Building a Better HAL 9000: Algorithms, the Market, and the Need to Prevent the Engraining of Bias

As sci-fi fans will recall, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is focused on the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence. In the movie, HAL (Heuristically programmed Algorithmic Computer) 9000 computer is an artificial intelligence and the onboard computer on the spaceship Discovery 1. HAL 9000, more commonly called “Hal,” is capable of many functions, such as speech, facial recognition, lip reading, interpreting emotions, and expressing emotions. HAL is built into the Discovery 1 spacecraft, and is in charge of maintaining all mechanical and life support systems on board. As the movie progresses, the astronauts become concerned about HAL’s behavior and agree to disconnect him, in essence killing HAL. HAL becomes aware of the plan and seeks to stop his death as the movie plot climaxes in a conflict between intelligent machine and his human controllers. Interestingly, 2001: A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clark could not have been more accurate about one of the emerging conflicts to face humanity: what role does society want machines to play in coordinating and governing human activity? The debate resonates from the shared economy to the ethics of artificial intelligence. This article seeks to advance the debate about the need for data regulation that focuses on the impact of the use of the data. First, it provides a brief explanation of data analytics, algorithms, and machine learning. Second, the article explores some of the common mistakes associated with data modeling within algorithmic processes. Third, the paper explores the impact of the use of data, specifically data that is used to create a digital personhood, to inform algorithms that perform basic services. Fourth and finally, the article seeks to define an ethical decision-making model and regulatory structure for data focusing on the impact of the use of the data upon the individual and society

A systematic review of studies investigating the acute effects of N-methyl- D-aspartate receptor antagonists on behavioural despair in normal animals suggests poor predictive validity.

The ability of the N-methyl- D -aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine to induce a rapid and sustained antidepressant effect has led to a surge in pre-clinical studies investigating underlying mechanisms and seeking novel treatments. Animal models are key to this research as they can provide a behavioural readout linking underlying mechanisms to clinical benefits. However, quantifying depression-related behaviours in rodents represents a major challenge with the validity of traditional methods such as models of behavioural despair (forced swim test and tail suspension test) a topic of debate. While there is good evidence to support the value of using these behavioural readouts to study the effects of stress, these approaches have largely failed to detect reliable phenotypic effects in other disease models. In this systematic review, we identified publications which had tested N-methyl- D -aspartate receptor antagonists in normal animals using either the forced swim test or tail suspension test. We compared findings for different doses and time points and also drugs with different clinical profiles to investigate how well the outcomes in the rodent model predicted their effects in the clinic. Despite clear evidence that N-methyl- D -aspartate receptor antagonists reduce immobility time and hence exhibit an antidepressant profile in these tasks, we found similar effects with both clinically effective drugs as well as those which have failed to show efficacy in clinical trials. These findings suggest that behavioural despair tests in normal animals do not provide a good method to predict clinical efficacy of N-methyl- D -aspartate receptor antagonists

Managing conflict between bats and humans: The response of soprano pipistrelles (pipistrellus pygmaeus) to exclusion from roosts in houses

Copyright: © 2015 Stone et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Conflict can arise when bats roost in human dwellings and householders are affected adversely by their presence. In the United Kingdom, the exclusion of bats from roosts can be licensed under exceptional circumstances to alleviate conflict, but the fate of excluded bats and the impact on their survival and reproduction is not well understood. Using radiotracking, we investigated the effects of exclusion on the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus, a species that commonly roosts in buildings in Europe. Exclusions were performed under licence at five roosts in England in spring, when females were in the early stages of pregnancy. Following exclusion, all bats found alternative roosts and colonies congregated in nearby known roosts that had been used by radio-tagged bats prior to exclusion. We found no difference in roosting behaviour before and after exclusion. Both the frequency of roost switching and the type of roosts used by bats remained unchanged. We also found no change in foraging behaviour. Bats foraged in the same areas, travelled similar distances to reach foraging areas and showed similar patterns of habitat selection before and after exclusion. Population modelling suggested that any reduction in survival following exclusion could have a negative impact on population growth, whereas a reduction in productivity would have less effect. While the number of soprano pipistrelle exclusions currently licensed each year is likely to have little effect on local populations, the cumulative impacts of licensing the destruction of large numbers of roosts may be of concern

Sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to interglacial climate forcing:MIS 5e Versus MIS 11

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is thought to have contributed substantially to high global sea levels during the interglacials of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e and 11. Geological evidence suggests that the mass loss of the GrIS was greater during the peak interglacial of MIS 11 than MIS 5e, despite a weaker boreal summer insolation. We address this conundrum by using the three‐dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet model Glimmer forced by Community Climate System Model version 3 output for MIS 5e and MIS 11 interglacial time slices. Our results suggest a stronger sensitivity of the GrIS to MIS 11 climate forcing than to MIS 5e forcing. Besides stronger greenhouse gas radiative forcing, the greater MIS 11 GrIS mass loss relative to MIS 5e is attributed to a larger oceanic heat transport toward high latitudes by a stronger Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. The vigorous MIS 11 ocean overturning, in turn, is related to a stronger wind‐driven salt transport from low to high latitudes promoting North Atlantic Deep Water formation. The orbital insolation forcing, which causes the ocean current anomalies, is discussed

The Bristol CMIP6 Data Hackathon

The Bristol CMIP6 Data Hackathon formed part of the Met Office Climate Data Challenge Hackathon series during 2021, bringing together around 100 UK early career researchers from a wide range of environmental disciplines. The purpose was to interrogate the under-utilised but currently most advanced climate model inter-comparison project datasets to develop new research ideas, create new networks and outreach opportunities in the lead up to COP26. Experts in different science fields, supported by a core team of scientists and data specialists at Bristol, had the unique opportunity to explore together interdisciplinary environmental topics summarised in this article

Temporal and spatial structure of multi‐millennial temperature changes at high latitudes during the Last Interglacial

The Last Interglacial (LIG, 129–116 thousand of years BP, ka) represents a test bed for climate model feedbacks in warmer-than-present high latitude regions. However, mainly because aligning different palaeoclimatic archives and from different parts of the world is not trivial, a spatio-temporal picture of LIG temperature changes is difficult to obtain. Here, we have selected 47 polar ice core and sub-polar marine sediment records and developed a strategy to align them onto the recent AICC2012 ice core chronology. We provide the first compilation of high-latitude temperature changes across the LIG associated with a coherent temporal framework built between ice core and marine sediment records. Our new data synthesis highlights non-synchronous maximum temperature changes between the two hemispheres with the Southern Ocean and Antarctica records showing an early warming compared to North Atlantic records. We also observe warmer than present-day conditions that occur for a longer time period in southern high latitudes than in northern high latitudes. Finally, the amplitude of temperature changes at high northern latitudes is larger compared to high southern latitude temperature changes recorded at the onset and the demise of the LIG. We have also compiled four data-based time slices with temperature anomalies (compared to present-day conditions) at 115 ka, 120 ka, 125 ka and 130 ka and quantitatively estimated temperature uncertainties that include relative dating errors. This provides an improved benchmark for performing more robust model-data comparison. The surface temperature simulated by two General Circulation Models (CCSM3 and HadCM3) for 130 ka and 125 ka is compared to the corresponding time slice data synthesis. This comparison shows that the models predict warmer than present conditions earlier than documented in the North Atlantic, while neither model is able to produce the reconstructed early Southern Ocean and Antarctic warming. Our results highlight the importance of producing a sequence of time slices rather than one single time slice averaging the LIG climate conditions