On Meaningful Human Control in High-Stakes Machine-Human Partnerships

Our team at the Summer Institute was diverse in both skills (including technical computer science, cognitive science, systems innovation, and radiology expertise) and career stage (including faculty, graduate students, and a medical student). We were brought together at the ‘pitch’ stage by a mutual interest in human-machine partnerships in complex, high-stakes domains such as healthcare, transport, and autonomous weapons. We began with a focus on the topic of “meaningful human control” – a term most often applied in the autonomous weapons literature, which refers broadly to human participation in the deployment and operation of potentially autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such that the human has a meaningful contribution to decisions and outcomes

Remembering Me: Big Data, Individual Identity, and the Psychological Necessity of Forgetting

Each of us has a personal narrative: a story that defines us, and one that we tell about ourselves to our inner and outer worlds. A strong sense of identity is rooted in a personal narrative that has coherence and correspondence (Conway, 2005): coherence in the sense that the story we tell is consistent with and supportive of our current version of ‘self’; and correspondence in the sense that the story reflects the contents of autobiographical memory and the meaning of our experiences. These goals are achieved by a reciprocal interaction of autobiographical memory and the self, in which memories consistent with the self-image are reinforced, in turn strengthening the self-image they reflect. Thus, personal narratives depend crucially on the malleable nature of autobiographical memory: a strong sense of self requires that one remember what matters, and forget what does not. Today, anyone who is active online generates a highly detailed, ever--expanding, and permanent digital biographical ‘memory’– memory that identifies where we go, what we say, who we see, and what we do in increasing detail as our physical lives become more and more enmeshed with electronic devices capable of recording our communications, online activities, movements, and even bodily functions. This paper explores the consequences of this digital record for identity, arguing that it presents a challenge to our ability to construct our own personal narratives – narratives that are central to a sense of ‘self’. In the end, the ‘right to be forgotten’ may be, above all else, a psychological necessity that is core to identity – and therefore a value that we must ensure is protected

Predicting prostate cancer treatment choices: The role of numeracy, time discounting, and risk attitudes

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among males in the United States and there is lack of consensus as to whether active surveillance (AS) or radical prostatectomy (RP) is the best course of treatment. In this study we examined the role of three overlooked determinants of decision making about prostate cancer treatment in a hypothetical experiment—numeracy, time discounting, and risk taking in 279 men over age 50 without a prior prostate cancer diagnosis. Results showed that AS was the most frequently chosen option. Furthermore, numeracy and time discounting significantly predicted participants’ preference for AS, whereas a propensity to take risks was associated with a preference for RP. Such insights into the factors that affects cancer treatment preferences may improve tailored decision aids and help physicians be better poised to engage in shared decision-making to improve both patient-reported and clinical outcomes