The societal impact of new technologies

In order to meet global challenges such as poverty and climate change, we depend on technological innovations. We have already become increasingly embedded in a technological ecosystem that have significant effects on our everyday lives. But even small mistakes in how new technologies are being introduced, can cause negative impacts on our societies. In this theme we try to understand this process.

2011. Journal of Computer Science and Technology 26: 829-836. AbstractOur daily life leaves an increasing amount of digital traces, footprints that are improving our lives. Data-mining tools, like recomm

in: Technology in Society. 63, 101396 Abstract:Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of Deep Learning (DL) technology has diffused in the consumer domain in a unique way as compared to previous gene, i.e., by being added to preexisting technologies that are already in use. We find that DL-algorithms for recommendations or ranking have been infused into all the 15 most popular mobile applications (apps) in the U.S. (as of May 2019). DL-infusion enables fast and vast diffusion. For example, when a DL-system was infused into YouTube, it almost immediately reached a third of the world's population. We argue that existing theories of innovation diffusion and adoption have limited relevance for DL-infusion, because it is a process that is driven by enterprises rather than individuals. We also discuss its social and ethical implications. First, consumers have a limited ability to detect and evaluate an infused technology. DL-infusion may thus help to explain why AI's presence in society has not been challenged by many. Second, the DL-providers are likely to face conflicts of interest, since consumer and supplier goals are not always aligned. Third, infusion is likely to be a particularly important diffusion process for DL-technologies as compared to other innovations, because they need large data sets to function well, which can be drawn from preexisting users. Related, it seems that larger technology companies comparatively benefit more from DL-infusion, because they already have many users. This suggests that the value drawn from DL is likely to follow a Matthew Effect of accumulated advantage online: many preexisting users provide a lot of behavioral data, which bring about better DL-driven features, which attract even more users, etc. Such a self-reinforcing process could limit the possibilities for new companies to compete. This way, the notion of DL-infusion may put light on the power shift that comes with the presence of AI in society.

Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute. ABSTRACT Liberal democratic citizenship has been shaped by the legacies of Athens (democracy) and Rome (legal rights) but operate between individuals and states. In a Westphalian world, citizenship has both instrumental and identity value. Enhanced opportunities and interests in mobility rights strengthen instrumental interests in multiple citizenship among immigrants, among populations in less developed countries, and among wealthy elites. The latter two trends potentially undermine a genuine link norm and, if they prevail, might replace the Westphalian allocation of citizenship with a global market. New digital technologies create a second challenge to Westphalian citizenship. As has argued, digital identities could provide a global legal persona for all human beings independently of their nationality, and blockchain technologies could enable the formation of non-territorial political communities providing governance services to their members independently of states. Both the instrumental uses of citizenship for geographic mobility and technologies that create substitutes for territorial citizenship are not merely relevant as current trends. They are also advocated and defended normatively as responses to the global injustice of the birthright lottery. I will challenge this idea and argue that liberal democracies should not be conceived as voluntary associations whose membership is freely chosen, but as communities of destiny among people who have been thrown together by history and their circumstances of life. How these foundations of democratic community can be maintained in the context of rising mobility and the digital revolution remains an open question.

Försiktighetens pris. Intervju med Christian Munthe

Christian Munthe är professor i praktisk filosofi vid Göteborgs universitet. Här intervjuas han av Gustaf Arrhenius och Erika Karlsson om boken "The Price of Precaution and the Ethics of Risk". Det ha

In Hanemaayer, A. (editor) Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents. Palgrave. Abstract AI has often reached individuals covertly, rather than by their own choosing. Standard automatic version update

I Hanemaayer, A. (editor), Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents. Palgrave. Abstract (book) On what basis can we challenge Artificial Intelligence (AI) - its infusion, investment, and implementatio

Dags för omprövning? Om de offentliga verksamheternas organisering

Sverige har under de senaste decennierna genomfört storskaliga privatiseringar av verksamheter som tidigare drivits i offentlig regi. Likaså har traditionellt offentliga verksamheter anammat styrnings

Waldemar Ingdahl

At the Institute for Futures Studies I am working in the project "New methods for sharing research findings with society". I have previously worked as a communications officer and science journalist,

It's hard to know where the knowledge we acquire and the technology we develop may take us. Sometimes it is not until after several years that we learn how these skills or technologies can benefit - o