News — At The Edge — 9/1

· Various behaviors and actions — AI development, tribalism & marijuana — are treading on thin ice and need positive resolution soon.

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Factsheets for AI Services —

“Concerns about safety, transparency, and bias in AI are widespread, and…erode trust in these systems…[with] a lack of standard practices to document how an AI service was created, tested, trained, deployed, and evaluated; how it should operate; and how it should (and should not) be used**….**

[Need] Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (…factsheet…) be completed and voluntarily released by AI service developers and providers to increase the transparency…[akin to] nutrition labels for foods or information sheets for appliances…would provide information about the product’s important characteristics.

Standardizing and publicizing this information is key to building trust in AI…[that] exhibit some vulnerabilities, such as exposure to bias, lack of explainability, and susceptibility to adversarial attacks….

[There’s] several elements or pillars form the basis for trusted AI systems.

• Fairness: AI systems should use training data and models that are free of bias, to avoid unfair treatment of certain groups.
• Robustness: AI systems should be safe and secure, not vulnerable to tampering or compromising the data they are trained on.
• Explainability: AI systems should provide decisions or suggestions that can be understood by their users and developers.
• Lineage: AI systems should include details of their development, deployment, and maintenance so they can be audited throughout their lifecycle….

[But] need to strengthen all the pillars together…with the ability to measure and communicate the performance levels of a system on each of these dimensions….

Sample questions from a factsheet might include:

• Does the dataset used to train the service have a datasheet or data statement? Was the dataset and model checked for biases? If ‘yes’ describe bias policies that were checked, bias checking methods, and results.
• Was any bias mitigation performed on the dataset? If ‘yes’ describe the mitigation method.
• Are algorithm outputs explainable/interpretable? If yes, explain how is explainability achieved (e.g. directly explainable algorithm, local explainability, explanations via examples).
• Who is the target user of the explanation (ML expert, domain expert, general consumer, regulator, etc.)
• Was the service tested on any additional datasets?
• Do they have a datasheet or data statement? Describe the testing methodology.
• Was the service checked for robustness against adversarial attacks? If ‘yes’ describe robustness policies that were checked, checking methods, and results.
• Is usage data from service operations retained/stored/kept?
• What will be expected behavior if the input deviates from training/testing data?
• What kind of governance is employed to track the overall workflow of data to AI service?

The questions are devised to aid users in understanding how the service works…[whether] service is appropriate for the application…consider[ed], and comprehending its strengths and limitations. https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/08/factsheets-ai/

The West may be sleepwalking into another catastrophe —

“Everyone from Silesians to Sicilians to Scots seems to want autonomy or independence…[with] hostility to the superstate [rising]…[as] nationalism and tribalism is evident not just among minorities but also…among majority groups….

Trump is tapping into white nationalism…Putin into Russian nationalism…Orban into Hungarian nationalism…Erdogan into Turkish nationalism, Xi Jinping into Chinese nationalism, and so on.

Their tried-and-true technique is to play up fear of ‘the other’….

[Assume] people would be immune…given that the world has never been more peaceful or prosperous….[While] not everyone has benefited equally…so much nationalist agitation is…calling into question international institutions….

For many politicians, this is a cynical exercise…manufacturing grievances to justify their lust for power_…_.

‘There is something about rational order that will always leave some people, especially the energetic young, deeply and perhaps rightly dissatisfied…Militant nationalist movements or conspiratorial radical ones provide excellent outlets for boredom. In combination, that attraction can prove irresistible’….

[We’ve] forgotten how precious peace and prosperity can be — and how hard to maintain…West may be sleepwalking into another catastrophe.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-west-may-be-sleepwalking-into-another-catastrophe/2018/08/29/9f540ad2-abbc-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.1fa7bae7d38d

Doc Says — Our Emotions, Institutions and Technological Capabilities Are Mismatched_Is the human species special?_medium.com

Trump tasked multi-agency committee with countering pro-marijuana message: report —

“The Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee…asked 14 federal agencies and [DEA] to forward ‘data demonstrating the most significant negative trends’ about marijuana and the threats it poses….

’[Claim is] prevailing marijuana narrative…is partial, one-sided, and inaccurate’….[Jeff Sessions] is a staunch opponent of marijuana legalization….

’Forty-seven states have now acted in a way that is contrary to the Controlled Substances Act and there are more initiatives on the ballot this year…[underscoring] Administration’s ineptitude on drug policy.’” http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/404187-trump-tasked-multi-agency-committee-with-countering-pro-marijuana

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