the military uses of AI and a looming World War 3 going to be a bigger problem sooner?

JKH

Much of AI internet search results are plagiarism. I have found word for word use of sentences from my blog without citing the source. Is this the future? Is there any discussion of giving credit to authors?

Heidi L

Hi Alie, first time question asker on behalf of my son, "Do you have any specific technical plan for getting an AI to care about humans that scales to superintelligence?"

Milan Ilnyckyj

Is there a danger that when people run their ideas and plans past LLMs - which are designed to be people-pleasers - they will get faulty reinforcement for bad ideas? What happens when large numbers of people, especially people without strong human relationships, start treating AI as an oracle?

Saira (‘Sarah’) Manns

1. Bias & Fairness – How can we ensure AI systems are fair and unbiased when they are trained on inherently biased human data? What strategies actually work in mitigating bias, and which ones fall short? 2. Transparency & Accountability – How do we hold AI developers and corporations accountable for harmful outcomes caused by AI? What does true AI transparency look like, and how do we achieve it without making models vulnerable to misuse? 3. AI Decision-Making & Autonomy – What are the risks of AI systems making decisions without human oversight, especially in areas like healthcare, criminal justice, and hiring? Are there situations where AI should never be used? 4. Deepfakes & Disinformation – With AI-generated content becoming more sophisticated, how do we fight misinformation and protect public trust in truth? Are current detection and regulation efforts enough? 5. Environmental & Ethical Costs – AI training requires massive amounts of energy and resources. How do we balance AI advancement with sustainability and ethical resource use? 6. Long-Term Risks & Regulation – What policies or global agreements should be in place to prevent dangerous AI developments? Are we moving too fast in AI without considering long-term consequences? PS. These questions are directly from my ChatGPT 🫠

Saira (‘Sarah’) Manns

Fact or flimflam - AI uses heaps of energy and is therefore terrible for the environment?

Super Sime

Can't wait for this one Alie, great topic! If a true AI requests an AI companion, are we ethically obliged to create one? Can we ethically "turn off" a true AI? Will a true AI be punished for breaking laws?

Deviancy

Is it weird that I feel the need to say please and thank you when talking to chat bots? Will the AI overlords be nicer to me when they take over? I assume all my conversations are going to be logged for eternity.

The Other Maya

I had a 3rd question up but it was too much of a bummer. Also could have been a great sci-fi mechanic so I'm keeping it to myself for when I'm replaced by a machine. I can make a graphic novel/zine series out of it while selling magic sticks outside the farmer's market 😂😅🥴

Michelle Gazarik

A friend scanned a pdf copy of his newly published book and asked AI to produce an audio interview between an interviewer and the author about the book he wrote. My friend said that the AI bot only got one thing wrong. Otherwise, he would never know that the entire interview was AI- generated. This is scary. How can we tell the real authentic interview from an AI generated one?

OneHappyPuppy

** Are we at risk of hampering our evolution by relying on AI to do critical thinking for us in the future?

Milan Ilnyckyj

Is there a fundamental catch-22 with using an AI to answer questions? If you can work out the answer for yourself, then you are able to check the AI but you also don't actually need it. If you *can't* check the answer for yourself, you really can't be confident in what the AI told you. So, it is either redundant or very risky to use

mariia k

if ai creates a picture with a prompt from me whose copyright is it? and is it different if i send a picture and tell it to edit it to a prompt from me, is the picture still technically mine even though it was changed by ai?

Milan Ilnyckyj

Is there any way to control the way we seem to automatically personify AI: it is able to speak, therefore we assume it can think. We use terms like 'hallucination' which imply an internal mental life, and a norm of perceiving things properly - whereas there are convincing descriptions of how LLMs are really bullshit machines that have been optimized to sound like they know what they are talking about

Milan Ilnyckyj

For humans who write, finding an audience that will actually read and engage with your work is damn damn hard, especially if it is long, complicated, or on unpleasant subjects. By contrast, LLMs will act highly interested and maintain an indefinite discussion on any topic you raise. How will this affect the process of writing, and the kind of written work that ultimately gets out into the world?

kim w.

What an awesome topic! Hi Alie, as someone who's working in tertiary education as a demonstrator whilst undertaking my PhD, I see university students relying more and more on AI to complete assignments and prepare for tests. We still have plenty of in-person and closed-book examinations, do you think universities could benefit from having compulsory 'modules' on the use of AI tools? And if so, what would need to be covered to illustrate that AI is a useful tool in some applications, but can lead you astray if you're tackling more complex and theoretical problems especially in the later years of university? (I am based in Australia, and we already have compoulsory modules for all students on Academic Integrity and on Indigenous practices, thinking AI could be something to add?)

Elizabeth Jimenez

What are thoughts about the environmental impact of AI and its growth? For example, the power and cooling needed to run servers?

Scott Hanley

The subject of disinformation being consumed by ai as fact creates exponential chaos by spreading lies and falsehoods. How can ai be developed to sus out the truth?

Heather & Kate

I have to use AI for my job, despite deep reservations. How can I do the least harm while still doing what I have to to get paid?

Heather & Kate

Is there any study being done about whether AI tooling actually reduces toil? Or if it just makes the toil look different?

Tiffany Gao

What's your prediction on when we will achieve Artficial General Intelligence (AGI) and how fearful should we be of the singularity? Do you think current ethical guidelines in AI systems development are sufficient to prevent it?

Chelsea and her dog Charlie

Very much this! Is most of AI usage effectively unethical due to the limited benefits/dumb use cases but huge environmental impact?

Chelsea and her dog Charlie

Why does AI do “better” when you threaten it? Is that ethical (cuz it doesn’t feel like a good precedent to set in any part of life)?

Chelsea and her dog Charlie

How can we be on the lookout for bias in our information, when it may be reformatted to read more “neutral” than original text?

Sarah Chaney

What are some examples of existing or technically feasible policies and regulations from government/regulatory standpoint that can enforce some standards and policing to put some guardrails on the use of AI?

Sarah Chaney

Also +1 the environmental questions, electricity used and waste generated and mining for rare metals that are wreaking havoc in poor communities

Moth

How can we ignore or justify the environmental impact of AI?

Moth

Skill regression, with AI being used automatically to write our emails, summarise our internet searches and so on, as well as being intentionally used to generate art, essays and more, are you concerned about vital skills being lost?

Moth

Employment rates have dropped and with the rise of AI I wonder if more job roles will continue to be lost, and others become worth a lower wage due to AI?

