How Can We Trust AI If We Don’t Know How It Works

Alien minds, in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, surround us in daily life, powering facial recognition, determining creditworthiness, and even creating poetry and code. 【小题1】

Many AI systems, particularly those based on deep learning neural networks, have trillions of parameters (参数), making their decision-making processes opaque (不透明的) — a phenomenon known as the AI explainability problem. 【小题2】

Unlike humans who can justify their decisions based on ethical principles, AI lacks the ability to explain its decision-making, failing the predictive requirement for trust. Consider situations like the “Trolley Problem,” where a self-driving car must make a difficult decision without the capacity to provide a human-like explanation.

Trust relies not only on explainability and predictability but also on ethical or moral motivations. Humans expect others to act not just as they assume they will, but also as they should. 【小题3】 It fails to adapt its behavior in line with ethical principles or human expectations, leading to the AI consistency and trust problem.

【小题4】 However, the increasing adoption of AI suggests a future where nested AI systems may dominate, limiting human intervention opportunities in rapid decision-making scenarios. This emphasizes the pressing need to address and resolve issues related to explainability and ensuring that AI systems align with human values and goals.

The integration of AI into vital systems, such as electric grids and military operations, heightens the importance of trust. 【小题5】

In conclusion, AI lacks the predictability and ethical elements that would make it inherently trustworthy. Addressing the challenges of explainability and alignment is essential to ensure that AI systems earn and maintain human trust in critical applications. Further research in this area is needed to pave the way for trustworthy AI systems in the future.

Can plastic recycling reduce the import of oil? The United States Environmental Protection Agency says only seven percent of plastic waste in the United States is recycled each year. A new company in northern New York says it can increase that percentage. It also says it can help the United States reduce the amount of oil it imports.

The company has a machine called the “plastic-eating monster”. Every hour, thousands of kilograms of milk jugs, water bottles, and grocery bags are fed into the machine. The plastic waste comes from landfills across the United States.

John Bordynuik runs the company, called JBI Inc. Mr. Bordynuik has invented a new process of turning plastic into fuel. First, many different kinds of unwashed plastics are melted together. Mr. Bordynuik uses a special chemical to turn the fluid into a vapor. This reduces the plastic to its most basic elements. “Plastics are just long hydrocarbon chains. What we’re doing is re-forming them into links and chains that we want so they have a high fuel value.” Eight percent of the recycled plastic is used to run the system. Independent testers say eighty-six percent of what goes in comes out as fuel.

JBI produces several thousand liters of fuel a day. It creates different grades of fuel for different industries. It sells the fuel for up to one hundred dollars a barrel(桶). Each barrel costs about ten dollars to produce. John Bordynuik believes plastics will become an important source of fuel for the United States. He says this will reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and reduce the amount of plastic waste in its landfills.

Scientists say plastic-to-oil technology is still new and developing. They say it is not yet known if the process is environmentally friendly. And some question whether turning plastic into oil can even be considered “recycling”. Carson Maxted says because there is a lot of plastic waste and a great demand for oil, JBI’s recycling technology may create great changes in both industries. “So they’re getting value from something that would otherwise go to the landfill, things that wouldn’t be accepted into a recycling plant.”

Last year saw one of the poorest salmon returns on record in North America. Yet, we are eating more fish than ever before. Aquaculture (水产养殖) production has tripled in the last two decades to meet this need, and another historic move was made by the FDA earlier this year, when a company received the first ever nod to sell a genetically modified salmon, a bioengineered version of the Atlantic salmon.

US-based AquaBounty, the firm which received the go-ahead, said it would begin stocking fish in supermarkets ''as soon as possible''. The first commercial harvest is expected at the end of 2020. At the moment, Argentina, Brazil and China have also granted environmental approvals for genetically modified fish farming trials.

This genetically modified salmon is actually a fish injected with the DNA of two other edible fish. The long road to the current version of the GM fish began in the 1980s when a physiologist named Garth Fletcher read about the work being done to genetically modify mice and wondered whether it could apply to salmon. He understood that the fish's growth hormones are most active in some seasons and considered changing this so that the hormones are always active. Cut to 2019, Fletcher's GM fish is able to reach adult size in 16 to 18 months, compared with 30 months for natural Atlantic salmon, while consuming 25% less feed.

In the United States, Atlantic salmon is endangered, so catching it is heavily restricted. It is currently imported from Chile, Norway and Canada. If the production and sales of AquaBounty go as planned, this will all change. And simultaneously, the company claims that farming the fish in their land-based hatcheries will lower the transportation cost as well as emissions associated with importing the fish as is currently done.

This has not all been without stiff opposition, and protestors who have sent nearly 2 million comments to the FDA have had issues on three main fronts. Health risks, being the main one, as it has been with several other genetically modified foods in the past. The environmental group Earth Action says no one can predict what will happen when people start eating the fish over time.