Shows / Ethical Machines
Ethical Machines
I have to roll my eyes at the constant click bait headlines on technology and ethics.
If we want to get anything done, we need to go deeper.
That’s where I come in. I’m Reid Blackman, a former philosophy professor turned AI ethics advisor to government and business.
If you’re looking for a podcast that has no tolerance for the superficial, try out Ethical Machines.
Episodes
Ethical MachinesDoes AI Ethics in Business Make Sense?
People want AI developed ethically, but is there actually a business case for it? The answer better be yes since, after all, it’s businesses that are…
Ethical MachinesDoes AI Undermine Scientific Discovery?
Automation is great, right? It speeds up what needs to get done. But is that always a good thing? What about in the process of scientific discovery? Yes, AI…
Ethical MachinesThe Power of Technologists
Behind all those algorithms are the people who create them and embed them into our lives. How did they get that power? What should they do with it? What are…
Ethical MachinesAI is Uncontrollable
People in the AI safety community are laboring under an illusion, perhaps even a self-deception, my guest argues. They think they can align AI with our values…
Ethical MachinesA Culture of Online Manipulation
Developers are constantly testing how online users react to their designs. Will they stay longer on the site because of this shade of blue? Will they get…
Ethical MachinesAI Risk Mitigation is Insanely Complex
There’s a picture in our heads that’s overly simplistic and the result is not thinking clearly about AI risks. Our simplistic picture is that a team develops…
Ethical MachinesDid You Say "Quantum" Computer?
From the best of season 1: Microsoft recently announced an (alleged!) breakthrough in quantum computing. But what in the world is quantum computer, what can…
Ethical MachinesWhat Psychologists Say About AI Relationships
Every specialist in anything thinks they should have a seat at the AI ethics table. I’m usually skeptical. But psychologist Madeline Reinecke, Ph.D. did a…
Ethical MachinesAm I Wrong About Agentic AI?
A fun format for this episode. In Part I, I talk about how I see agentic AI unfolding and what ethical, social, and political risks come with it. In part II…
Ethical MachinesWhat Do VCs Want to Know About AI Ethics?
Jaahred Thomas is a VC friend of mine who wanted to talk about the evolving landscape of AI ethics in startups and business generally. So rather than have a…
Ethical MachinesThe Peril of Principles in AI Ethics
From the best of season 1: The hospital faced an ethical question: should we deploy robots to help with elder care? Let’s look at a standard list of AI ethics…
Ethical MachinesInnovation Hype and Why We Should Wait on AI Regulation
From the best of season 1: Innovation is great…but hype is bad. Not only has all this talk of innovation not increased innovation, but it also creates a bad…
Ethical MachinesBusinesses are afraid to say “ethics”
“Sustainability,” “purpose/mission/value driven”, “human-centric design.” These are terms companies use so they don’t have to say “ethics.” My contention is…
Ethical MachinesWe’re Getting AI and Democracy Wrong
Democracy is about how we ought to distribute power in society and, more specifically, it’s the claim that people ought to have a significant say in how they…
Ethical MachinesWhy Copyright Challenges to AI Learning Will Fail and the Ethical Reasons Why They Shouldn’t
From the best of season 1. Well, I didn’t see this coming. Talking about legal and philosophical conceptions of copyright turns out to be intellectually…
Ethical MachinesEvolving AI Governance
My guest and I have been doing AI governance for businesses for a combined 17+years. We started way before genAI was a big thing. But I’d say I’m more a…
Ethical MachinesWhat’s Wrong With Loving an AI?
People, especially kids under 18, are forming emotional attachments with AI chatbots. At a minimum, this is…weird. Is it also unethical? Does it harm users? Is…
Ethical MachinesRationally Believing Conspiracy Theories
You might want more online content moderation so insane conspiracy theories don’t flourish. Sex slaves in Democrat pizza shops, climate change is a hoax, and…
Ethical MachinesAI Understands. A Little. Part 2
From the best of season 1. Part 2 of my conversation with Alex. There’s good reason to think AI doesn’t understand anything. It’s just moving around words…
Ethical MachinesChatGPT Does Not Understand Anything Part 1
From the best of season 1. Part 1 of my conversation with Alex Grzankowski. It looks like ChatGPT understands what you’re asking. It looks like ChatGPT…
Ethical MachinesTyranny of the One Best Algorithm
One person driving one car creates a negligible amount of pollution. The problem arises when we have lots of people driving cars. Might this kind of issue…
Ethical MachinesHow AI Ends Legal Uncertainty
With so many laws and so much case law, it’s virtually impossible for the layperson to know what’s legal and illegal. But what if AI can synthesize all that…
Ethical MachinesIs Tech a Religion that Needs Reformation?