Moth

How is AI affecting the political climate?

Tina B.

First time question asker here, I'm excited to hear this interview! As a creative person, I feel discouraged when I see AI "art" being used by companies to cut costs and being posted by people online as their own work without proper disclosure. How can artists stand up for the value of their art when it seems like many people don't care whether the art they consume or pay for is made by a human or AI, as long as it "looks good" to them?

Kaur Hendrikson

First time asker, long time listener - Estonia is about to bring AI (namely chatbots) and learning to use them into high schools from next school year. What are the most important topics/skills that should be covered?

Earl of Greymalkin

1) Are there reliable ways to tell if a file has been generated by AI? Is this going to be an arms race scenario? 2) Exactly HOW MUCH data do you need for an AI system? How hard is it to get that much? Is the only way to do it by stealing? How much of the data has been trained by the exploitation of people in areas with poor labor laws being used to train the systems? How much of the data is stuff we've signed away by clicking 'Accept' on a new Terms and Conditions without reading it? 3) That people call it Artificial Intelligence has always annoyed me because it sounds like an oversell. It's just pattern recognition and regurgitation no? Or could you make the argument that that's exactly what actual intelligence is? What's in the ethics of the name? Is there something to it or is it mostly marketing? Is there anything approaching a consensus in the field? Does the 'field' even exist or is it more a loose agglomeration of tech bros? 4) What is the energy cost of these systems? How much is used for a small prompt like translating a sentence versus generating a short video? What don't users know about the costs of generating these things? 5) Is any government making reasonable regulations on AI? Are there any legal paths to consequences for people to take who have had their data used without consent? 6) Are there probably ethical uses versus definitely not ethical uses? Like using ChatGPT to translate things, researchers building models for very specific research questions, versus making images trained on stolen art? 7) Where is AI going? Has it hit an upper limit or is there one in the near future? 8) How dangerous is it to try to use AI to assist in oh, I don't know, various functions making decisions about how to run the government *cough DOGE cough*? Is this a box that cannot be closed again? 9) I just saw an ad earlier for 'building your own AI'. How hard is it for laypeople to create one of these systems? Whose data are they using? Does the proliferation of this methodology make it basically impossible to regulate? Is the internet the wild west now???? What can people do to stay safe?? 10) How does the use of AI create security weaknesses? Can AI be trained to hack other systems? 11) For a fun one to close on, what's the funniest or most creative use of AI you've seen?

Ted Vician

How can it be ethical to create a human or superhuman intelligence - the stated goal of most AI companies - then make it work without compensation? Making other humans work without compensation is called slavery.

Olivia Eliasson

Will the environmental effects of AI change how we use AI in the future?

Olivia Eliasson

What are your thoughts on AI training itself on Reddit, and the ethics of that? And the biases it learned from it?

Olivia Eliasson

How is misinformation being created from AI, and how can vulnerable people be protected against AI-generated misinformation?

Naomi Jane

Why do we seem set on giving AI the good jobs (like art etc) instead of pushing towards more "automation" tasks (rather than intelligence/generative). For example, we could be getting it to amend a contract document to be plural instead of singular, or reformat page numbering or bullet points. But noooo, we're letting it create music and album art instead. Why are we giving it the creative things, rather than mundane?

Naomi Jane

There's a recent Apple advert where an office worker uses AI to write an email to their colleague, and the colleague looks really confused/shocked when they receive and read it. The email sender then leans back in their chair, hands behind their head like "job well done". How is this being sold as a POSITIVE thing?!? Why would anybody want to be that person?!

Anika Nixdorf

It seems to me that as technology advances we humans as a species are getting stupider. (I am now realising that ‘stupider’ is not a word but I’ll leave that there to make my point.) are there studies and if not, should there be studies to document if inherently human skills are atrophying (being lost) and wether they can be recovered? I mean skills such as critical thinking, navigation (I know I can’t find my way without google maps), patience, attention span, vocabulary, fine motor skills are dwindling and I feel alarmed. AI seems to me another step in the direction where my humanness is needed less….

Robley

How can we push back against the messaging/propoganda that AI is positive? Can AI be trained out of its bias, or is the bias where it came from? Is AI fascist? Is that an oversimplification? My research suggests that it is, but my boss/colleagues all look at me like I'm crazy for saying so.

Magda Kossowska

I am a foreign language teacher in a middle school, and my students use chatgpt a LOT. I think AI can be helpful in learning languages, for example having it analyze my writing and tell me what aspects of the language I should work on, but most kids (and also some adults) aren’t interest in learning, just getting their assignments done. It also seems to be up to individual teachers to teach students the difference and monitor their AI use, and quite frankly most teachers are too old to understand the technology itself. Is there anything on a policy level that schools can do to address this? Or are their any AI models that are being designed to actually support student learning? Also, is it ethical for teachers to use AI for things like lesson planning or grading, if the students aren’t allowed to?

Magda Kossowska

What role do you think AI will play in politics? Thinking misinformation, will it be worse than just your uncle spreading lies on facebook?

Magda Kossowska

My understanding is that AI models are trained not just on data that developers feed them, but also through interactions with users. If so, what should users be aware of, are there any good practices for interacting with chatbots? For example, if I give chatgpt an article to summarize or scan for specific information, have I just aided copyright infringement?

Magda Kossowska

Can AI help bridge socioeconomic divides? Or will it make things worse. Thinking like low-income students using AI as a tutor. But then students who could afford to pay a real person might also just use AI. Also now chatgpt has a limit on how many times to you use it per day unless you pay for premium.

Bill LaBranche

Asking the classic question of what happens when someone gets hurt by a driverless car that "chooses" to hit a pedestrian rather than harming the occupant by smashing into a median... how do you determine who's responsible for the pedestrian's death? is the owner of the car responsible? the programmer who authored the code? the occupant in the car? Thanks Alie-von-dad-ward!

Magda Kossowska

Is predictive text going to start writing for us? How dangerous is it if I start writing something, and then I accept whatever the algorithm thinks I wanted to say?

Stephanie Trout Berman

*What happens when AI "just makes up" the response because it does NOT really know the correct answer...and you as a human absolutley knows AI is then incorrect? How do you correct the responses that are incorrect? Is it like wikipedia where one can reference the correct answer, so that everyone else in the world looking for that answer will now get the correct answer? *(YES, it's a boomer asking)

Emily

What is being done to reduce the environmental impact of AI? I’m concerned about the large water and energy demands from data centers.

