The applications of big data provide a very mixed picture about its uses and abuses, in government, academe and private industry. And while where you stand on the net impact depends, as the cliche goes, on where you sit, a panel at the recent ESRC Festival of Social Science came out qualitatively optimistic about the future.
The last few weeks have seen a growing public debate about the pay packages of Britain’s academic CEOs. The vice chancellors at a number of universities, including Birmingham, Bath, Bath Spa and others, have come under heavy pressure to justify salaries that far exceed £100,000, Oddly, all the arguments for and against this start with the assumption that universities are just like any other business.
The House and Senate approved their respective versions of a tax reform package (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act). The House also approved the Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act, the Community Health and Medical Professionals Improve Our Nation Act, and the 21st Century Flood Reform Act. The House and Senate also cleared the final House-Senate conference report to the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
The head of the House science committee falsely claimed the National Science Foundation funds “more than twice as many graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences as in computer science, mathematics or material science.”
America’s rural-urban divide, it seems, has never been greater, a point reinforced by large geographic disparities in support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But it is also the case that big cities and rural communities are more tightly integrated than ever and are increasingly interdependent, both economically and socially. That was the starting point for a recent webinar which is archived here.
You’d be forgiven for assuming a quick and sure way to multiply profits and amplify organizational success is to increase the gender and racial diversity of any group. According to mainstream media, the effects of gender and racial diversity are universally favorable. However, professor Alice Eagly states, “the truth is there’s no adequate scientific basis for these newsworthy assertions.”
In this collection of videos , Tom Chatfield eschews the biblical but embraces the practical as he gives specific guidance for training your brain to think critically. In a digital era delivering rivers of information awash in ‘fake news,’ the significance and sheer volume of this information make the question of how we engage with it a vital one.
Joseph L. White, whose pioneering conceptual work earned him the title of “the godfather of black psychology,” died November 21 while traveling to be with family over the Thanksgiving holiday. The professor emeritus of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California Irvine was 84.
An article in the journal Psychological Science, “The New Statistics: Why and How” by La Trobe University’s Geoff Cumming, has proved remarkably popular in the years since and is the third-most cited paper published in a Sage journal in 2013. The idea of an autonomous vehicle – i.e., a self-driving car – isn’t particularly new. Leonardo da Vinci had some ideas he […] Social sciences can also inform the design and creation of ethical frameworks and guidelines for AI development and for deployment into systems. Social scientists can contribute expertise: on data quality, equity, and reliability; on how bias manifests in AI algorithms and decision-making processes; on how AI technologies impact marginalized communities and exacerbate existing inequities; and on topics such as fairness, transparency, privacy, and accountability. Philosophy has been instrumental to AI since its inception, and should still be an important contributor as artificial intelligence evolves.. The new AI Disclosures Project seeks to create structures that both recognize the commercial enticements of AI while ensuring that issues of safety and equity are front and center in the decisions private actors make about AI deployment. If schools provide the proper support and resources, they will help educators move from anxiety to empowerment when integrating AI into the classroom.
EXPLORE
Impact
Paper Opening Science to the New Statistics Proves Its Import a Decade Later
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A Milestone Dataset on the Road to Self-Driving Cars Proves Highly Popular
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Why Social Science? Because It Can Help Contribute to AI That Benefits Society
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Innovation
Philosophy Has Been – and Should Be – Integral to AI
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New SSRC Project Aims to Develop AI Principles for Private Sector
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AI Upskilling Can and Should Empower Business School Faculty
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