News Updates

Citing “profound risks to society and humanity,” more than 1,000 technology executives, researchers, and scholars call for a six-month pause on pursing advanced artificial intelligence systems until safety protocols are formulated, implemented, and audited. In Issues, Amitai Etzioni and Oren Etzioni offer a possible way for overseeing AI and other smart technologies. “What is required,” they write, “is the introduction into the world of AI the same basic structure that exists in practically all non-digital systems: a tiered decision-making system.” This would include developing oversight AI systems, called AI Guardians, that “understand and keep operational AI systems in line.”

The World Athletics Council has extended its regulation prohibiting some female athletes with differences in sex development from competing in certain track events. The rule requires the women, including Olympic champion Caster Semenya, to undergo hormone-suppressing treatment for six months before competing. In Issues, Roger Pielke Jr. and Madeleine Pape critique what they consider the flawed rationale behind such regulation. Instead, the authors propose an alternative classification methodology that “reflects the actual biological complexity of sex and the heterogeneity among female athletes while also respecting their biological sex as assigned and maintained since birth.”

Sea surface temperatures recently hit a record high, as measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, alarming many meteorologists and climate scientists. The findings may underscore Amitai Etzioni’s argument in Issues for placing more federal emphasis on ocean studies led by NOAA, with additional funding redirected from deep space exploration by NASA. He reasons that the study of faraway space typically yields few major discoveries and more overhyped claims. “By contrast,” Etzioni writes, “the oceans are nearby, and their study is a potential source of discoveries that could prove helpful for addressing a wide range of national concerns.”