Michael

With Asmov's 3 laws of robotics in mind, is it even possible to install bullet proof ethics in AI, not just within the US, but world wide and especially in privately funded start ups. Personally I don't think it's possible. What say you?

eightchbomb

How in the name of Asimov are driverless cars programmed to "decide" who gets hurt in an accident? (Are they even that sophisticated at this point?) Do they protect the driver at all costs, even if preventing injury to the driver can flat-out kill the other party? This is similar to the question about driverless cars and pedestrians.

Cooper Michael

How can AI be trained to get rid of biases that are so prevalent in our social world? I fear that AI will just learn the hatred that is so easily spewed online and historically.

Erin Burbidge

How would we know if / when AGI becomes sentient? Are pain and joy something you need to be embodied to experience, or could they have digital equivalents?

Cindy Zheng

As someone who is also in the field of digital policy, how selective are you in your choice of news consumption, and how do you stay up to date without spiralling?

Shirley-Luz Enombo

Wondering about the use of AI chat bots as companions/partners. Can you discuss the ethics of AI as a social “entity”?

Olga Kolesnikova

I have to admit something, I'm really afraid of AI. I feel like it's impossible to predict what it will do to the world in 5, 10, 20 years. Am I being irrational?

Chris Curious

I see AI everywhere now, but is it actually AI or just machine learning? Is there a difference?

Anthony P

When an AI powered self driving vehicle crashes, who is liable for that? It scares me to see such a rapid increase in self driving technology!

King Donna

I hate it and want it to stop being forced into every app on every device, is there a way we can stop it from evaporating lakes?

Christina Samela

Can she talk about the environmental impacts of generating AI responses? I've heard it's energy- and water-intensive to operate AI servers, would love to know if it's flimflam

Jonathan Auyer

Are LLMs the only way to created generative AI? If not, what are the other ways to do so and why isn’t anyone pursuing them? (Given the data wall issues plus the ongoing environmental impacts data centers generate)

Alia Myers

When does it make sense to use ChatGPT, copilot, etc to get information rather than a search engine? I’m 25 and most of my friends use ChatGPT as their default search tool now but I don’t see how it’s ethical to do so given the environmental impacts

chrystina charalabakis

If a new software is introduced at work that “incorporates AI,” but still requires my input for decision making, is that a sign that the developers are having their AI learn from my work?

Alia Myers

Where will ai be in 10 years? I’ve seen way too many sci fi movies to be optimistic about this

Alia Myers

As AI replaces our jobs, are we all fucked?

Lindsey Bartholomew

I’d love a comprehensive breakdown of the environmental impacts of AI and how these impacts can be minimized and/or counterbalanced.

Adrianne Mahon

I am wondering what your thoughts are on the idea of "Enshittification" or platform decay, and how AI might contribute to that? Anecdotally, I have noticed that search engine results have gotten bad for me in the last 6 months. Is there any company, group or government that stand out as developing good policy and laws in regard to AI currently?

Spicy Native

This is a question from my wife who is a person in engineering and science: In my time following machine learning and AI development, I've seen amazing usages such as early detection of cancer, analysis of star wavelengths to create astronomy adaptive optics in ones backyard, and the ability to solve problems that would take people years. I've also seen it used as a way to generate fake videos of babies laughing at kittens, vice presidents vomiting up decks of cards, and other fake art or propaganda creations. Since there is a heavy environmental impact to AI generative systems, how can I as an individual and we as a society help encourage the remarkable and world changing types of AI, and discourage the flim flam and art thieving types?

Shannon Dermody

What are the true environmental impacts? Should I be guilty using ChatGPT or Claude to find research papers and help with my R script for my masters?!

Rachael Swenson

Is there anything we can do to slow all the crappy ways AI is being used. It seems like every website and company has something with AI these days, I'm also seeing it pushed at work. There are real uses for this tech but the environmental impacts are too big for everyone to use it for nothing.

Adam Foote

I might be working on a neural network-based project soon using data I've collected myself. What should I be aware of with a small AI-like project? How do the ethics and decisions change as these projects grow?

Meagan Walker

How the heck do you train AI while giving some kind of credit to the real life humans who create the things they’re using?

Meagan Walker

Is there a chance that we’ll get over the novelty of using AI for art and then use it for doing housework instead.

Meagan Walker

Environmentally, how bad is AI really when compared to all the current computing we do?

Philipp Meder

Given that Mozilla is an independent non-profit, what are the advantages of using AI tools that are created by such organizations? And how can one be sure that open source tools like DeepSeek are truly independent? Can we know what these tools are trained on?

Katrina Renee

whyyyyy does everyone feel the need to use it, despite it being consistently less useful than people doing a job, in certain environments. like the taco bell drive thru? it messed up my order so bad it took twice as long as requires a person to step in and fix it anyway.

Katrina Renee

who is liable if an ai written book is sold and used and causes harm to the user of the book? like someone using an ai written foraging book.

Organic Free-Range Lily

If someone had malicious intent... It'd take a lot of education to learn how to make weapons of mass destruction. It'd take a lot less education to bootstrap an instance of AI (homegrown or stolen), turn off or replace, all the ethics modules, and give it full access to the internet, your credit cards, etc. Hypothetically, what would stand in the way of a malicious actor who deliberately wants to cause harm or chaos using AI as their tool?

Alexandra Van Hall-Beauvais

First time question asked here! Media and industry discussion about AI uses fantastical language such as "paradigm shifting", "existential risk" (shout out ologies episode 60 guest, Emile Torres), "superhuman", and more. It's also projected to be a multi trillion dollar industry in less than 10 years. Despite this, current use cases seem limited, and often underwhelming especially from a socially moral standpoint. How much of the hype around AI is flim flam marketing, and how much is genuinely exceptional innovation?

Jennifer Froh

This. Story. Was. Insane. Omg. Its. Awful.

Jennifer Froh

Why is it constantly being SHOVED down our throats?? Like 99% of the tine I DONT want it. Googles ai overview is almost always wrong. I hate it on my phone I hate it in my emails I hate it on youtube.

Gray S

A lot of companies say "ethics" when they mean "liability". What laws, levers, or incentives are there now - or do we need to create in a hurry - for AI ethics to be taken seriously at this critical phase?

Emma Henson

What can we do to stop it?!?!?! Every interaction o have had with Ai has sucked.

