“One day every major city in America will have a telephone.” Alexander Graham Bell Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Human beings can be forgiven for sometimes not grasping the full impact of the technologies we develop. Occasionally, we miss the forest for the trees. This explains both Alexander Graham Bell’s statement on his own … Continue reading »
Is ChatGPT a False Promise?
Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts, and Jeffrey Watumull, in “The False Promise of ChatGPT,” (New York Times, March 8, 2023), lament the sudden popularity of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChapGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Sydney. What they do not consider is what these AIs may be able to teach us about humanity. Chomsky, et … Continue reading »
California Takes a First Step Towards Worker Data Rights
Imagine you’re applying for a job via video, and without telling you the company uses software that analyzes your eye contact, facial expressions, and tone of voice to predict whether you’re a good match for the job. Or imagine that you work in an Amazon warehouse and an algorithm fires you for not meeting productivity … Continue reading »
Artificially Intelligent Vision Systems are Overconfident, Like Humans
Self-driving vehicles, security and surveillance, and robot vacuums — artificial intelligent (AI) systems are increasingly integrating themselves into our lives. Many of these modern innovations rely on AIs trained in object recognition, identifying objects like vehicles, people, or obstacles. Safety requires that a system know its limitations and realize when it doesn’t recognize something. Just … Continue reading »
CHIPS Act includes new support for workforce training, providing opportunities beyond R&D for higher education
President Joe Biden signed into law today the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, a bill designed to ensure America’s leadership in chip technology innovation. The new law appropriates funding that incentivizes companies to manufacture semiconductor integrated circuits in the United States, and to bolster domestic microelectronics research and development (R&D). This is critical since … Continue reading »
Taking aim at gun violence: Tech strategies for reducing harm
The recent spate of mass shootings has galvanized action in Congress and among advocacy organizations large and small. Gun violence is now recognized as a pervasive and growing problem in a country with patchwork regulation and 25% more guns than people. High-profile events like those in Uvalde, Buffalo, Parkland, Charleston, Newtown and the long sad … Continue reading »
The University of California can help close the digital divide. Here’s how
One in four Americans do not have high-speed internet access at home. While many public spaces have become digital lifelines to online education, work, and public services, they’re a troubling sign of a deepening digital divide, one that UC is well positioned to help close.
There’s an urgent need to probe Russian war crimes in Ukraine — but how?
As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth month, the urgent need to document international crimes continues. The scope and scale of atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by Putin and his regime have drawn widespread attention and condemnation, as the gruesome realities of the conflict have been broadcast globally minute-by-minute, including through online and mobile devices. It is no surprise, then, that digital evidence of atrocities abounds — evidence crucial for accountability and transitional justice efforts.
Six actions to make belonging real in tech
This blog was authored by UC Berkeley Othering and Belonging experts Emnet Almedom, Nicole Montojo and Eli Moore. The ideas expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the Othering & Belonging Institute or UC Berkeley, but belong to the authors. What would it take to collectively own our data? How could we regulate the environmental … Continue reading »
What’s Next in Science & Technology
A Blueprint for A New Standard in Science & Technology The world needs advancement from science and technology more than ever. Science and Technology has played a key role in our understanding of the world. This includes the structure of the atom, understanding DNA, the creation of the transistor, the concept of computing machines, and so … Continue reading »
Like peas in a pod: How Trump and Bolsonaro attack science and democracy
Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s right-wing president often referred to as the South American Trump, follow a similar game plan, including denying the reality of climate change, aggressively reducing environmental regulations and enforcement, and initially calling the COVID-19 pandemic a hoax.
NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework Should Address Key Societal-Scale Risks
Authored by a group of scholars from the University of California, Berkeley: Anthony Barrett, Thomas Krendl Gilbert, Jessica Newman, Brandie Nonnecke, and Ifejesu Ogunleye. In September 2021, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for a moratorium on the sale and use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that “pose a serious risk to human … Continue reading »
On the wings of Ada Lovelace
October 12, 2021 (aka Ada Lovelace Day) Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852) is recognized for many remarkable attributes and affiliations, not only as a precursor of what came to be modern computer programming but also as the daughter of poet Lord Byron and friend to notable Victorian intellectuals like Charles Babbage, Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday … Continue reading »
Aviation Fields Must Diversify to Soar with the Next Generation
Created in 1939 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to commemorate Orville Wright’s birthday, National Aviation Day has been celebrated annually on August 19 with air shows and related extravaganzas. These are exciting days for aerospace researchers, aviation enthusiasts and aspiring jobseekers. Many were inspired earlier this year by NASA’s exploration of Mars and the independent suborbital … Continue reading »
Stopping the next pandemic can be easy
Those today who refuse to wear masks or deny the protection of vaccination might pause to learn from the brave, self-sacrificing villagers of England’s Eyam four centuries ago.
ICABR at 25 – Celebrating 25 years of Research on the Bioeconomy
Last week I participated in the 25th conference of the International Consortium of Agricultural Biotechnology Research (ICABR). The ICABR is a network of scholars, mostly social scientists, who study the economic and social implications of modern biotechnology, the impacts of policies to accept it, and consumer acceptance of biotechnologies, especially in agriculture and natural resources. … Continue reading »
The On-Line Learning MOOC Is Not the Future of Higher Education
But it might be the New Interactive Text Book By Ikhlaq Sidhu and Esther Wojcicki There has been a lot of investment as well as discussion about the future of education in the past few years. The basic idea was supposed to be that education could be democratized and that college students everywhere would simply login at home … Continue reading »
University Research and the COVID Vaccine Race – Who Owns What IP?
A bit over forty years ago, in the waning days of his presidency, Jimmy Carter signed the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act launching a transformation in the pursuit and purpose of science in the United States. Before 1980, federally funded science was largely focused on meeting the Cold War defense needs of a nation in a science … Continue reading »
Blockchain, Digital Identity, and Health Records: Considerations for Vulnerable Populations in California
In the early 2000s, blockchain took the private sector by storm. In addition to gaining notoriety for its applications in cryptocurrency, the technology was touted as a solution to dozens of organizational problems, from supply chain tracking to identity management. Although commercial applications of blockchain continue to show promise and are being pursued by startups … Continue reading »
How cybersecurity practices can advance anti-racism
As part of the Scholar Strike of September 2020, responding to continued police killings of Black people in the United States and grappling with how academia and the tech industry can engage in meaningful anti-racist action, we are sharing our thoughts on the intersection of cybersecurity and racism, incorporating resources suggested by the I School community.