technology ethics

Most of the cargo cranes at U.S. ports are made in China, and they could be spying. The Biden administration announced a plan to spend billions of dollars to replace and manufacture the equipment domestically over national security concerns. We’ll explain. Plus, how an Alabama court ruling on embryos may affect fertility treatments in a post-Roe world. And, the story of a man, an astronaut and a homemade antenna.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports” from The Wall Street Journal

• • “Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are children, imperiling IVF” from  The Washington Post

• • “Alabama health system pauses IVF treatments after court embryo ruling” from The Hill

• • “Man in Backyard Talks to Orbiting Astronaut Using Homemade Antenna” from kottke.org

• • “Florida farmworkers created America’s strongest workplace heat rules” from The Washington Post

We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Artificial intelligence can feel abstract, so we’ve come to depend on certain narratives to try and make sense of it all. Some of the language we use to describe AI and our interactions with it is rooted in religious ideas. Are you bracing for the apocalypse? Have you been blessed by the algorithm or consulted with a Robo Rabbi lately? The deification of AI, whether it’s done consciously or not, is something Beth Singler studies as a professor of digital religions at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke to Singler about religious tropes in the narratives we consume and share about AI.

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin are the co-founders of the Center for Humane Technology and the hosts of its podcast, "Your Undivided Attention." Watch the Center's new film "The A.I. Dilemma" on Youtube.
https://www.humanetech.com
"The A.I. Dilemma"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVJKj8lcNQ

✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode:
https://www.bankless.com/debrief-vitalik-philosophy

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This past year there’s been a great societal wide debate: Tech-acceleration (e/acc) vs deacceleration. 

Should we continue the path toward AI or are the robots going to kill us? We’ve been hoping Vitalik would weigh in on this debate ever since our episode Elizer Yudkowski —now he has, so what’s Vitalik’s probability of AI doom?

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0:00 Intro
3:50 The Technology Conversation
15:30 The Accelerationist View
30:30 The AI Problem
38:30 8 Year Old Child
44:00 AI Doom
51:00 d/acc
1:08:30 Improving the World
1:16:45 e/acc
1:20:30 Crypto Tribes
1:27:00 Direction and Priorities
1:30:50 Closing Optimism

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Resources:

Vitalik's Techno-Optimism:
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html

Tweet Thread:
https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1729251808936362327?s=20

Techno-Optimist Manifesto:
https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

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More content is waiting for you on Bankless.com 🚀 
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After David Grush appears on Joe Rogan and Tucker speaks out on UFOs, a new report suggests the CIA's secret office has conducted UFO retrieval missions on at least NINE crash sites around the world and alien craft is now in private hands.

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When did we get so disconnected from the world around us? How can we find our way back?

Aza Raskin thinks the answer might lie in humanity's greatest adversary - listening.

As co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and of the Earth Species Project, Aza and his team are using Artificial Intelligence to decode the language of animals, from whales to crows, while remaining dedicated to ensuring the accelerating rise of A.I. remains safe and responsibly handled.

This is...A Bit of Optimism.

For more on Aza and his work check out: 

https://www.earthspecies.org/

https://www.humanetech.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.

You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today!

http://apple.co/coolerzone 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A song featuring A.I.-generated versions of Drake and the Weeknd went viral — before being taken down by streaming services. Is censorship of A.I.-generated songs the way forward? Or can singers benefit from synthetic voices, as some artists like Grimes are suggesting?

Then, HatGPT: Kevin and Casey pull headlines out of a hat and generate their own takes on the news.

And Ben Smith, the former BuzzFeed News editor, discusses the end of the 2010s digital media era.

On today’s episode:

• Ben Smith is a journalist and co-founder of the digital media company Semafor. He was a New York Times media columnist and the first editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.

Additional reading:

• An A.I.-generated song made to sound like Drake and the Weeknd went viral before being taken down by streaming services.
• Grimes invited fans to make songs using A.I.-generated versions of her voice.
• Snapchat saw a spike in one-star reviews after users criticized its “My AI” feature.
• Taylor Swift did not invest in FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange company.
• Researchers turned a goldfish into a cyborg.
• The Republican National Committee released an A.I.-generated ad slamming President Biden.
• The U.K. blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for the video game company Activision.
• Ben Smith’s book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” is an origin story of digital media.
• A BuzzFeed article set off a viral debate on the color of a dress.

In today's episode, Andy & DJ discuss the leaked voicemail message from President Biden to Hunter regarding his dealings with the Chinese, Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony describing Donald Trump's actions on January 6th, and the serious adverse events that have occurred due to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Bryan "Hotep Jesus" Sharpe is a public speaker, tech advisor, author, and one of the hosts of the "Hoteps BEEN Told You" podcast. His latest book is "The Patriot Report: Unmasking the Conspiracy of Money and War." http://www.bryansharpe.co/

Tristan Harris is a former Google design ethicist, co-founder and president of the Center for Humane Technology, and co-host of the Center for Humane Technology’s "Your Undivided Attention" podcast with Aza Raskin. Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue.