The golden age of ignorance may be upon us, brought in part by worsening political tribalism. Too many people have made their political stance their culture, and when we encounter claims that go against our culture, we tend to reject them — even when there’s overwhelming scientific evidence to back it up. For example, people are skeptical of the safety of the HPV vaccine because it becomes politicized when covered on cable news (an oddly similar parralel to the current debates on Covid-19 vaccines) 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
