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by phillipcarter 1037 days ago
> ethical systems

I don't think symbolic AI has much to do with ethics? My impression is that ethics in this space are primarily concerned with the application of these technologies, especially when their deficiencies and biases are known.
2 comments
retrac 1036 days ago
Symbolic AI is human-understandable. It's programmed in human terms. The reasoning chain is transparent. An engineer can point at the graph and tell you exactly what factored into the AI's decision and how it was made. That (potentially) alleviates concerns about transparency, error, and bias.
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mdp2021 1036 days ago
The poster probably referred reliability as an ethical value; direct choice in building the system as an ethical value because embedded with your decisions hence responsibility; and conversely proposing "black-boxes" as an ethical fault.

There are several possible reasons for this latter: not only that you should not be contented until you "could warranty" for "your" system, but also the possible outcomes. For example, yesterday I submitted a

“Are you kidding, carjacking?” – The problem with facial recognition in policing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37138229

where reporting is made of law reliability systems that have false positives of bewildering error and heavy consequences.

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phillipcarter 1036 days ago
My immediate thought is that the ethical concerns with facial recognition in policing are orthogonal to the "kind" of AI involved. Clearly, our industry has moved to other techniques and my guess is because they're more capable. And so it comes down to regulating and adding accountability for the applications of the technology.
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mdp2021 1034 days ago
> orthogonal to the "kind" of AI involved

Suppose one AI that deterministically determines an output and is stress tested for reliability, and suppose one that hallucinates an output, maybe through statistical reconstruction of detail. The ethics there would not be orthogonal at all.

> my guess is because they're more capable

That '«capable»' you used there is a hive. You could have guesses many more reasons, such as "we can hence we do".

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