Artificial Stupidity

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. And yet, the experts tell us, it is not yet actually anywhere. This is because we are yet to achieve artificial general intelligence, or artificially intelligent systems that are capable of thinking for themselves and adapting to their circumstances. Instead, all the AI hype—and it is constant—concerns narrower, weaker forms of artificial intelligence, which are confined to performing specific, narrow tasks. The promise of true artificial general intelligence thus remains elusive. Artificial stupidity reigns supreme. What is the best set of policies to achieve more general, stronger forms of artificial intelligence? Surprisingly, scholars have paid little attention to this question. Scholars have spent considerable time assessing a number of important legal questions relating to artificial intelligence, including privacy, bias, tort, and intellectual property issues. But little effort has been devoted to exploring what set of policies is best suited to helping artificial intelligence developers achieve greater levels of innovation. And examining such issues is not some niche exercise, because artificial intelligence has already or soon will affect every sector of society. Hence, the question goes to the heart of future technological innovation policy more broadly. This Article examines this question by exploring how well intellectual property rights promote innovation in artificial intelligence. I focus on intellectual property rights because they are often viewed as the most important piece of United States innovation policy. Overall, I argue that intellectual property rights, particularly patents, are ill-suited to promote more radical forms of artificial intelligence innovation. And even the intellectual property types that are a better fit for artificial intelligence innovators, such as trade secrecy, come with problems of their own. In fact, the poor fit of patents in particular may contribute to heavy industry consolidation in the AI field, and heavy consolidation in an industry is typically associated with lower than ideal levels of innovation. I conclude by arguing, however, that neither strengthening AI patent rights nor looking to other forms of law, such as antitrust, holds much promise in achieving more general forms of artificial intelligence. Instead, as with many earlier radical innovations, significant government backing, coupled with an engaged entrepreneurial sector, is at least one key to avoiding enduring artificial stupidity

An autoethnographic study: An identity lost and a passage discovered

The professional careers of teachers with a chronic illness can sometimes be devastating. This study addresses the insufficient understanding of the identity crisis a teacher goes through when one is suddenly diagnosed with a chronic illness. While researching different types of theories, identity theory best fit this topic and my interest. Within identity theory, there are four perspectives to view identity. The four perspectives are Nature, Institution, Discourse, and Affinity identities. In order to understand identity, one must understand how identity is formed. Chronic illness identity is a change from all other identities that have been constructed. This study uses a qualitative analysis method to explore chronic illness and its effect on identity and disclosure in the teaching profession. Autoethnography was used as a research tool to explore personal experiences. Studying a disability can change society’s perspective on how invisible disabilities are viewed. The following study is the chronicled written account of a teacher with multiple chronic illnesses. Trauma impacts the way one perceives themselves. Chronic illnesses are just the type of trauma that can be a dream assassin or a dream deliver. Writing uncovered a multidimensional intersecting identity. It was not just about the lost identity, it is about changing my fixed mindset and revealing the identity that was thought to be lost. Hopefully someone will find solace in finding their passage to reconstructing their identity

Manufacturer perspectives on content transparency and material health in the US building products industry

Flawed U.S. federal regulation of chemicals has resulted in a materials market that undervalues human and environmental health in favor of the more traditional attributes of price, performance and aesthetics. In the building products industry, global, dynamic supply chains and proprietary information concerns further complicate the task of assessing the material health of products. Voluntary material health programs in the green building industry are intended to incentivize the manufacture and selection of safer products by getting companies to gather and assess ingredient, hazard and risk information from their supply chain. Building product manufacturers considered early adopters of the main material health programs of interest were interviewed and surveyed in order to identify the barriers they face to further program adoption and disclosure of product content and hazard information. The research reinforced findings that data collection requirements should be further aligned between different material health programs in order to streamline the process for manufacturers. Release of appropriate levels of information for consumers is also crucial to incentivizing informed decision-making. Supplier engagement and consumer education were identified as pathways to accelerating the demand and release of better information. Addressing these barriers is important to progress, as voluntary measures are likely to remain the most efficient pathway to a healthier materials market

BALLOONS, BREADCRUMBS, AND SPOONS: EMERGING ADULTS’ PRIVACY NEGOTIATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE (NON)DISCLOSURE OF CHRONIC ILLNESS-RELATED INFORMATION WITH A FRIEND

