<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><b>The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "The Ethics of AI," a hybrid (in-person at the Institute, Hawkins 233, or on Zoom - see below) forum at 3:30pm on Wednesday, May 8.</b><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><span>The
last few years have seen radical improvements in Artificial
Intelligence technology, including the notable gains in performance
related to the development of new large language models (LLMs) such as
OpenAI's GPT series (e.g. GPT-4). These newer models are far faster and
more capable than earlier AI models, and have triggered a huge surge in
interest and investment in the use of AI for a host of functions.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The
particular nature of these AI models and their capabilities is also
raising important ethical issues, due both to their requirements and to
their capabilities. To develop and run these new AIs is very processor
intensive, and this is resulting in major investments in new computer
data centers. One impact of AI-related investment in computing is that
the total energy consumption of global data centers is expected to more
than double between 2022 and 2026, from 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) to more
than 1000 TWh. In addition to making the green energy transition more
difficult due to the increased demand for power, these data centers will
both generate a lot of waste heat and will require a lot of fresh water
for cooling. Google's data centers used 4.3 billion gallons of fresh
water in 2021 alone, and the newest data centers are larger and
generally require more water - up to 5 million gallons per day (the same
as a town of 50,000 people). The fact that many of these data centers
are located in areas that are prone to drought just makes the issue
worse.</span><br><span> </span><br><span>The new AI models also require a lot of data to train on,
whether it be text, images, or sounds. In many cases so far they have
been trained on data publicly available on the internet. While publicly
available, much of the data used is protected by copyright laws and thus
its use for training AIs is questionable ethically, to say nothing of
its possible illegality.</span><br><span> </span><br><span>Finally, there are ethical issues
raised by the use of AIs. The current generation of AIs are very good at
pattern recognition, but it is often difficult (or impossible) to tell
how they came to their conclusions. The capability to notice patterns
that humans will normally miss is extremely useful in many fields, but
the "black box" process by which the AIs operate and the potential for
error raises real ethical issues when these AIs are used. For example,
while we can probably agree that using an AI to screen medical imagery
and identify possible problems for a doctor to follow up on is good,
police or military use of AIs is more problematic. During the war in
Gaza, for example, the Israelis have used a military AI called "The
Gospel" to generate target lists for bombing. While some of the targets
identified through this method were members of Hamas and their bases, it
is also certain (due to the limitations of these programs) that some of
the targets were not valid military targets. While we cannot currently
be certain that Israeli forces attacked any civilians due to their
inclusion in target lists generated by The Gospel, </span>
<span>the very possibility is problematic.</span>
<br><span></span><br><span>We are pleased to welcome Dr. Delbert Hart, Chair of the Department of Computer Science, as a special guest for this discussion. Please join us in person at the Institute (Hawkins 233) or on Zoom to discuss this important issue.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Topic: Institute forum on the ethics of AI</span><br><span>Time: May 8, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)</span><br><span></span><br><span>Join Zoom Meeting</span><br><span><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/94248691820&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1714760499565480&usg=AOvVaw3QaHOBs_ecUkScDP0qZe4R" target="_blank">https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/94248691820</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>Meeting ID: 942 4869 1820</span>
</div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><b><font size="2">Daniel Lake</font></b></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2">(pronouns: he/him/his)<br></font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2">Assoc. Prof. and Chair of Political Science</font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2">Director, Institute for Ethics in Public Life<br></font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2">Hawkins 149E</font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2"><a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=101+Broad+Street+Plattsburgh,+NY+12901&entry=gmail&source=g" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">101 Broad Street</a></font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2"><a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=101+Broad+Street+Plattsburgh,+NY+12901&entry=gmail&source=g" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Plattsburgh, NY 12901</a></font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><font size="2">(o) <a href="tel:(518)%5645830" value="+15185642217" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">518-564-5830</a></font></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px;line-height:normal;font-family:Arial"><b><font size="2"><a href="http://plattsburgh.edu/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">plattsburgh.edu</a></font></b><br></p></div><div dir="ltr"><img src="https://web.plattsburgh.edu/files/914/images/SUNY-Plattsburgh-Email-Logo-2018.jpg"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>