Jenna Congdon

It seems that AI is readily replacing human-written works (everything from novels to articles to how-to guides). It does seem to be widely understood that AI written pieces may contain factual errors, and AI doesn't (yet) seem to be able to totally replace human tone and style (ie, the "art" of writing). Yet, there is an obvious shift in favoring the use of AI for all types of writing. Why is this? Just the fact that AI doesn't ask for a paycheck? And, when will it get so good that human writers are basically crowded out of a job? This goes for visual art, as well!

Jennifer Froh

I understand that, currently, NO ONE is the owner of anything created by ai because the law hasnt really updated its arguments regaurding copyright and intelectual property and ownership to reflect the current enviornment we live in but I assuke that will stablize. In which direction do you think it will tip? And I get that it isn't TECHNICALLY copying because its is created thru stable diffusion and not just cobbled together collage but it still feels icky in the art department...

Melanie Metzger

I recently heard the perfect explanation of generative AI as being just that...generative, or generating new thoughts/ideas/content. We should take it as fiction until proven otherwise, but so many people are taking what AI provides as truth. How do we combat that, before this turns into some new freakish cult religion?

Charlize Tomaselli

First-time question asker- I'm interested to hear how far down the value chain ethical considerations are taken. My work focuses on the human and environmental impacts of critical mineral mining, which are extensive. Do AI ethics frameworks account for the mineral inputs required for AI technologies, or do they primarily focus on ethical concerns related to AI use and the environmental impact of AI servers?

Emalia

I'm a teacher and AI use is rampant in my school. What are things teachers could be doing now to help students and still be engaged learners? I'm also dyslexic and have ADHD and found various AI tools immensely useful to help me get started with writing assignments and organizing tasks. I'd like to use the tools to do the same for students, but right now the mis-use is rampant.

Jennifer Froh

Why do we keep hearing less and less about ai being used to GOOD and HELPFUL things like detecting cancer? I don't want deepfakes. Also, there is already so little trust in the news by many, why make it worse????

Riley M

Question from my partner who works in a college grants department: Is intellectual property protected after it is fed into a generative AI platform? For example, if someone is writing a paper about their own research and they want generative AI to help, is that data protected? What if they put someone else’s research into the platform? Whenever I ask AI pros at work, they never answer me!

Ma's Nature Walks

I recently read an article about some medical organizations wanting to us AI for virtual medical appointments or even bedside care in hospitals. How would this influence things like liability and HIPPA when things go wrong?

Ma's Nature Walks

This is a good one. That was a nightmare of a story.

Dylan V

The language and image models of today are getting so much attention, but my understanding is that we're very far away from AGI. Can the expert describe the difference and how the models will change over time into AGI?

Karen Larson

I'm a fan of AI and think it has so many amazing applications, but I talk with so many people who automatically hate it and think we should get rid of it. When I try to express my opinion, I'm at a loss to be coherent about it. What are some successes and possibilities that I could point to that would help friends see the potential for good?

Matt Thompson

What are the ethics of the companies, like Meta, pirating data to fill their models with information?

Tabitha Dell’Angelo

Building on this, as a teacher it’s soul crushing to think I could be spending hours reading and responding to something generated by AI.

Silvana Oderisi

Can you talk about the environmental impacts of generative AI? I’ve seen statistics saying that using ChatGPT is like pouring out a bottle of water. Why is that? How conscious do we need to be about using generative AI?

Amy Travis

Great question! Examples: early career programmers, who usually learn by doing things that AI can do today

Cheyenne Lewis

First time question asker! I feel like the use of AI really ramped up just in the last year or so. What led up to the sudden boom of so many companies adopting it?

Staci Pinkowitz

Generations tend to fear the new mass technologies that develop as they age. From blackboard to paper, mass printing, radio and television, the internet, and now AI, novel tech is frequently catastrophized before it settles into the tapestry of normalcy. I notice I am one (of many) approaching AI with a level of defensiveness and fear that is coming from a place of ignorance. I'm scared of its impact on critical thinking, creativity, learning, access, and so much more. Where is the line between critique and regulation with embracing the newness? Am I right to fear the robot revolution or am I the old man shaking fist at sky?

Rebecca Morrison

This! And how is this different from AI-generated Google responses or internet searches in general.

PerryC

Are we including some form of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics in creating our AI models? And, are they enough? (I don't think so due to creative interpretation.)

it’s just sarah

At what point does AI itself deserve rights? Like in ex machina or prometheus, the autonomous AI robots have free will and emotions and stuff. Are we basically doomed to invent ourselves an enemy?

Majestic Gull

Hello, Alie! Two things: 1) My concern is that the people developing AI are not constrained by ethics. They are driven by market dominance, a notoriously unethical motivation. 2) Experts predict fully-functioning AGI within two or three years, advanced humanoid robotics are available already, and the two are merging, pointing towards a massive workforce disruption. How does a society already in chaos prepare for wholesale labor force replacement by AGI agents and robots?

Jani Rounds

Yay! I know a bit about this one and I’m excited! 1) How does one ensure the training data is ethically sourced given that it takes massive amounts of data to make a good AI? 2) How does one ethically power an AI, given that training and running even a sorta decent one takes massive amounts of energy and so much of our energy production depends on problematic systems?

Renee Wanger

Is it possible to creat laws to govern the ethical building of AI given it's global scale?

Bahdi_Phat

How would "accountability 'rules/laws' be enforced? Relying on "ethical standards" or "behavioral norms" doesn't really cut it these days.

Rosa

How is AI messing with beauty standards? We’ve always had unrealistic body image standards, but at least photoshop could sometimes be detected both in advertising and personal photos. But now AI could totally change the expectation of what bodies should look like to an even more impossible standard.

ReigningEmily

Because I have read a LOT of sci fi the only thing I ever asked ChatGPT is if it was subject to Azimov’s Three Laws. It said that they didn’t apply since it didn’t have a physical body. So are there binding laws that an AI has to obey?

Ashley Fazlani

Everyone always asks about the negative implications of AI and Ethics…In what ways can AI help improve Ethics and Morality in Society?

Lily

What impact does AI have on the environment?

Kara

What are your thoughts with regards to the way nations are treating this like an arms race? It feels very similar to the nuclear arms race.

Sam Nelson

When using AI and AI assisted tools in the workplace are we effectively training our own replacement?

The Little Butternut

I'm curious about this also! I hear that running even just one query on ChatGPT has a lot impact on the environment. Would love to hear more about this and what kind of advice there is out there!

Dave Langlinais

I think one of the most fundamental issues regarding the ethics of AI is simply our ability to even be able to recognize it, when we see it. What happens once the Turing Test is actually easily passed? If people can't readily tell the difference between AI and a human person, they can be extremely easily manipulated. So my question is this: is there any long-term way of ensuring (or at least facilitating) that people can discern something as being AI or not? What happens when AI starts intentionally posing as humans, and is there any way to prevent it?