Emerging adults (EAs) experience many changes throughout this life-stage, characterized by self-focus, identity explorations, instability, in-betweenness, and possibilities of optimism (Arnett, 2014). As EAs transition from home of origin into independence, they may place more reliance on social networks apart from their family of origin (e.g., friends, Rawlins, 2009). Yet, chronically ill EAs may experience complications due to the biographical disruption, or interference of expectations in one’s life (Bury, 1982), particularly given that chronic illness is typically viewed as an elderly-related issue rather than occurring with youth (Kundrat & Nussbaum, 2003). Through transitions in the EA life-stage, EAs with chronic illness may forgo sharing chronic illness-relation information or withhold expressed desire for social support to appear more “normal” to fit in with their peers (Spencer et al., 2019). Thus, I centered the present study in Petronio’s (2002) Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to understand how EAs interact and negotiate (non)disclosure of chronic illness-related information with a friend. In the present interpretive and qualitative study, I analyzed and described how EAs interacted and negotiated the process of (non)disclosure of their chronic illness-related information with a friend. Data were 15 in-depth interviews and 15 book cover images to represent the experiences of EAs with chronic illness. In the results, I describe and explain how participants (a) engaged criteria for disclosure and identified the confidants of their disclosure, (b) created boundary rules around their chronic illness-related information, (c) perceived their friends’ role/non-role in chronic illness management, and (d) made sense of their chronic illness-related information management processes. I contribute four theoretical insights regarding CPM: (a) expanding confidant typology, (b) deconstructing disclosure criteria, (c) demonstrating dialectical tensions of private information disclosure, and (d) developing CPM concepts through metaphorical insights. I also offer two main practical implications: (a) creating a resource for EAs with chronic illness and (b) offering a strategy for arts-based therapeutic practice for those working with EAs experiencing biographic disruption. Advisor: Dawn O. Braithwait

Systematizing Genome Privacy Research: A Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Perspective

Rapid advances in human genomics are enabling researchers to gain a better understanding of the role of the genome in our health and well-being, stimulating hope for more effective and cost efficient healthcare. However, this also prompts a number of security and privacy concerns stemming from the distinctive characteristics of genomic data. To address them, a new research community has emerged and produced a large number of publications and initiatives. In this paper, we rely on a structured methodology to contextualize and provide a critical analysis of the current knowledge on privacy-enhancing technologies used for testing, storing, and sharing genomic data, using a representative sample of the work published in the past decade. We identify and discuss limitations, technical challenges, and issues faced by the community, focusing in particular on those that are inherently tied to the nature of the problem and are harder for the community alone to address. Finally, we report on the importance and difficulty of the identified challenges based on an online survey of genome data privacy expertsComment: To appear in the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETs), Vol. 2019, Issue

Peer networks and social support and its influence on young people's experiences of growing up with HIV

As access to paediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) continues to improve in sub-Saharan Africa, a relatively new and historically specific cohort of HIV-perinatally infected young people has emerged. They are now surviving into adolescence. These young people have complicated clinical needs which includes drug adherence and status disclosure. However, their ability to meet the clinical demands of HIV treatment, necessary to live long and healthy lives, are undermined by the challenges they face, not least, how they manage their HIV within their social lives outside of the clinic. Despite the emerging recognition that what happens outside the clinic significantly influences how young people conform to clinical guidance, there has, to date, been little exploration of the social lives and psychosocial needs of young people living with HIV outside of the clinical setting. Adopting a bounded agency theoretical approach, this study sought to explore the interplay between experience of social support, including its absence, and young people’s engagement with HIV treatment; with a particular focus on how young people manage their own HIV disclosure in both informal and formal peer networks. I draw on a longitudinal qualitative research study with HIV perinatally infected young people (11-13 years) participating in the AntiRetroviral Research fOr Watoto (ARROW) clinical trial in Harare, Zimbabwe. 26 young people were involved in up to three waves of in-depth interviews, 12 participated in focus groups discussions and 12 kept audio diaries. Additional interviews were held with 10 connected carers / significant others of the young people and five healthcare workers delivering clinical care to the young people in the study. Findings challenge normative representations that young people are too young and immature to understand diagnosis and might recklessly disclose. Young people have a far more nuanced understanding of the social risks of HIV and the power that it has to alienate and change the way they are viewed and treated by their friends than the general belief. Disclosing status to friends is a thoughtful process and having considered the consequences, the majority of young people choose not to disclose. The findings demonstrate that young people are not passive beings but active agents as they are directly engaged with the decision to tell or not. However, their capacity to control disclosure is disrupted by multiple factors. The thesis also explored the role of support groups. Support groups were perceived as a safe social space for learning and acquiring HIV information. The study provided an example of how participatory research tools and audio diaries can be used to illicit data from young people in resource limited settings

