Suppose there was a serial killer that targeted homeless people without friends and family, but donated enormous amounts of money to charities to offset the harm. This thought experiment, dubbed “The Altruistic Killer” by Sam Atis, is an example of the harm-benefit asymmetry (HBA) at work. HBA is a philosophical point of view that supposes that the harm an action brings about heavily outweighs the benefits that may come from doing the action, even if the number of people harmed and benefitted remain equal. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