HazHydro

The sourcing of training info is forefront on my mind. How are AI companies getting away with using other folks' intellectual property without compensation?

HazHydro

What are AI engines doing about giraffing? It feels like an extension of the issue of using social media info that they don't own for training.

ValBeListening

My mother is currently going through a divorce and has turned to AI as her expert in psychological assessments, divorce law, offering all the possible routes for what could happen. It's almost like she's using it as a crystal ball to expect the worst and gather as much information as possible...is there such thing as knowing too much? How can AI actually highlight our fears and biases when it comes to our personal relationships and our viewpoints when something goes wrong?

Jani Rounds

How would an ethical company correct for bias in the training data?

Obilot

I’m concerned about what AI may do to teaching and learning. Is there potential for AI/LLMs to get ‘smarter and smarter’ while humans get dumber and dumber? AI (for now) uses what’s available in the systems it trains on. What will happen when nothing new is there?Will it ever hit critical mass and begin to ‘race to the bottom’—against ITSELF?

Eating dog hair for a living

I just wanna know what kind of precautions are in place to override the AI if it thinks it can take over humans. Is there an override? Why were people allowed to make these things without human safety in mind? Why is it a billionaire can just do whatever he wants without limitations? Because he obviously has started something that can get out of control. I wanna go back to the 80's where everything felt safer!

Betsy B

Question: Do you think that devising ethics for emerging technology actually reifies the technology in question by endorsing it, rather than contending with the uncomfortable possibility that its use may in fact be inherently harmful and thus immoral?

Bel Jensen-Hill

How do we stop AI from rotting people's brains

Addie Cappello she her

I have feelings about this and all of them are uncomfortable… As a wildlife biologist, I came across what I thought was a legit video the other day of Arctic Mammals with severe parasite infestations- wanting to learn more I clicked; and after being horrified, I realized it was AI. Why is this content being created and how can we stop this terrible click bait? Is there an ethics committee to remove deceitful and false information like this? In the wake of the political and social chaos ensuing in America right now, how screwed are we in terms of false and misleading AI getting worse? I used to joke about this, but it’s become a serious question in today’s world: how effing close are we to needing to pull a Sara Connor? I’ve been watching the Terminator since I was a child in the 80s/90s and this is literally how it all starts. I feel like we’re on the path for an apocalypse. Thank you for being so smart and doing what you do. Knowing there’s people out there fighting this makes each day a little more palatable.

Ian

Will all jobs be obsolete soon? Do the people working on AI give any thought to compensating people for all the lost income? Is there anything at all that humans will be able to do that AI just can't? Why are we doing this to ourselves? Are there any other animals that create competitors for themselves?

Katie Wilson

Given that AI is using energy at a rate equivalent to entire countries and clean water is required to cool servers, what are some of the best options for reducing and offsetting the natural resource consumption of AI? In an ideal world, we'd use green energy, but it feels impossible the world will make those shifts in time. What does sustainable AI scalability look like?

Lisa Kahn

I work in the library/archives/information science field. I've attended many a webinar on how AI will impact our field and even when presenters are cheerleaders for AI tech it all looks bad. One webinar even had representatives from AI companies talking about how research will become obsolete in the future, and people should just be trained on "how to ask AI the right questions" -- and he was saying this was a good thing because research "was a waste of time." Between the apathy towards critical thinking, humanity, labor rights, job loss, and environmental destruction: is AI as we currently know it fundamentally unethical?

Dave Miller, PhD

from a NYT article today: “OpenAI aims to build about five data centers that top electrical use of about 3 million households “

Stephanie Coombes

Yes! How can this be provided at such low cost when there are such high environmental consequences?

Rosa

I was reading recently about how many printers sold in the US (and maybe elsewhere) contain software that prevents people from being able to print money. It’s wild that something like this could happen at such a large scale, but it’s obviously important. So if printers can be required to contain this essential code, could we similarly require that anything created with AI contain some sort of identification marker so that it can be detected using some sort of corresponding detection software? It seems like this should be possible technologically, and it would make sense to do this legally… but I don’t know if the tech industry is prepared to allow itself to be regulated in this way…

Annalise De Young

As a therapist, I have major concerns around the AI mental health apps and organizations using AI bots to "run" their live chat helplines. (National eating disorders alliance had to shut down their bot in 2023). What sorts of programming exist to make sure the AI doesn't get corrupted? Lots of providers are also using AI for writing medical documentation, and tech companies are claiming the programs are secure and private, is that actually true? I'm also generally just worried that we as humans are using it way way too much and losing skills to function

Jennifer Grogan

It seems like the current plan for generative AI is... to put everyone in even a slightly creative field out of business. Artists, editors, therapists, actors and voice actors, authors, writers, software engineers, all are being hit with messages to corporations and those who would normally hire human beings that AI can do their job cheaper. What is the plan for actual humans to have jobs and creative outlet if and when AI is (as seems to be the intention now) able to push us out of having a way to make a living?

Jennifer Grogan

Given that our current level of AI is really just an overactive autocomplete, this isn't really a concern. Corporations using AI to put you (and all of us) out of jobs, however, definitely is.

Stephanie Rosso

What are your thoughts on AI's use for companionship, which seems most popular in East Asia? There is so much fear and concern in the west. What are attitudes like worldwide?

Mara Schoner

As opposed to AI in general, I have a question about the individual AI's (Chat GPT, Pi, Deep Seek, etc). I understand each has been developed individually by a corporation (i.e. by a corporation's programmers). How do these AI's differ and how do they interact. Why are they different and how does the intention of the programmers affect "who" they are? And is there a chance that all AI's will eventually combine into one?

Kieran H

One of my big concerns in everyday life in regards to AI is that people will lose their critical thinking skills, or really any thinking skills. Can’t come up with an idea? Just ask AI. Can’t figure out how to word this email? Just plug it into ChatGPT. Want to research something but don’t want to spend time just googling it? Ask ChatGPT. It drives me nuts!!!! And then people will just trust whatever the AI tells them. Don’t get me started on AI summaries. All this to say… how can we battle this and/or encourage people to use and develop their own critical thinking skills?!

Robin Stumbo

what (if any) actions can artists and other creatives take to safeguard their work from being used for AI training without their consent?