Can you persuade 100,000 strangers on social media? The effect of self-disclosure on persuasion

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityDisclosure of personal stories and self-relevant emotions is an essential part of our daily conversations. We frequently talk about our thoughts, feelings, and emotions with our family, friends, and, in an online setting, even with strangers. Despite the frequent occurrence of self-disclosure on social media, research that examines the influence of self-disclosure on the persuasive impact of a speaker is surprisingly limited. Working to understand persuasion in social media, this dissertation looks at self- disclosure (i.e., the act of revealing personal information which ranges from demographic information to feelings, thoughts, values, experiences, and self-concepts) as a core construct. In particular, across two essays, this dissertation research focuses on how bloggers can use disclosure of their feelings, thoughts, and life concerns to increase trust and build relationships with their audience, thus increasing the persuasive impact of their word-of-mouth messages. The first essay is a qualitative study ofbloggers' communication practices, in which postings on a variety ofblogs were analyzed. Drawing on both the communication and social psychology literatures, this essay develops a conceptual framework of how blogs can be categorized based on audiences' perceptions and how bloggers use different strategies to shape or shift their audiences' perceptions and increase the persuasiveness of their messages. Specifically, it suggests that bloggers use two distinguishable communication strategies: (a) developing and sustaining an illusion of relationship between the blogger and the reader in order to individualize the communication and (b) maintaining a level of ambiguity in their commercial interests in order to conceal the commercial nature of some blogs. Tactics underlying the use of these strategies as well as the efficacy and ethics of these practices were discussed. The second essay examines how sharing of intimate self-disclosure (i.e., sharing ofa deeper level ofpersonal information that may potentially involve risk and a feeling of vulnerability) influences the communicator's ability to persuade. Across four studies, this essay demonstrates how a communicator's intimate self-disclosure is perceived and processed by their audience in different types of relationships (communal vs. exchange) and how it affects the persuasive impact of the message

Understanding the Decline in Participation in Fraternal Organizations: A Mixed Methods Approach

Once considered the schools of democracy and cornerstones for advancing society, many of the 100,800 fraternal organizations in the U.S. have experienced a decline in participation over the past 60 years and their perceived relevance in contemporary society questioned. To date, existing literature has identified several conflicting explanations for this decline. Numerous scholars disagree as to whether external forces such as markets or the government, or internal factors such as member relations or the inability or refusal of organizational leadership to change, or the interrelatedness of these factors account for the decline. Only a few fraternal organizations have studied this issue and even fewer have made their results public. This study examines the decline in participation in fraternal organizations by employing a two-phased, modified exploratory sequential design. Using California Masonry as a representative case of fraternal organizations, twenty interviews of individuals with diverse membership status (nonmembers, former, and current) were conducted. Results from the interviews indicated that participation is influenced by several factors internal to the Masons such the extent to which individuals share a common objective, the organization’s focus on making a difference in community, the extent to which enacted and espoused values match, and how members feel valued and trusted influenced participation. External factors such as family and job commitment, and interaction with internal factors, also impacted willingness to participate in the Masons. These qualitative results contributed to the development of a new survey instrument, which was pilot tested and refined into the Participation Assessment Tool-Fraternal Organizations. Finally, conditions were set to administer the new survey to a stratified sampling of 28 of the 373 Masonic Lodges in California. This study contributes importantly to the identification of and the interrelatedness of the internal and external factors that have contributed to the decline in California Masonry. It provides important information to aid similar fraternal organizations in understanding this problem. The research also provides recommendations for interventions that can have a meaningful influence on organizational leaders’ ability to strengthen membership practices and more generally, to our understanding of fraternal organizations, organizational leadership and organizational change

Whistleblowing for Change

The courageous acts of whistleblowing that inspired the world over the past few years have changed our perception of surveillance and control in today's information society. But what are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts? How does it contribute to new courses of action, digital tools, and contents? This urgent intervention based on the work of Berlin's Disruption Network Lab examines this growing phenomenon, offering interdisciplinary pathways to empower the public by investigating whistleblowing as a developing political practice that has the ability to provoke change from within

Whistleblowing for Change

The courageous acts of whistleblowing that inspired the world over the past few years have changed our perception of surveillance and control in today's information society. But what are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts? How does it contribute to new courses of action, digital tools, and contents? This urgent intervention based on the work of Berlin's Disruption Network Lab examines this growing phenomenon, offering interdisciplinary pathways to empower the public by investigating whistleblowing as a developing political practice that has the ability to provoke change from within