Dear Colleagues,
I am a bit surprised that no one has initiated a discussion on the Boing Max problem. Ken just mentioned the issue briefly. We have so many engineers here and I am looking for a good talk. This is not exactly in my area, but with about 30 credits in engineering and architectural structures, I always muse about such things.
From what I see in the medial, it was well known that the airplane is unbalanced because of new larger engines. Compare this to a car that constantly drives you in the left lane/fast lane. What can you do? Constantly correct? Until you overcorrect? And make an accident. Well, the car manufacturer will put software to automatically correct without your participation. Would you buy such a car? Isn't that an accident waiting to happen? Aren't we too much euphoric about computer capabilities? It is an enigma how a firm with the top engineers in the World will make such a decision. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Another case of poor design decision making: The New Orleans flooding. Well, the part of the city that was below sea level and below the level of the dykes/levies got flooded. A fourth grader will tell you that this will happen. Three centuries ago, the humans without engineering education build the city on the top of the hill, above the sea level and above the level of the dykes. One more thing: There levies consisted of the dykes and thrusted in them 6 or 8 feet steel road plates like the plates they put in road construction to patch potholes (my reading of the media). Well, they were not even buttressed, just dug in, a few feet. A fourth grader will tell you that the flood current will push them away like toothpicks. Now people are rebuilding New Orleans within the same old boundaries that were flooded. What is going on?
I read somewhere that Sacramento, California, is about 20 feet below the level of the river. If this is true, what can we say?
I wonder how is it possible that engineers make such risky decisions and to what degree they are pressed by managers and politicians to make such dangerous compromises. In my architectural practice, I had been pressed by superiors and clients to make compromises with the fire code. I didn't do it and left the CEO take the responsibility. I started looking for a new job. I was an easy decision because I wanted to go in academia. But I can also understand how designers cannot risk the livelihood of their families. Life is tough.
Best wishes,
Lubomir
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Ken Friedman
Sent: Monday, June 3, 2019 4:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Youtube and AI algorithms
Dear All,
While Ali Ilhan started the thread with reference to a case from YouTube, I appreciate the more general warnings posted by Klaus Krippendorff, Sabine Junginger, and others.
We are already seeing major problems in the banking industry for mortgages and financing decisions, and in law and jurisprudence with sentencing algorithms. There are dozens of cases across many fields in which algorithms lead to unfortunate situations — disastrous for the people whom they harm. There are also cases such as the Boeing Max where poor decisions on the interface between software and hardware, with people missing key steps along the way, lead to death.
Lubomir Popov is right — “garbage in, garbage out.” The challenge is that it is very difficult to ensure that GIGO doesn’t win over reasonable judgment.
Evidence suggests that software can help people to make better decisions in many areas. When human beings turn over decision authority to the software, things go wrong. This is the subject of a large and growing literature.
One possible outcome of bad AI is a world that begins to resemble historical empires in which overlapping jurisdictions and different sets of rules trapped people in cages from which there was no escape, while making the ordinary business of life impossible for those who were subject to the rules. The British Raj in India comes to mind, along with the late Ottoman Empire. In fact, nearly any empire eventually fell prey to the problems we are apparently creating for ourselves by shaping a world around algorithms when we have no way to predict the outcome of different sets of rules and algorithms of differing strength as the algorithms interact.
Untoward outcomes seem especially likely when the algorithms designed for one purpose interact with systems design for another purpose. That’s how YouTube began turning children’s home videos into magnets for porn lovers … sometimes making it possible for people to identify and locate the children.
“ <>Dull thing, I say so; <>
he, that Caliban <>
Whom now I keep in service. <>
Thou best know'st <>
What torment I did find thee in …” <>
<>
— The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2 <>
Yours,
Ken
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Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
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