Mediaboss Marketing

Which suicides are morally permissible to prevent? This question caught my attention during a session at theAmerican Society of Bioethics and Humanities(ASBH) annual conference last month. The conversation focused on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, specifically in algorithms designed to prevent suicide. This question seemed audacious. Shouldnt we prevent all suicides? Dont all lives hold equal weight?

During this session, I witnessed the intersection of medicine, business and bioethics. I was inspired to think about the parallels to the material I study as an M.D./MBA student and the key takeaways.

Initially, presenters highlighted that several companies use AI to deliver mental health services, but there are minimal regulations regarding the usage of AI on these platforms. Simply put, this could lead to mental healthcare that worsens existing mental health conditions. In addition, presenters highlighted the fact that algorithms to predict suicide are currently inadequate in their predictive ability.

However, the presenter introduced an intriguing nuance in the discussion of these algorithms scope. She started her presentation by detailing the tragic story of a 13-year-old boy who died by suicide, an incident that warrants close monitoring and prevention efforts. But it raises questions about other groups like whether we should also restrict the right of terminally ill patients to seek physician-assisted suicide or target specific populations. While its evident that certain high-risk groups, like first responders and law enforcement personnel, deserve monitoring, the presenter also raised an interesting point about individuals undergoing elective cosmetic procedures, like breast augmentation surgery, who also exhibit an elevated risk of suicide.

The questions raised by this discussion prompted me to wonder how we train these models and how these models have evolved. I am not an expert in AI, but after a quick literature review, I found that our collective understanding of foundational models and the data used to train suicide prevention algorithms is lacking and that there areongoing effortsto demystify these models and evaluate how they work.

This session at ASBH helped me realize that AI is a tool that we dont fully understand yet but will play a key part in our lives, especially within the healthcare field, going forward.

A key question that we should ask is: what are the responsibilities, if any, of companies that develop and market these AI-based solutions?

I believe that these companies have an immense responsibility to apply the ethical frameworks that we learned in medical school and that were reiterated at ASBH in developing these tools. Specifically, companies should be transparent about how they build models so that those in industry, academia and policymaking can have the information they need to make informed decisions.

Underscoring this point, President Biden signed an executive order on Oct. 30, 2023, discussing the society-wide effort needed to amplify AIs benefits and mitigate its substantial risks. In a slew of new guidelines, he ensures that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will set standards to ensure AI systems are safe and trustworthy, the Department of Commerce will develop guidance for content authentication, and the Department of Justice and civil rights offices will address algorithmic discrimination through training and coordination.

He also guarantees to invest in better training for workers so that they can effectively participate in the AI-based labor market, to catalyze AI research and to promote a fair, open and competitive AI ecosystem so that entrepreneurship can thrive. In addition, he requires that companies developing foundation models that pose a serious risk to national security notify the government and share the results of their safety tests.

Watching this Executive Order be released a few weeks after I attended this conference, I realized just how timely and important this issue is. I am thankful for these discussions at ASBH for helping me think deeply about the technologies changing our lives and corporations ethical responsibilities moving forward. As I continue with my M.B.A. before I return to medical school next year, I hope to learn more about business ethics and the key roles companies hold in shaping our future alongside our institutions and governments.

By Maya Guhan,M.D. candidate, Baylor College of Medicine Class of 2025, and recipient of theLaurence McCullough Travel Award. She is also an M.B.A. candidate in the Rice Jones School of Business.

Link:
Exploring the complexity of ethics and Artificial Intelligence ... - Baylor College of Medicine

EveryWatch: a new AI-based Information platform for the international watch universe. As useful to professionals as it is to watch lovers.

The exact (market) price of any reference? Vintage or contemporary. Where and when the watch was sold?EveryWatch tracks more than 500,000 references through more than 250 auction houses and 150 online marketplaces and dealers. At just one click from anywhere, anytime in the world: reliable prices of watches, in real time, (not retail figures, but actual transaction prices). Developed by tech stars in collaboration with major watch industry players and pros.

Looking for real time actual sale price information for a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711? Trying to find the best deal in the market for a Rolex Daytona 116500LN?

