small talk 2.0

Book review for “Doctor on Call: Chernobyl responder, Jewish refugee, radiation expert”, by Dr. Alla Shapiro. Mandel Vilar Press, 2021.   The cover illustration of the "Doctor on Call: Chernobyl responder, Jewish refugee, radiation expert", includes two distinct images. In the bottom image, we see the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear station and the abandoned buildings of Pripyat, the closest town to Chernobyl power station that housed its employees before the explosion. The top picture is a peaceful view of the American capital dominated by the iconic Washington Monument. Young pediatrician Alla Shapiro from the Hematology Unit of the Kiev Children Hospital couldn't have imagined on the morning of April 26, 1986, that her life would irreversibly change and the rest of it will revolve around those two places: Washington, D.C. and Chernobyl, Ukraine. Washington will become her second home after she leaves the turbulent Kiev of the 1980s; the Chernobyl chapter of her ...

 Briefing I gave on May 12, 2021. 

                    The outbreak of Covid19 a year ago intensified the debates about regulation of Artificial Intelligence. Given the role of AI technologies in fighting the pandemics, the attention of all stakeholders to its impact, both positive and negative, was all too obvious. As a result, the extensive use of these technologies by some governments to control the propagation of coronavirus brought to light controversial and disturbing aspects of AI. Human rights advocates and experts sounded the alarm about large-scale use of the facial recognition AI technologies for surveillance purposes. Beyond the pandemic situation, concerns were also raised about military use of Artificial Intelligence and other AI applications that could endanger privacy, amplify the polarization of societies and empower the autocrats.         Those concerns are raised periodically by members of the expert community and lead...