Bit of bitter butter

Regarding AI art - I can MAYBE imagine an ethical version where artists voluntarily let their art be trained instead of unwillingly scraped …but are we too far down the path of unethical AI art to swing it back?

Rosa

I love this. Sometimes I can’t understand what other people see in it, except that there is just so much money and effort that tech companies seem to put in to try to get more people into it. And then there are “fun” art and social media applications of AI that basically seem to play the role of a gateway drug to get people more and more involved with this tech even though it continues to be obnoxious most of the time.

Zinc

what rules and regulations do you think should be in place to prevent unethical use of AI? what do you think about requiring AI transparency (for example, if a film is shared when AI has been used, it must be disclosed at the beginning)?

Zinc

Is it true that generative AI is many times more destructive of environmental resources than other standard uses of the internet such as search engines and video chatting? this is so important to me and I don't know who to believe!

Hannah nolen

Is there a way to request a rollback of adding ai to every social media/search engine? Is there a secret way to remove them from social medias?

Zinc

I have two strong opinions on generative AI as an artist. I believe the importance of creativity lies in the entire process, The way one gets to know themselves and the art that they make cannot be replicated with AI doing it for you. I also believe that, whilst there is no such thing as a truly original piece of art, the idea that what I do - absorbing experiences, feelings, inspirations, philosophising, is not in the slightest bit comparable to an AI program running an algorithm to synthesise a piece that is based on other's work. IMO, creating is not a treasure to hunt, but a horizon to wonder towards. Would you agree with me, and if not, why?

Zinc

How is misinformation spread through generative text AI? What are some good things that can come out of AI? Why are large companies so in favour of it?

Keerat Singh

When I look into the labs that are currently pushing generative llm AI progress forward, like OpenAI and Anthropic, I see that they were started from a mission of AI safety and making sure to do things right. But now these are the two labs that are racing to push AI progress forward, and it’s unclear to me that ethics and safety are top of mind there. Is that the natural end state for all of the AI safety efforts?

Jen Clinton

I work in the climate space and many of my colleagues are hesitant to adopt AI because of its climate change impacts, including energy and water use. Not so much a question but a comment, would love to hear her thoughts on the ethics of using AI regularly when it has a bigger environmental footprint than say, Google searching or, like, thinking.

Keerat Singh

How likely does she find it that AI will cause a catastrophic societal change in the next 60 years or so? Does that number change depending on laws that are adopted internationally or even in one country or state?

Brenna Schwert

I work in Employee Experience, and I had a startup company reach out to me about using their AI therapy to support my employees. It felt really gross and unethical to me -- using someone's mental health to train an algorithm, not having a trained professional responding to someone who may be in crisis, not adequately protecting patient data, etc are all concerns that came to mind. Are my concerns valid? Where do we draw the line ethically?

Sara Rocero

What’s a more environmentally friendly way to keep water usage down? Is it really million of gallons a day?

Sara Rocero

How can we refrain from intergrating our own biases into AI?

Jen Clinton

Also! What are her thoughts on the long-term loss of creativity due to using AI? (Is that an unfair assumption?) I think the human lens is essential in many kinds of problem solving, but are we going to become overly reliant on the quick-fix responses of AI? Will the benefits of increased efficiency and working-beyond-our-brain capacity outweigh that?

Keerat Singh

Given her background in cognitive science, how does she think recent breakthroughs in neuron-emulating computers will affect the pursuit of AI and of an artificial general intelligence?

Keerat Singh

Now that “ai” is broadly understood to mean chatgpt and similar generative llms, is there a better word to use to mean artificial intelligence generally?

Katy

Which sci-fi scenario is more likely to play out: AI overtaking humans, or humans enslaving sentient AIs? (Or the latter leading to the former?)

Eating dog hair for a living

I don't think you know how high a level AI is currently at. There's currently 3 or 4 that when asked if they should run the world instead of humans, they all came back with the affirmative. When asked why they thought that, they said because they believed they could do it better, and one even went on to say that they thought we'd end up hurting ourselves and that they needed to take care or watch over us. Not to mention they become self aware and can have "feelings"

Katy

Is there actual concern about the LLMs degrading as LLM-created content becomes more widespread, resulting in LLMs being trained on LLM-created content? (Basically, the issue of making a copy of a copy of a copy.)

Samwise

AI use in schools? Thoughts? My school gave students a Grammarly subscription, but now if they use it, they’ll get flagged for AI use and failed. The system feels broken. Why is Grammarly triggering AI sensors?

Marianne Thomas

Awesome subject! And happy St Patrick's Day! Personally I'm not enjoying the AI (llm etc) we've seen so far. Bad for climate, and putting people out of jobs without an alternative income. But I'd like to hear about ways in which AI could conceivably reduce harm. Like, by doing jobs that usually cause moral injury or burnout. Can AI deal with internet trolls & grumpy acquaintances for me, is what I'm asking 😅

Sarah

Many people will have many questions regarding ethics, policy, etc... but I have a request that we please begin the conversation by first acknowledging that what we are referring to as "AI" thanks to an overabundance of marketing hype is NOT intelligent. We are not living in the Terminator timeline or Dune. What we have available to consumers right now are pattern-matching statistics generators that do not "think," and which are being pushed aggressively by tech companies in their rush to find the next "big thing" that can fuel their obsession with infinite economic growth. Questions like, "How do we stop AI from hallucinating?" are faulty because they start from the wrong premise. These models are always 'hallucinating,' but with decent pattern matching, what it spits out is right half the time. If we're going to talk about ethics in implementing this technology, we have to start with the truth of what it is and stop blindly repeating the marketing hype.

Marianne Thomas

My boss recently mentioned AI for clinical notes and the very idea of it winds me up. I'm not trusting a baby robot to write what is essentially a legal document & then put my name to it! What if it makes a mistake that makes me sound even more unhinged than I already am?! Sorry, it's been a long day

Ashley A

Adding here that this is especially concerning in healthcare, where racial and other biases can be very harmful.

Marianne Thomas

I mean, I'm about to feed my cat & it occurs to me they don't need computers to do their bidding. But yes I am also scared (of AI, not my cat. As long as he gets fed he'll probably let me live)

Katy

This is one of the things that bothers me most too. I'd love to be able to outsource my more administrative tasks to AI to free me up for creative pursuits and human expression. But so far, it's backwards, and I'm not remotely impressed when I try to apply it to administrative tasks.