EveryWatch is the only global online watch information platform, providing comprehensive and reliable watch data from brands, auction houses and marketplaces globally. The platform provides access to information and analysis not available anywhere else, enabling watch lovers and industry professionals to make educated decisions quickly and easily. It includes a meta-search for luxury watches currently available for sale at auction houses and marketplaces worldwide, a database of historical sales prices dating back to 1989, the ability to track watches coming to market; and powerful analysis tools unparalleled in the watch market.

After more than 2 years of research and development, EveryWatch is being deployed to serve as the one-stop information and analysis platform for the watch market. The platform includes a historical watch sale database with actual sales prices of over 500,000 watches and aggregates new watches coming on to the market in real time from over 250 auction houses and 150 online marketplaces and dealers. The platform also includes a trove of tools to analyze trends and statistics to understand the value and trends of specific watches or a full collection. Users also have the ability to save detailed searches and receive notifications when watches that match the specific search characteristics are made available for sale anywhere in the world.

I am excited to see EveryWatch completing the watch ecosystem as the largest watch database, providing accurate and reliable pricing information to the watch community. EveryWatch allows to make educated decisions about pre-owned watches quickly and with confidence. Chabi Nouri, Chairperson of the Board of EveryWatch and former CEO of Piaget.

Davide Parmigiani, Chairman of Monaco Legend Auction House and collector, commented, EveryWatch is the epitome of efficiency. As auctioneers, we can now easily and quickly value watches and identify trends. And as a collector, I can now track the value of my full collection daily and also be notified when the watch I have been looking to buy for years comes on to the market.

The platform was created by Nacre Capital, a venture builder focused on building AI based deep technology companies. The Nacre portfolio, includes FDNA, providing solutions to detect rare diseases in children using AI, which are used in leading hospitals globally; Fairtilty, transforming IVF using AI, Seed-X, an AI based agtech company and many others.

EveryWatch was conceived by leading tech investors and watch professionals, including Howard Morgan, Chairman of Nacre, co-founder of Renaissance Capital and First Round Capital, early investor in Uber, LinkedIn, Square and other companies; Chabi Nouri, former CEO of Piaget; Alexander Friedman, collector, founder of AF. Luxury Consulting and the AF. Watch Report; and other leading collectors and tech leaders, to address the lack of reliable, verified information in the second-hand watch market. EveryWatch serves as the one-stop shop information platform where anyone can easily find any second-hand watch currently available for sale and understand price trends and the real going market rate for any luxury watch ever created.

Read more:
EveryWatch | Artificial Intelligence Has Landed in the Watch Industry - WorldTempus

What Base was developing at this stage was a series of visual imaginings in relation to the opera being created. Developed in tandem with the opera house, the Base team would input parts as they received them into Dall-E, which was chosen as it provided the best results in terms of its weirdness and imperfect generation, adds Arthur Dubois, Bases motion designer. Arthur then used Google Colab to inject life into still images through animation, also working with Tokkin Heads, an AI that generates characters and the facial features to apply a templated animation, or just record with your webcam to create an animation of the face, he says. Runway was then also used, due to its framing interpolation, which generates in-between frames for a type-to-image transition. The final AI tool the team employed was Upscayl, used to upscale every image generated to principal resolution.

Although these steps appear simple when noted down, the actual process of working with AI in a design context wasnt without its challenges. Firstly, the imagery generated by Dall-E tested the creative limits of an identity system such as this. It really allowed for an aesthetic that felt less corporate or commercial, says Bruce Vansteenwinkel, a designer at Base. But at times these images werent appealing from an aesthetic standpoint. Thankfully, the animation techniques used really helped us to increase the weirdness of each visual, adds Aurore. Even more so when we werent really fond of an image, adding motion could help bring the result we wanted.

The process of then delivering the work also proved harder than originally anticipated. When it came to collaborating with La Monnaies team we realised that it was a bit more hassle, explains Bruce. We sold it as a toolbox. A way of collaborating where we could create images, they could create images, but that creates a lot of opportunities for new misunderstandings and new frustrations. Things became out of hand.

