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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Agreed - one has to start somewhere, and <b>
research</b> on using AI to advance knowledge makes a lot of sense. Self-driving cars is a good analogy. Start with research on how-to and the issues that arise (like getting machines to make decisions about who to kill), then you do a lot of testing before
you release cars into streets where human beings are walking, cycling, and driving. </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">The same principle applies to scholarly knowledge. If you produce an automated translation of a medical research article into lay language for the non-specialist, first test to ensure that this will do no harm. This will
take a lot of time, and will require the involvement of many specialists in medicine. </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">best,</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Heather Morrison</p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> goal-bounces@eprints.org <goal-bounces@eprints.org> on behalf of Donald Samulack - Editage <donald.samulack@editage.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, July 12, 2018 4:03 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [GOAL] Why translating all scholarly knowledge for non-specialists using AI is complicated</font>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91">Yes, but you have to start somewhere!</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91">There is a quote out there (whether accurate or not) that if Henry Ford had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. Who would ever have thought of a self-driving car,
or even a flying car… well, many, actually – and they made it happen!</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91">My point is that you have no idea what an exercise of this manner will spin off as a result of the effort – that is why it is called “research”. The goal is a lofty one, but there will be huge wins in scientific
language AI along the way. Who knows, it may be necessary for multi-year journeys for lay-person trips to Mars, if something goes wrong with the spaceship along the way (communication delays will be prohibitive to effect any value from Earth; AI will be required
for local support).</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91">Cheers,</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91"><br>
Don</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#365F91">-----------------------------</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F">Donald Samulack, PhD</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F">President, U.S. Operations</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F">Cactus Communications, Inc.</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F">Editage, a division of Cactus Communications</span><span style="color:#1F497D"></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; color:#7F7F7F"> </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> goal-bounces@eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Heather Morrison<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, July 12, 2018 1:49 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <goal@eprints.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [GOAL] Why translating all scholarly knowledge for non-specialists using AI is complicated</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">On July 10 Jason Priem wrote about the AI-powered systems "that help explain and contextualize articles, providing concept maps, automated plain-language translations"... that are part of his
project's plan to develop a scholarly search engine aimed at a nonspecialist audience. The full post is available here:</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"><a href="http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/2018-July/004890.html" id="LPlnk268981" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/2018-July/004890.html</a>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">We share the goal of making all of the world's knowledge available to everyone without restriction, and I agree that reducing the conceptual barrier for the reader is a laudable goal. However,
I think it is important to avoid underestimating the size of this challenge and potential for serious problems to arise. Two factors to consider: the current state of AI, and the conceptual challenges of assessing the validity of automated plain-language translations
of scholarly works.</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Current state of AI - a few recent examples of the current status of AI:</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Vincent, J. (2016). Twitter taught Microsoft's AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day. The verge. </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist" id="LPlnk699683" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist</a>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Wong, J. (2018). Amazon working to fix Alexa after users report bursts of 'creepy' laughter. The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/amazon-alexa-random-creepy-laughter-company-fixing" id="LPlnk504416" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/amazon-alexa-random-creepy-laughter-company-fixing</a><br>
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Meyer, M. (2018). Google should have thought about Duplex's ethical issues before showing it off. Fortune <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/05/11/google-duplex-virtual-assistant-ethical-issues-ai-machine-learning/" id="LPlnk841826" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">http://fortune.com/2018/05/11/google-duplex-virtual-assistant-ethical-issues-ai-machine-learning/</a></span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Quote from Meyer:
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">As prominent sociologist Zeynep Tufekci
<a href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/994233568359575552" target="_blank" id="LPlnk715239" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">
put it</a>: “Google Assistant making calls pretending to be human not only without disclosing that it’s a bot, but adding ‘ummm’ and ‘aaah’ to deceive the human on the other end with the room cheering it… horrifying. Silicon Valley is ethically lost, rudderless
and has not learned a thing.”</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">These early instances of AI applications involve the automation of relatively simple, repetitive tasks. According to Amazon, "Echo and other Alexa devices let you instantly connect to Alexa to play music, control
your smart home, get information, news, weather, and more using just your voice". This is voice to text translation software that lets users speak to their computers instead of using keystrokes. Google's Duplex demonstration is a robot dialing a restaurant
to make a dinner reservation. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Translating scholarly knowledge into simple plain text so that everyone can understand it is a lot more complicated, with the degree of complexity depending on the area of research. Some research in education or
public policy might be relatively easy to translate. In other areas, articles are written for an expert audience that is assumed to have spent decades acquiring a basic knowledge in a discipline. It is not clear to me that it is even possible to explain advanced
concepts to a non-specialist audience without first developing a conceptual progression. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Assessing the accuracy and appropriateness of a plain-text translation of a scholarly work intended for a non-specialist audience requires expert understanding of the work and thoughtful understanding of the potential
for misunderstandings that could arise. For example, I have never studied physics. I looked at an automated plain-language translation of a physics text I would have no means of assessing whether the translation was accurate or not. I do understand enough
medical terminology, scientific and medical research methods to read medical articles and would have some idea if a plain-text translation was accurate. However, I have never worked as a health care practitioner or health care translation researcher, so would
not be qualified to assess the work from the perspective of whether the translation could be mis-read by patients (or some patients).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">In summary, Jason and I share the goal of making all of our scholarly knowledge accessible to everyone, specialists and non-specialists alike. However, in the process of developing tools to accomplish this it is
important to understand the size and nature of the challenge and the potential for serious unforeseen consequences. AI is in very early stages. Machines are beginning to learn on their own, but what they are learning is not necessarily what we expected or
wanted them to learn, and the impact on humans has been described using words like 'creepy', 'horrifying', and 'unethical'. The task of translating complex scholarly knowledge for a non-specialist knowledge and assessing the validity and appropriateness of
the translations is a huge challenge. If this is not understood and plans made to conduct rigorous research on the validity of such translations, the result could be widespread dissemination of incorrect translations. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">best,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"> </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Heather Morrison</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black">Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"><a href="mailto:Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca" id="LPlnk968034" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">Heather.Morrison@uottawa.ca</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt; color:black"><a href="https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706" id="LPlnk205604" class="OWAAutoLink" previewremoved="true">https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706</a></span></p>
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