Oct 28, 2020

Welcome to this special Halloween issue of The Batch! In AI, we use many challenging technical terms. To help you keep things straight, I would like to offer some definitions that I definitely would not use.

Will AI promote lies that deepen social divisions? Propagandists will bait online recommendation algorithms with sensationalized falsehoods. People who snap at the clickbait will be reeled into opposing ideological silos.

Will international rivalries fragment international cooperation in machine learning? Countries competing for AI dominance will lash out at competitors.

What if AI requires so much computation that it becomes unaffordable?The fear: Training ever more capable models will become too pricey for all but the richest corporations and government agencies. Rising costs will

Will AI that discriminates based on race, gender, or economic status undermine the public’s confidence in the technology? Seduced by the promise of cost savings and data-driven decision making, organizations will deploy biased systems that end up doing real-world damage.

Will we ever understand what goes on inside the mind of a neural network?The fear: When AI systems go wrong, no one will be able to explain the reasoning behind their decisions.

Welcome to this special Halloween issue of The Batch! In AI, we use many challenging technical terms. To help you keep things straight, I would like to offer some definitions that I definitely would not use.