However, losing control led Base to realise the necessity of human-led design when collaborating with artificially generated artworks. Its funny. We sold them a concept of losing control, but then we lost so much control we had to gain it back, Bruce says. Right before launching there was an internal crisis because some of the images wed developed were less striking than the originals we had presented. That was the concept, but because were designers neat freaks, control freaks we wanted to regain control of the image. The delight we had in the beginning turned into despair, and maybe even disappointment.

The final visual not representing an art director or designers initial vision is a possibility on any project. In the end, Bases team placed themselves back in their usual role in a brief such as this, inputting details like the aforementioned animation techniques to tie the campaign together. We were a bit naive, says Aurore. A tool where both we can create images, and the client can create images sounds wonderful, but looking at what theyd done we realised we were a very important part of the process. We have a culture of image. They have a culture of content. We understood that we were still needed, which is the whole question around AI.

Like Sebas communication approach, since completing the La Monnaie project Base has been extremely open, and proud, of this use case of AI as art direction and design. As pointed out by Manon: Its our duty to use these tools and see where they can bring us to. There has also been little backlash towards the agency, even though its team have used it so obviously.

Arguably this is due to the fact that AI was only implemented due to its relevance for the overall theme of the opera season at hand, rather than an excuse not to work, or have AI as a buzzword, says Bruce. On this project I received a lot of questions about whether AI is going to replace our jobs. In our personal experience, I think in many ways it can. But thats more of a choice than an actual fate you have to accept. There are a few agencies working towards owning AI as their unique selling point, but Im not sure whether thats the strongest way to move forward with design at large. Choosing when and how to use it, maybe a little sparingly as well, evades the question of whether it will take our jobs. Interestingly, since completing the project Base hasnt used AI tools to this extent again, because, with this experience in mind, the concept hasnt called for it.

The rest is here:
Art direction vs artificial intelligence: A helpful tool or an added hassle? - It's Nice That

This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered experts last week in the Greek capital to discuss global issues.

Moderator: Liz Alderman, chief European business correspondent, The New York Times

Speaker: Nick Clegg, president, global affairs, Meta

Excerpts from the Rethinking A.I. and Democracy discussion have been edited and condensed.

LIZ ALDERMAN A.I. obviously holds enormous promise and can do all kinds of new things. A.I. can even help us possibly solve some of our hardest problems. But it also comes with risks, including manipulation, disinformation and the existential threat of it being used by bad actors. So Nick, why should the public trust that A.I. will be a boon to democracy, rather than a potential threat against it?

NICK CLEGG I think the public should continue to reserve judgment until we see how things play out. And I think, like any major technological innovation, technology can be used for good and for bad purposes, can be used by good and bad people. Thats been the case from the invention of the car to the internet, from the radio to the bicycle. And I think its natural to fear the worst, to try and anticipate the worst, and to be fearful particularly of technologies which are difficult to comprehend. So I think its not surprising that in recent months, certainly since ChatGPT produced its large language model, a lot of the focus has centered on possible risks. I think some of those risks, or at least the way some of them are being described, are running really quite far ahead of the technology, to be candid. You know, this idea of A.I.s developing a kind of autonomy and an agency of their own, a sort of demonic wish to destroy humanity and turn us all into paper clips and so on, which was quite a lot of the sort of early discussion.

ALDERMAN We havent reached Terminator 2 status.

CLEGG Yeah, exactly. Because these are systems, remember, which dont know anything. They dont have any real meaningful agency or autonomy. They are extremely powerful and sophisticated ways of slicing and dicing vast amounts of data and applying billions of parameters to it to recognize patterns across a dizzying array of data sets and data points.

Continue reading here:
Athens Democracy Forum: Are Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Compatible? - The New York Times

1. Google packs more artificial intelligence into new Pixel phones, raises prices for devices by $100  Tech Xplore
2. Google Pixel 8 Pro hands-on preview: artificial intelligence is genuinely cool  PhoneArena
3. Google launches Pixel 8, smartwatch with new AI feature  Reuters

Follow this link:
Google packs more artificial intelligence into new Pixel phones, raises prices for devices by $100 - Tech Xplore