Digital Life Initiative | Ethics | Policy | Politics | Quality of Life OCTOBER 2020 |
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DIRECTOR'S WELCOME By Helen Nissenbaum I am thrilled to announce a $2 million dollar gift from Peggy Koenig to the Digital Life Initiative. This incredible gift will allow DLI to advance two core goals. DLI has launched a new Fellowship in Technology Law & Policy to bridge our exceptional research into societal impacts of digital technologies with law and policy-making at city, state, and national levels. As with everything we do, our work in law, policy, and public interest advocacy will be steered by a steadfast commitment to ethics, social justice, and quality of life in digital societies. Ms. Koenig’s gift will also advance our ambitious educational aims – ensuring that no student at Cornell Tech will graduate without formal training in ethical thinking. We’re excited to expand regular course offerings that grapple with digital technologies seen through the lens of ethics, social good, and public engagement. The gift will also support innovation in nontraditional opportunities, such as summer clinics, internships, and ethics-based projects. We are deeply grateful! Peggy Koenig, BS CALS 78, is chair of Abry Partners, a private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, business, and information services. She is a devoted Cornell volunteer. A vice-chair of the Board of Trustees, Peggy also serves as a member of the Cornell Tech Council. READ MORE |
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OCTOBER EVENTS Digital Life Seminar The DLI Seminar continues this month in its new time slot, Wednesdays 12.00 - 1.15pm, with the familiar format of presentation & Q&A. Join us via Zoom > |
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OCTOBER EVENTS Digital Life Seminar October 14 | Lee McGuigan October 21 | Joshua A. Tucker October 28 | Joint DLI + Urban Tech Hub FULL SCHEDULE |
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TED TALKS Dear Facebook, this is how you're breaking democracy... By Yaël Eisenstat, DLI Visiting Fellow With her recent Ted Talk nearing 1-million views, Yaël Eisenstat explores how social media companies like Facebook incentivize inflammatory content, contributing to a culture of political polarization and mistrust. "And my message to the leaders of my former employer Facebook is this: right now, people are using your tools exactly as they were designed to sow hatred, division and distrust, and you're not just allowing it, you are enabling it. And yes, there are lots of great stories of positive things happening on your platform around the globe, but that doesn't make any of this OK." WATCH TALK |
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PRIVACI Contextual Integrity of Contact Tracing Town Hall Organizers: DLI Director Helen Nissenbaum and DLI Visiting Researcher Yan Shvartzshnaider, alongside Marshini Chetty and Blase Ur from the University of Chicago. A virtual Town Hall was held on September 22 to united researchers in presenting, discussing, and sharing ideas on COVID-19, Contract Tracing, and Privacy as Contextual Integrity (CI). Breakout Q&A sessions explored CI through the lenses of design, law, and research. WATCH THE TOWN HALL |
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY Low-rank MDP Approximation via Moment Coupling Co-authored by DLI Doctoral Fellow Amy B.Z Zhang and Cornell Tech Professor Itai Gurvich. In this paper, Zhang and Gurvich propose a novel method––based on local moment matching––to approximate the value function of a Markov Decision Process. The method is grounded in recent work by Braverman et al (2020) that relates the solution of the Bellman equation to that of a PDE where, in the spirit of the central limit theorem, the transition matrix is reduced to its local first and second moments. READ MORE |
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CORNELL'S VIDEO ON DEMAND Recent Digital Life Seminars With Yaël Eisenstat, Carrie Goldberg, Jospeh Turow, Cory Doctorow, and Emma Pierson The Digital Life Initiative kicked off its virtual Fall 2020 seminar series with a line-up of dynamic guest speakers. DLI's Yaël Eisentstat and victims' rights lawyer Carrie Goldberg explored who should govern online speech, and debated the expectations placed on governments to regulate "big tech". Professor Joseph Turow joined us for a lively discussion about the ethical questions surrounding the voice intelligence industry and bio-profiling, drawing from research within his forthcoming book The Voice Catchers. We were delighted then to welcome activist, journalist, and New York Times best-selling author Cory Doctorow, who delivered a compelling presentation about the interrelationship between oligarchy, technology and digital rights. Ending the month on a high, incoming Cornell Tech/Jacob's Institute faculty member Emma Pierson shared how to use mobility data to understand inequality, and guide reopening during the pandemic. WATCH PREVIOUS SEMINARS |
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NEW DLI Technology Law & Policy Fellowship Applications will be considered beginning on January 15, 2021 until position is filled. Cornell Tech’s Digital Life Initiative is excited to announce that it is now recruiting for a newly created Fellowship in Technology Law and Policy. The Tech Law Fellow will augment DLI’s research and educational mission, examining digital life through the lens of ethics, politics, and quality of life. With guidance from DLI Director Helen Nissenbaum and Professor James Grimmelmann, the Tech Law Fellow will actively develop and pursue timely legal and policy responses to impending controversies and key decisions arising from the development and deployment of digital technologies. READ MORE |
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NEW DLI Industry Affiliates Program The Digital Life Initiative’s (DLI) scholarship and influence thrives off strong engagement with industry partners. Leaders from industry, academia, nonprofit and government look to DLI for guidance on issues ranging from privacy and cybersecurity to AI ethics. We invite organizations from any field to join us as DLI Affiliates, supporting our mission to shape the future of digital societies by caring about its deep impacts on ethical and political values and the quality of life. Affiliation with DLI signals: MORE INFO | laura.batten@cornell.edu |
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DLI EVENTS Digital Life Seminar Wednesdays, 12.00 - 1.15pm FULL SCHEDULE + ZOOM INFO October 14 Lee McGuigan, Cornell Tech October 21 Joshua A. Tucker, New York University October 28 DLI + Urban Tech Hub, Cornell Tech November 11 Congzheng Song, Cornell Tech November 18 Samar Sabie, Cornell Tech December 2 Robin Berjon, New York Times Ido Sivan-Sevilla, Cornell Tech |
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OTHER RESOURCES Good Code Podcast Produced by Chine Labbé READ MORE Critical Reflections Analytical commentary & research READ MORE Student Posts Critical reviews of the Digital Life Seminar READ MORE More DLI Info Jessie Taft (jgt43@cornell.edu) Michael Byrne (mjb556@cornell.edu) DLI WEBSITE @dlicornelltech FOLLOW US |
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