Byte-sized Ethics July 2023 Round-Up & Relfection
Reflecting on the month that was and looking forward to the month ahead
July Reflection & Retro
July was my first full month of writing Byte-Sized Ethics, and I’ve learned way more than I expected. I’ve written more in the last eight weeks than I have in the last two years. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, author, and essayist, and while this is a lot of work it is one of the most gratifying things I’ve done in the last several years.
Starting something new, I always expect to be learning something. That’s a big part of the reason I decided to do this, was to learn more, while talking about a thing that’s so important to me. A few key takeaways:
My most popular piece of the month was “How to decide if Tech is Ethical” (linked below) with 52 views.
I started with the intent of being broadly focused on Tech Ethics, but there’s been a lot happening in AI and AI Ethics that’s really important meaning there’s a lot more to talk about in AI ethics right now.
Once a week publishing schedule is uncomfortable, but doable — which means that it’s a good cadence
I’m still finding my voice and niche - but I do see a space here to make AI and AI ethics more real for people, instead of just high concept and deep technical explanations
I actually know more than I thought I did about AI, Ethics, and Responsible tech
Ironically, AIs like ChatGPT and Claude have been instrumental in helping me get BSE off the ground.
Note: I don’t use either tool to write my pieces - this is all grade-A human-generated content. Instead, I use it for suggestions, refining, and clean-up of structure.
I’m really bad at promotion, it is like my kryptonite.
What can you expect out of August?
Better, “non-icky” promotion. I have good, interesting things to say, and I would really love more people to read them.
More experimentation with different approaches to AI ethics and Tech Ethics. I’m a media scholar by education, so I want to try an article from that perspective.
Collaborations - I’m talking with a few others writers about some cross-posting and guest-posting opportunities. I’m not sure anything will come out in August, but I’ll at least be working on it.
Continuing to make AI Ethics and Tech Ethics real for people
BSE Recap
My first article of the month was inspired by philosophy and rhetoric, considering my background makes sense. It’s an article about how the ethical judgments we make live in the gaps, in the places we don’t look, and in the assumptions we make.
I realized that it can be really hard to figure out if a given app or company is using technology ethically or responsibly. I wrote out the general approach I use when evaluating technology to help others trying to do the same thing.
I read an article in Scientific American that made me roll my eyes so hard that I thought I was going to hurt myself about yet another-existential threat from AI. Instead of just debunking the threat, I broke it down into actionable things we could do to mitigate the harms happening today that make this existential threat less likely.
Riffing off of last week’s article about handling AI existential threats, I took a step back and asked myself - should we actually care … at all? The answer is unsurprising in its ambiguity of “No, but maybe yes?”
More of My Work
Did you ever wonder who has the best Privacy in Video Games? I did, so I took a look at the two of the biggest MMOS to see who treats your data with more respect
Technically I didn’t write this in July, but it was close enough. For Lawful Neutral on MassivelyOP, I wrote about the impact of the AI Revolution on the Massively Multiplayer Gaming industry
Substacks should you check out
- - Between the Substack and the Podcast, this is the single best resource for the latest and greatest (and scariest) in Artificial Intelligence
AI Supremacy - If you want to keep tabs on the tends of AI, business, and society - look no further than AI Supremacy
- - A great resource for anyone interested in learning more about AI Ethics; skews a little academic, but still lots of great content
- - Disclaimer - I volunteer with ATIH, but if you are interested in Tech Ethics and Responsible Tech, there’s no place better to get started
- - writes about a wide range of topics, including AI. He publishes quality articles daily, which is pretty amazing in and of itself.
Great job diving in headfirst last month, and thank you for the shout!