The Conversation

Artificial intelligence must know when to ask for human help

Written by Sarah Scheffler, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, Boston University

Sometimes the questions become too much for artificial intelligence systems.sdecoret/Shutterstock.com

Artificial intelligence systems are powerful tools for businesses and governments to process data and respond to changing situations, whether on the stock market or on a battlefield. But there are still some things AI isn’t ready for.

We are sc...

Long before #MeToo, women in many parts of the world organized successful campaigns against sexual violence

Written by Alka Kurian, Senior Lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell

Indian women hold protests against sexual violence.AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File

Just two months after allegations of sexual abuse against Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein came to light in a 2017 New York Times article, women in at least 85 countries began using the the hashtag #MeToo, to speak against sexual harassment.

In China, sexual...

Brazil and Venezuela clash over migrants, humanitarian aid and closed borders

Written by Robert Muggah, Associate Lecturer, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Clashes between opposition protesters and Venezuelan soldiers at the Venezuela-Brazil border have killed an estimated 25 people.AP Photo/Edmar Barros

Venezuela’s borders are now dangerous flashpoints in a tense showdown between President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela’s self-declared interim president, Juan Guaidó.

The United...

A prison program in Connecticut seeks to find out what happens when prisoners are treated as victims

Written by Miriam Gohara, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Yale University

Former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy speaks with inmates.AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb

Prisons are full of people who were once victims of violence and abuse.

As many as 75 percent of people who are in prison have experienced violence or childhood neglect, according to data from the Department of Justice.

Prisoners report past abuse at rates up to twice...

A cure for HIV? Feasible but not yet realized

Written by Allison Webel, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), shown here as tiny purple spheres, causes the disease known as AIDS. Mark Ellisman and Tom Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research

This week a team of scientists and physicians from the U.K. published news of a second HIV positive man, in London, who is in long-term (18-month) HIV...

Hoda Muthana wants to come home from Syria – just like many loyalist women who fled to Canada during the American Revolution

Written by G. Patrick O'Brien, PhD Candidate in History, University of South Carolina

Hoda Muthana and child during an interview with 'CBS This Morning.'CBS News screenshot

American emigrant Hoda Muthana begged American authorities last month to let her return to the United States.

Muthana, who was 19 when she left her family in Alabama in 2014 to join the proclaimed Islamic State caliphate, married three IS fighters after her...

US takes tentative steps toward opening up government data

Written by Anjanette Raymond, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Program on Data Management and Information Governance, Ostrom Workshop, Indiana University

Open data offers great promise, but also some risk.rawf8/shutterstock.com

At the beginning of this year, President Trump signed into law the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act, requiring that nonsensitive government data be made available in machine-readable, open formats by default.

As researchers who study data governance and...

Are viruses the best weapon for fighting superbugs?

Written by David Pride, Associate Director of Microbiology, University of California San Diego

These are viruses called bacteriophages that infect only bacterial cells. Ewa Parylak/shutterstock.com

Antibiotics won the battle against resistant bacteria, but they may not win the war.

You probably know that antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs, have hampered physicians’ ability to treat infections. You may also be aware...

Sexism has long been part of the culture of Southern Baptists

Written by Susan M. Shaw, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University

Southern Baptist Convention messengers hold signs during a rally protesting the convention's treatment of women in 2018. AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter

Recent media reports have revealed decades of abuse by Southern Baptist pastors.

Denominational leaders are offering apologies and calling the sexual abuse “evil,” “unjust”and a &...

How to distinguish a psychopath from a 'shy-chopath'

Written by John Edens, Professor of Psychology, Texas A&M University

Ted Bundy, a day before his execution in January 1989.AP Photo/Mark Foley

What makes a criminal a psychopath?

Their grisly deeds and commanding presence attract our attention – look no further than Ted Bundy, the subject of a recent Netflix documentary, and cult leaders like Charles Manson.

But despite years of theorizing and research, the...