S03E08: Yes, we GAN
Monday, 08 Jan 2018
It's 2018 and we're still here! Mr Orange and Rocket Man haven't blown each other—and as collateral, all of us—up (yet), in the UK there's talk of #Unbrexit (or is it #Brexitexit?), and more to the area of my professional expertise, the conversation around ethics & tech (AI, IoT, you name it) seems to be picking up steam beyond the usual suspects. And unlike Game of Thrones, this newsletter season keeps going in 2018 (so far) and so by Jan 8th we've passed GoT. So even though I have a hunch it's going to get worse before it gets better, globally speaking, 2018 is off to a comparatively good start. That's how this kind of accounting works, right?
Note: 2018 is filling up nicely with projects, but there's still some availability especially (and realistically, only) in Q1. So if you want to have a chat, now's the best time! Just drop me a line by replying here or at peter@thewavingcat.com.
Idly wondering...
There are a few things I'd be interested in starting in 2018, but haven't figured out how. Given an expected heavy workload combined with trying to balancing this with our new family member, these are things I wouldn't pursue on my own but only as part of some team:
- I'd be curious to write a regular column around my areas of expertise and interest: Tech, society & ethics, specifically IoT & AI. This would only make sense in my context if it was someplace with large reach and a budget.
- I'd love to play a regular role in some interview/chat podcast. I didn't realize how much until having a long chat (which led to two episodes (1, 2) of Stories Connecting Dots) with Markus Andrezak. But I think I'd love doing this regularly, and I hope I might not be too bad at it. Or if I am, I'd like to find out. I can't do the production, but I think I'm well trained and qualified to ask the right questions.
Not sure about the best context for any of these. Usually I'd start a podcast myself and learn how it works on the fly. This year, with a baby that's not even two months old, this seems like going autonomous on this would be a reasonably irresponsible choice. Anyway, I'll keep an eye out for opportunities. If you see something, say something!
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Newsletter of the week
I've been really enjoying Warren Ellis' Orbital Operations for quite a while. In fact I'd be surprised (but don't remember) if it hasn't come up here before. Just this week, for example, his post included a 2012 talk about Futures (2012 was a great vintage for Futures for sure; things looked a lot less dark then, even if we didn't notice it). The great thing: Warren's talk from over five years ago reads as if it could be given today. And as a sometimes-professional curator of conferences who participates in a great number of events I swear, many of today's Futures talks don't come close to this even with the benefit of 5 years more hindsight.
If you have a stage and a budget, you could do a lot worse than to invite Warren. He has a knack for putting the audience in an awkward situation—he doesn't pander to anyone!—in all the right ways and put his finger right where it hurts. If you couldn't tell, I'm a big fan.
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Yes, we GAN
How an A.I. ‘Cat-and-Mouse Game’ Generates Believable Fake Photos (The New York Times). GANs, or Generative Adversarial Networks, have been the hot shit in machine learning for a while. But seeing the results of this nvidia research neural network that generates photos of—how do we call this?—fake celebrities, that's just something else. First, it's super impressive. Second, we're in for some real fun conversations about the nature of reality and of news and what not, once this becomes widely available. (That's a timeline of months, not years, and certainly not decades, to be sure.) It's the logical next step of this journey to easy media manipulation/creation, and video is the next after that, and so on. But oooooh boy, there's some interesting stuff coming down that pipeline.
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AI ethics
AI for the public interest fund to explore bias in criminal justice and autonomous vehicles (VentureBeat).
The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, hosted between Berkman Klein Center for Internet Society and MIT Media Lab and directed by Tim Hwang, looks super promising. Plus, I personally think extremely highly of Tim and trust this project is in the best possible hands. Excellent!
See also: MIT Media Lab's announcement for the new AI ethics & governance initiative.
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Book recommendation: Control Shift
Honestly can't tell if I had mentioned this before; just in case, let me mention it: David Meyer (@superglaze) has written a book about digital rights, or rather how our rights as consumers and citizens change through the internet, and it is very, very good. Super accessible, too: Control Shift: How Technology Affects You and Your Rights. I always enjoy David's writing, and this is no exception. (amazon.com; it appears that it might be available for free as part of KindleUnlimited or something; but I'm completely lost in Amazon's vast array of service offerings.)
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European values
Interesting interview between DER SPIEGEL and Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel. Please forgive me the lengthy excerpt (highlights mine):
DER SPIEGEL: What will the core issues of this European foreign policy be?
Gabriel: It is clear that we need a foreign policy in which we jointly define European interests. Thus far, we have often defined European values, but we have been much too weak in defining mutual interests. To preempt any possible misunderstandings: We cannot give short shrift to our values of freedom, democracy and human rights. On the contrary. But political scientist Herfried Münkler is right: If you only take normative positions, if your focus is solely on values, you won't find success in a world where others are relentlessly pursuing their interests. In a world full of meat-eaters, vegetarians have a tough time.
DER SPIEGEL: This political toughness is something Germany still hasn't learned.
Gabriel: In the past, we could rely on the French, the British and, especially, the Americans, to assert our interests in the world. We have always criticized the U.S. for being the global police, and it was often appropriate to do so. But we are now seeing what happens when the U.S. pulls back. There is no such thing as a vacuum in international politics. If the U.S. leaves the room, other powers immediately walk in. In Syria, it's Russia and Iran. In trade policy, it's China. These examples show that, ultimately, we are no longer achieving either -- neither the dissemination of our European values nor the advancement of our interests.
There's something about Germany asserting itself on the global stage that will make many (and certainly many, many, many Germany from my generation) somewhat uncomfortable. That said, obviously there's a strong argument here that otherwise others will certainly fill any potential gap, and the global political snapshot at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 has plenty of potential players that won't hesitate to grab any power they can. Also, I do like that values argument as opposed to, say, a focus on economic interests first, as well as the focus on strong European integration.
This aspect is mentioned explicitly a few paragraphs later:
Gabriel: Surely the European Union as a whole stands for these dreams [of freedom, prosperity, democracy]. But Germany, especially, because of its economic strength. Also because of its pacifism. When you think back today to a time more than 70 years ago when we were a terrible place, a place people were afraid of, it is a wonderful development that we have gone from being a terrible place to a place that people dream of.
I'm mentioning this not just because politics, by the way. In our ThingsCon work we often take a normative stance ("values!"), but we're most effective by far when we manage to marry this argument with hands-on, constructive, actionable advice to align values with business interests and practices. Something to consider, always: How can we help others do the right thing under pressure?
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That's it for the day. Have a great week!
And if you think this might be of interest to a colleague of friend, please feel free to forward or point them to tinyletter.com/pbihr to sign up.
Yours sincerely,
Peter