The Weizenbaum Test
In honor of the creator of the first chatbot (who later had serious misgivings about the whole field of AI), and inspired by the Bechdel Test for film, I would like to propose the Weizenbaum Test: does a list of “ten things you need to read about AI and machine learning” include anything specifically devoted to ethics, privacy, liability, or social responsibility? (A passing mention in some other book or article doesn’t count.) My feed this morning had three articles whose titles were variations on the “ten things” trope; none passed the test, and I think we’d all be better off if people stopped boosting articles that don’t.