I just participated in a workshop on teaching Ethics and AI, this one at the AAAI 2017 conference that is full of students and faculty from universities all around. What was different, and I found striking, is that the audience is now peppered with journalists, assigned to cover even a professional AI workshop. Over my last twenty years, I have never before seen this sort of coverage, and it is indicative of just how top-of-mind AI has become in the consciousness of the press and the public. This is a good thing, I will argue, so long as a public discourse really gets at the social ramifications of these new technologies. In any case, two articles are already out on our little workshop, one in Fortune, the other in The Register.
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