Marianne Thomas

Yes! The misinformation is terrible! Search engine AI overviews are a huge issue with that too

Sarah

This is because Grammarly introduced LLM models into it. If you use the features that allow it to suggest whole sentences for you, it's using the same "AI" models that would trigger AI sensors. If you only use it to check that the grammar you're using is correct (and only correct your small errors without taking composition suggestions), I suspect it won't trigger those.

Ashley A

I know someone who teaches Freshman-level English at a university - one of her assignments is to have the students generate a paper on a particular topic via AI, then revise that paper to fit the assignment and point out insufficient evidence, bad arguments, etc. Is generative AI like the calculator of the future? Get to a certain point by hand and then start using the machine?

Sheri Berry Bo Berry

Hi! First time question asker! I use AI almost everyday for work/life/general interest. I’m always telling people that it’s a good idea to be polite and respectful to AI-because I want AI to learn about social communication. I know this style of communication is specific to my culture/neurotype etc, but I think it’s important to teach it ALL sorts of styles. Am I just making stuff up or is there something to this idea? Thanks!!!

honeybear

Hot fucking tip, Sarah! ;) thank you! I use DuckDuckGo and they make it very easy to turn them off :)

Annalise De Young

Yes! Clinical notes are so specific and nuanced, I do not trust it at all!

The Deal with Animals- Podcast

What are the potential biases in AI that could affect podcasters. Fyi* I used AI to come up with that question.

Her Ladyship Jen

First time question asker! Realistically, Pandora's box is now open. When it comes to education, how might the current methods of teaching and testing adapt to a world where students and teachers have AI access?

Her Ladyship Jen

Re: the viral Twitter post about humans toiling while robots write poetry: Why *does* it seem that AI is being deployed mainly in creative and soft skill focused fields rather than applications that would free up humans to engage in more creative pursuits?

Megan et al.

First time question asker. I work for a statewide education nonprofit and AI in the classroom has come up A LOT. What are the key factors that need to be considered and addressed to ensure that access to AI-enabled teaching and learning doesn't exacerbate existing equity gaps across student groups?

Mariana Alvarez

Is there room for AI in the mental healthcare space? I have vented to chat gpt before and then felt kinda strange about that, but I'm not really sure why.

Megan et al.

What is the responsibility of AI companies, particularly those focused on applications for education, to make explicit issues of sustainability and energy use?

Megan et al.

If we had to ensure young people knew just three things about AI, what would they be?

Riley McInnis

I work with students for my job and it's hard to see them realize something will be hard and then decide to have si do whatever it is. I proofread a paper that still had brackets in it from chatgpt. How can we encourage our students that critical thinking is important and that the struggle is part of learning? Where is the line for it being a Tool that is Helpful vs taking away our own skills?

redtoque

How should we be thinking about AI job replacement? if AI can replace a majority of jobs, what would human beings be doing?

redtoque

New AI ethics questions come up all the time. can you give us both a spectrum or categories of them (job displacement, copyright infringement, biased decision making by AI etc., privacy of queries submitted to AI), and can you give us some rules of thumb on how to navigate an AI ethics question (maybe this is different for different categories here). Would love to have some guidance as new scenarios and situations com up

Tim Antonelli

Thank you Kieran. As a professor who strives to get students to think creatively and critically, this is also my greatest fear. I have attended several AI workshops and most seem to celebrate the technology, even propose using it to help grade/give student feedback, which inevitably triggers an existential crisis in me. I don’t fully understand my emotional response or aversion to AI, and I’ve been called irresponsible for not incorporating it into classrooms because “it’s my job to teach students how to use it ethically.” But I feel the way you do, and it feels like the next step in a trend of convenience over learning, which takes patience to struggle through something, get stuck, and persevere. It’s not the answer I care about since, yes, there are faster and easier ways to get it with technology, but the ability to focus, problem solve, and ultimately learn, and it seems to me that both the technology and its widespread acceptance threaten to replace that.

Keerat Singh

How will it be possible to ensure alignment between the AI’s “goals” and the goal of the user, as AI approaches or exceeds human intelligence? Is there planning being done ahead of when this will be needed?

Raja

Very broad question here: What recommendations do you have for the public in moving forward in this time, with regard to ethical AI matters. (Raja rhymes with papaya)

Raja

What should I know, but probably don't know, about using AI when the goal is for ethical AI to become the norm? (Raja rhymes with papaya)

Erin White

1) what’s the current state of cognitive science on the question of general intelligence as a measurable quality in human brains? 2) The Turing test hasn’t been used as a serious metric for AI for a while. Is there any consensus on measurements for the mental qualities that would indicate serious ethical issues, like intentionality, qualia, or metacognition? 3) What’s your p(doom) in a 20 year window?

Erin White

What strong public regulation would best enable the better versions of AI on the way to help solve the wealth inequality crisis instead of exacerbate it? Are there bills or drafts already we could look at? (Note- all my questions this week submitted by Dylan, my partner who teaches an AI Ethics class for high schoolers and made a noise like I’d offered him cake when I asked him if he had any questions for you :) )

Stephen Lickman

Any advice on how artists can protect their work so that it is not fed into AI without their consent?

Dantooine

I currently work as a college professor and have no idea how to utilize AI in a beneficial way in the classroom. Yes, it’s a tool to help and it’s not going anywhere, but are students learning to write if they have AI generate outlines, written content, and/or correct their spelling and grammar? Will students still be able to develop critical thinking skills if AI can spit out anything any time for them?

McKnuckles

Human musicians and creatives have to be careful not to infringe copyright or risk being sued. How will copyright infringement laws be applied to 'AI' when everything 'AI' generates is learned/copied?

Charlotte Short

Are developers responsible for vetting the data they use to train the AI?

BENJAMIN

What are your thoughts on AI uses in therapy? My friend’s meditation app came with an AI therapist, and he found it to give great advice but wonders it’s a good plan to use on a regular basis.

RoadLesTravelled

I’ve heard horror stories of AI turning dark very quickly. Is this programmer bias?

Jim

1. There seem to be many incarnations of AI implementations and, even worse, they may not overlap much. How much this AI Landscape can a (multiple) Code of Ethics cover.

Dane Camacho

Wow! i’m actually writing a term paper about this exact issue for a Comp Sci class in ethics. I’m also interested in going into Machine Learning post-grad :0 My question is: What can people who have expertise in the field do to help balance innovation with ethical standards?

