A Metrological Approach to Ethical and Legal Issues in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has developed in an impressive way during the recent years, and is now being applied to almost every field of human activities, slowly replacing human beings in operations whose level of required skills has significantly increased. Collaborative robots, or cobots, are a reality in industrial production, as well as virtual reality and robots driven by human motions from remote sites allow operators to control operations in dangerous areas. AI algorithms perform data searches and present the results in a very efficient way, so that they are helping decision makers in critical fields, such as medicine and justice. This poses new and somehow unforeseen ethical and legal problems that must be covered to avoid generating wrong or even illegal results. Some of these wrong results might be generated by the use of input data that might not be sufficiently accurate, especially when they are collected from the field, or whose limited accuracy is not properly considered when processing them. This paper aims at considering a possible, metrologically-sound approach to ethical and legal issues met in AI

The impact of alcohol hangover on simulated driving performance during a ‘commute to work’—zero and residual alcohol effects compared

Driving is increasing across the world and road traffic accidents are a major cause of serious injuries and fatalities. The link between alcohol consumption and impaired driving has long been established and has led to legislation in many countries, with enforcement of legal limits based on blood alcohol concentration levels. Alcohol hangover research is an emerging field with a range of laboratory and naturalistic studies now clearly demonstrating the significant impairments that can result from hangover, even when alcohol levels are measured at or close to zero the day following a social drinking occasion. Driving is a commonplace activity but requires competency with a range of complex and potentially demanding tasks. Driving impaired can have serious consequences, including death and serious injury. There have been only limited alcohol hangover driving studies. The studies presented examined the consequences of alcohol hangover with a driving simulator contrasting a group with zero residual alcohol (N = 26) next day and another with residual alcohol (N = 26) assessed with breathalyzer in the morning before undertaking a 20 min commute to work. All participants completed a morning drive after a night without alcohol consumption and another after a night of social drinking. The driving scenarios were relatively demanding including traffic and pedestrians, traffic lights and other potential hazards in a mixed rural and urban journey. Subjective hangover and workload were assessed in addition to a range of driving performance variables, including divided attention, steering control and driving violations. Analyses contrasted driving in the no alcohol condition with the residual alcohol condition. The combined groups data (N = 52) was contrasted with the zero and residual alcohol groups. Significant contrasts were found for a range of driving measures, including divided attention, vehicle control, and driving violations as well as perceived workload. The pattern of impairment was broadly similar across both groups, indicating that whether or not residual alcohol was present, consistent driving impairment was seen. The relatively high number of significant variables may reflect the increased cognitive demand of the 20 min commute drive including busy and complex urban environments. This was also reflected in the significant increase in perceived workload recorded across the 6 dimensions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). Associations between subjective measures and driving performance with hangover suggested a potential lack of awareness of impairment, though were limited in number. The overall findings indicate that the levels of impairment seen reflect those seen with alcohol impaired driving, even when breath alcohol is zero

Mobile Application Development: The Mobile Intoxication Assessment Tool

This research and development undertaking during the senior year is a culmination of undergraduate study at Union College and is an opportunity to put knowledge gained to use. The purpose of this specific capstone project is to bring together not just the research and implementation techniques learned as a Computer Engineer but to also meld this discipline with another; Neuroscience. The objective of the project was to develop a full function software prototype in the form of a mobile phone application. The mobile application (Mobile Intoxication Assessment Tool) constitutes a grouping of simple subtasks that can be completed on the touch screen of an Android powered smart phone. These subtasks are designed in such a way that they evaluate five primary abilities that are disrupted by acute alcohol intoxication. The five affected faculties include memory and problem solving abilities, fine muscle control, vision, and reaction time. The result of a user’s cumulative scores on these simple tests paired with their personal information such as body weight, age, and height is compared to a “baseline sobriety reading”. This baseline reading is calculated, at the time of the application’s download, when the sober user completes a variation of the tests that will be administered during intoxication. This project aims to identify a quantitative correlation between blood alcohol content (BAC) and the degradation of a users test scores from their “baseline sobriety reading” scores. Through a month long study, of 25 participants of legal drinking age, this correlation between variations in test scores and users intoxication was searched for. As was the ideal outcome, a strong correlation was discovered and the software prototype resulting from this research is able to provide a BAC reading. The software has yet to achieve the level of BAC prediction accuracy of a commercially available breathalyzer but further research is planned to remedy this

Podcasts in the Chemistry Teaching

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provide facilities in teaching through education. There are many new tools and methodologies that use ICT as a knowledge-building support, but that are not always related to pedagogical practice. The Podcast is an important technology that can be used in the classroom. Using this tool, it can make the most interactive chemistry class, fleeing the classroom routine. However, it is necessary to point out that the podcast is just one feature that should be incorporated into education and not a substitute. This paper describes the development of Chemistry Podcasts by teachers and chemistry students in three disciplines in 2015. This study took place over a one-year period in a public University, in Pernambuco, Brazil. In the discipline of "Computer applied to the teaching of chemistry" participated 21 Chemistry teachers. In the disciplines of "Information and Communication Technologies in the teaching of chemistry" and "Informatics, Chemistry and Education" was composed of 54 undergraduate students in chemistry. Twelve podcasts were elaborated by students and five by teachers in this paper we present only nine. The results showed the contribution of podcasts produced by teachers and students in teaching and learning process chemistry. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v0i0.89

The State of Utah v. Gary T. Coles : Brief of Appellant

Appeal from a Conviction of Driving Under The Influence of Alcohol, In Violation of Utah Code Ann. Section 41-6-44 ( 1981), in the Second Circuit Court in and for Rich County, State of Utah, the Honorable Ted S. Perry, Judge, Presiding; Affirmed On Appeal by the First Judicial District Court in and for Rich County, State of Uta