Author of the new book “Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation” discusses, well…
Ethical MachinesShould We Care About Data Privacy?
From the best of season 1: You might think it's outrageous that companies collect data about you and use it in various ways to drive profits. The business…
Ethical MachinesThe AI Mirror
We use the wrong metaphor for thinking about AI, Shannon Vallor argues, and bad thinking leads to bad results. We need to stop thinking about AI as being an…
Ethical MachinesHolding AI Responsible for What It Says
Canada Air blamed the LLM chatbot for giving false information about their bereavement fare policy. They lost the law suit because of course it’s not the…
Ethical MachinesDeepfakes and 2024 Election
California just signed a bill to drastically decrease deepfakes on social media. The worry, of course, is that they are already being used to unjustifiably…
Ethical MachinesEthics for People Who Work in Tech
What does it look like to integrate ethics into the teams that are building AI? How can we make ethics a practice and not a compliance checklist? In today’s…
Ethical MachinesCalm the Hell Down : AI is Just Software that Learns by Example and No, It’s Not Going to Kill Us All
Doesn’t the title say it all? This is for anyone who wants the very basics on what AI is, why it’s not intelligent, and why it doesn’t pose an existential…
Ethical MachinesDoes Social Media Diminish Our Autonomy?
Are we dependent on social media in a way that erodes our autonomy? After all, platforms are designed to keep us hooked and to come back for more. And we don’t…
Ethical MachinesChoosing Who Should Benefit and Who Should Suffer with AI
From the best of season 1: I talk a lot about bias, black boxes, and privacy, but perhaps my focus is too narrow. In this conversation, Aimee and I discuss…
Ethical MachinesWe’re Doing AI Ethics Wrong
Is our collective approach to ensuring AI doesn’t go off the rails fundamentally misguided? Is our approach too narrow to get the job done? My guest, John Basl…
Ethical MachinesCan AI Do Ethics?
Many researchers in AI think we should make AI capable of ethical inquiry. We can’t teach it all the ethical rules; that’s impossible. Instead, we should teach…
Ethical MachinesWe Don’t Need AI Regulations
It’s common to hear we need new regulations to avoid the risks of AI (bias, privacy violations, manipulation, etc.). But my guest, Dean Ball, thinks this claim…
Ethical MachinesWhen Biased AI is Good
Everyone knows biased or discriminatory AI bad and we need to get rid of it, right? Well, not so fast. I’m bringing one of the best episodes from Season 1…
Ethical MachinesThe Secret Life of Data
Data about us is collected, aggregated, and shared in more ways than we can count. In some cases, this leads to great benefits. In others, a great deal of…
Ethical MachinesThe Necessary Imperfections of AI Content Moderation
With the ocean of social media content we need AI to identify and remove inappropriate material; humans just can’t keep up. But AI doesn’t assess content the…
Ethical MachinesAI Armageddon is Unlikely
AI + nuclear capacities sounds like a recipe for disaster. Some people think it could cause mass extinction. While it’s easy to let our imaginations run wild…
Ethical MachinesCould AI Undermine Informed Consent?
AI holds a lot of promise in making faster, more accurate diagnoses of our ailments. But if they are too influential, might they undermine our doctors’ ability…
Ethical MachinesData Privacy Isn’t as Important as You Think
Privacy is important. But I think we mostly misconceive the nature of privacy and data privacy. I argue we should rethink data privacy so that we can both…
Ethical MachinesExistentialist Risk
Technologist’s are racing to create AGI, artificial general intelligence. They also say we must align the AGI’s moral values with our own. But Professors…
Ethical MachinesIs Equity Always Valuable?
Of course, decreasing racial disparities in healthcare is ethically imperative. But does it sometimes require too great a moral sacrifice? If it costs more…
Ethical MachinesThe Moral Weight of Online Sexual Assault
Could online sexual assault be as morally bad as in-person sexual assault? Honestly, that initially struck me as a bit crazy. But Professor John Danaher makes…
Ethical MachinesWelcome to Ethical Machines
Welcome to Ethical Machines—a weekly podcast from author and ethicist Reid Blackman. Episodes drop June 27th. Advertising Inquiries…