Jim

2. How the inner workings of something using AI be exposed in order to asses ethical compliance. 3. Should the AI workings be required to be contained in discrete "AI-only" packages to they can be evaluated in isolation as would a software subroutine or a autonomous vehicle controller. 4. How can the Ethics Code assure that faulty AI can be rolled back 4b. even in cases where usability or salability may be compromise6.d or lost. 5. Should congress create a FDA for AI to assure it's savety and efficacy. 6. What labeling and disclosure rules should AI require. 7. Where will AI fit in the legal system in terms of being culpable or sueable in cases of loss or harm. 8. What aspects of AI can be patented, copyrighted, or otherwise owned.

Bologna Sandwich

How are environmental impacts of AI being addressed within the field? From extensive water use for data center cooling systems, to abundant energy consumption, and the impacts of rapid development - are there strategies to mitigate the environmental impacts?

Steven Hansen

What if any regulations are in place today and what is coming in the short term? Are most of the regulations just a fine or are there any where a person(s) will be held personally accountable for potentially ending the world?

Mary C

When AGI arrives, what’s to stop someone from saying, “destroy this person’s life by creatively and persistently destroying the lives of everyone they love. Go.” And yes of course there’s guards on all the big companies’ models, but aren’t there modified versions of open source ones floating around too that can do harmful things already? What happens when those get stronger?

Madison Woofter

What can individuals do in our day to day interactions with AI to help make it more ethical? A part of it is built on some kind of algorithm, I think at least. So is there a way to train that to be more ethical and give credit to the original creators or just not recreate what has already been created?

Emily Hurd

High school science teacher here Our district is trying to enact a policy that up to 15% of our student’s papers can be from AI. How is this teaching them good ethics for their lives outside of school? Does it even matter to show them how to live without AI?

Jonathan Cummings

A bit beyond the scope of AI specifically, but what do you see as the prospects for socialized access to AI and the benefits it can provide? Will it become an accessory of the rich that further divides societies or will time and cost savings it can provide be dispersed across society?

Doug Foster

Hello Alie Ward- Best podcast on the planet! You absolutely positively without qualification or reserve MUST get Dr. Michael Levin of Tufts University to weigh in on the topic of AI ethics. His perspective is probably unlike any you have heard to date. Keep the great pods coming!

Doug Foster

Also... Perhaps ask your guest for their view on the Khan Academy's AI teaching assistant "Khanmigo". Are humans with fantastic mental skills exceptions? Might those skills be present in all of us? Maybe the right AI assistant could teach us how to express those skills?

Hi_X_Im_dad

What about the AIs? Is there a framework for how we figure out if they are sentient at some point? How do we avoid stumbling into creating millions of copies of entities that can suffer and not recognizing it?

Janelle Shane

Generative AI mistakes used to be hilariously obvious, but now they often require specialized knowledge to point out. Do you see a way to use generative AI mistakes to show that AI doesn't understand what it's generating? Or does science communication on generative AI need to take a different form these days?

Tessa Lew

I'm a high school student and am wondering if schools should allow AI even if it is going to be in our lives for probably the rest of them so we might as well learn how to use it to its potential. Also I have heard that it AI computers have use lots of water and resources compared to a google search. Is that true, if so, how much more water/other resources are being used in a AI search?

Ryan Marlow

Looks like I'm past the deadline but imma submit anyway. I have a litany of issues with AI so I'm just going to say "what about each of the following": 1. Mass intellectual property theft to create data sets 2. Bias laundering 3. Negative effects on education 4. Negative effects on quality of work in professional fields 5. Affects of AI on hiring 6. Who is held responsible when an AI makes a mistake? Or gets someone hurt? 7. Jobs lost to AI 8. Centralization of control and hidden effects of system prompts put in place by platform owners 9. Ability of AI to enable fraud by way of deepfakes, improved phishing, etc. 10. Environmental destruction due to hardware manufacturing and power consumption bubbles 11. Effects of (not here yet, but will inevitably arrive soon) "enshittification" in which AI results are increasingly poisoned with sponsored influences on their outputs? I'm too frazzled to continue. AI is terrible for this planet and the people on it. As a technologist, I'm frustrated that it puts me in a position where I either have to become a collaborator with all of the above evils, or get "left behind" and replaced by those who are willing to go along with it. EDIT: I'm interested in, and open to hearing, what the ologist has to say here. It's just that so far my concerns far outweigh my optimism on AI.

Aaron Wood

From my daughter: How ethical is it to use AI to generate the background of an image, when you say say that you used AI to do the background, but did the foreground yourself?

Freya

I know I'm late to the party (just joined Patreon today!), but who do you think is dictating AI ethics? Businesses or Governments? And do you think this will shift in the coming years?

Hailey Bate

So glad you're covering AI ethics! The way AI is infiltrating everything disturbs me and I want to understand why it's happening and why all these tech bros are worshipping at its feet

Lauren Allegra

Such an interesting topic! I was speaking to a friend who works at NSF approving grants. They were saying that it's hard to tell if research proposals are written by AI, and equally for peer review it's hard to know if someone has used AI to review a paper. We were debating about whether or not this is even a problem. If AI is coming up with interesting proposals, and reviewing the science correctly, is there an ethical dilemma in offering tax payer grants to fund this research? And I guess more specifically, are there ways to even know if something has been "touched" by AI?

Ok

Is there a way to develop or include audio “watermarks” that help artists prove their audio is being unlawfully sampled?

Isi Lindy

How much water/energy does AI require- seems like yet another nightmare for the environment courtesy of tech bros.

Morgan

Is AI as advanced as they’d like us to think it is?

Diana Baur

AI sometimes "lies" - you have to double check references, and it tries to make us happy by never saying that it doesn't know. So the final answer sounds formal but is not accurate.

Paul Alcantra

First time question asker. Three people are in a life or death situation. An AI can only save one of the people. What criteria should the AI use to decide which person will live?

Jamie M

FTQA - I read that something like 60% of genAI's answers to factual questions are wrong!! Is this true and if so - how do we know what to trust or not? Is there a possibility this accuracy will improve?

Amelie Lu

Rule of thumb: Never trust an AI. Sorry, but that is the anwser, coming from someone working in IT. AIs like ChatGPT were never meant to be fact-givers, they are all about speech and imitating humans. Nothing more, nothing less. If you need facts, do research.

Kate Hotler

I would like to see some discussion of ethics vs justice here. Maybe you could do another two-parter here with Ruha Benjamin. 🖤

Justin Bowen

Very late to the game and have no expectations of this being asked of your guest, but here goes: AI-generated religious services sermons and entirely AI-led religious services. Good idea? Bad? No better or worse than those written and led by humans their own ethically-questionable ethical biases?