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Unintended Ripples: A Comprehensive Exploration of AI's Impact on Public Trust and Perception
No full textM.P.P.In the era of technological innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful force shaping various aspects of human life. It has become integral in healthcare, legal services, agriculture, and transportation. However, the rapid expansion of AI applications has been accompanied by a growing mistrust of technological advancements. This paper explores the complex landscape of public perception and attitudes towards AI, focusing on factors influencing adoption and regulation in the United States. I hypothesize that concerns about unintended consequences of AI contribute to negative perceptions among the American public. This perception is rooted in the perceived risk of innovations and their potential impact on societal well-being, particularly for historically marginalized demographics. Leveraging survey data from the PEW Research Center, I examine the relationships between unintended consequences of AI, such as facial recognition, autonomous driving, and content moderation, and their effects on public attitudes. The research aims to bridge the literature gap by exploring the unintended consequences of AI, assessing their impact on public trust, and considering variations across demographics. This paper is structured to provide a comprehensive understanding, including a background, literature review, methodological model, data analysis, limitations, findings, and policy recommendations
Relationship Between Term Limits and Passage of Campaign Finance Laws
No full textM.P.P.Despite 80 percent of Americans being in favor of term limits, as well as their being a term limit for the Presidency of the United States, there are currently only 16 states with term limits for their state legislatures and no term limits for the U.S. Congress. That favorability largely reflects a shared perception that the longer legislators remain in office, the more their purpose becomes re-election and retention of power and influence. Along those lines, legislators can either facilitate or hinder their own retention of power through campaign finance laws, or lack thereof. This study uses state-year information from all 50 states and considers the correlation between state term limits and the passage of campaign finance laws. It first considers whether there is a trend in which states with term limits pass more campaign finance laws, thereby supporting efforts to limit corruption, and second whether there are any other variables that are similarly connected to the passage of campaign finance laws. The results of this study suggest that there is a minimal, positive, yet not statistically significant relationship between term limits in states and their passage of campaign finance laws. The sole grouping of variables that proved statistically significant and to have meaningful impact on the pass rate of campaign finance laws was that involving the categorization of laws, meaning the topics within the campaign finance environment the bills were principally written to address (e.g., disclosure of campaign finances, use of PACs)
The "first rough draft of history:" Anglo-American Press Coverage of South African Apartheid
No full textFacing Facts: The Effect of Facial Recognition Bans on Policing Effectiveness
No full textM.P.P.Given the negative effects of violent crime on society, some have argued for the increased police use of facial recognition tools – technology intended to match photographed faces with a database – by police forces. Others have pointed to the fact that facial recognition can be biased against women and people of color, leading some advocates to argue against the use of facial recognition as a policing tool. I aim to contribute to the body of evidence on the effectiveness of facial recognition systems. I compare the violent clearance rate (a measure of the fraction of violent crimes solved by the police) between cities that banned police use of facial recognition technology and cities that did not. Using a fixed effects model, I do not find evidence that bans on police use of facial recognition affect the violent crime clearance rate. Based on these results, I suggest that the benefits of police use of facial recognition technology are less than the costs
(Dis)Entangled Evils: Why the United States Entangled Its Nuclear Weapons Arsenal with Dual-Capable Weapons
No full textPh.D.Given the risks of inadvertent escalation and accidental nuclear war, why do states entangle their nuclear arsenals with conventional weapons? A security threat alone is not sufficient to deploy entangled weapon systems. Service Entanglement Theory explains how institutional relationships interact with structural security concerns to increase or decrease the entanglement of nuclear and conventional delivery systems. The security environment and service relationships drive entanglement. Acute security threats motivate nuclear weapons development. Military services compete over prestige, access to resources, and their role in national security. Services will entangle their forces with nuclear weapons to make their organization indispensable. Secondly, service culture drives which types of systems get developed, fundamentally altering the character of the nuclear arsenal. Warfighting preferences dictate dual-capable system development. Introducing the Entanglement Database, this study will track the United States’ degree of entanglement across 272 nuclear systems over 80 years. Service Entanglement Theory will be evaluated across four case periods exhibiting entangling behavior in the United States: increasing entanglement (1945 to 1956), dual-capable status quo (1957 to 1968), dual-capable consolidation (1969 to 1991), and disentanglement (1992 to 2022). In addition to critical security and institutional quantitative data, this study leverages declassified government documents, memoirs, and histories to assess service motivations and relationships. This dissertation enhances our understanding of how institutions interact with the security environment to shield their organization’s interests and values. Service Entanglement Theory provides a model to understand the internal dynamics that drive states to entangle their nuclear arsenals. Understanding the motivations for entanglement will reduce the risk of inadvertent escalation
Teaching Georgetown's History of Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation
No full textJoin the faculty creators of the new teaching site Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Georgetown, a Canvas course created to support Georgetown faculty who want to teach about the University's slaveholding history and its legacies. Adam Rothman, Bernie Cook, and Mary Beth Corrigan (Curator for Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation) will join David Ebenbach and Molly Chehak of CNDLS to demonstrate and contextualize the site. Together, we will explore possibilities for using the site in your teaching. The group will also discuss how the site may be used to support the new 1-credit Core Requirement in Race, Power and Justice at Georgetown (which launches in Fall 2024 for new incoming students)
Does Personal Care Assistance for the Elderly Effect Health Care Utilization and Satisfaction? A Study of the Elderly with Activity of Daily Living or Instrumental Activity of Daily Living Need
No full textM.P.P.As the United States health care system faces an aging population and growing care complications for the elderly, policy experts must explore new ways to address high costs and quality of care for older populations. One potential option includes expanding access to personal care services for elderly individuals who wish to receive intermediate or long-term care support outside of an institutionalized setting. This thesis explores the relationship between receiving personal care assistance for the elderly with an Activity of Daily Living (ADL) or Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) need and its effect on utilization of health care services and satisfaction regarding quality of medical care received. Using the 2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Public Use Files, we analyzed personal care assistance and its effect on utilization (Total Office Visits, Inpatient stays, and ED Visits in a year) and satisfaction (Quality of Medical Care received). Overall, our risk-adjusted results were inconclusive on the effect of personal care assistance on utilization and satisfaction of the health care system
“Kontracepcja, Kościół, i Kraj”: Reproductive Governance and Democratic Backsliding in Poland
No full textWhile Western nations and their international bodies have paid much attention to the
abortion crisis in Poland, these parties have shown little awareness of the increasingly restrictive
regulations on contraception. In the past decade, Poland’s reproductive governance has
increasingly become hostile towards contraceptive technologies. The research explores in what
ways Polish hostility has manifested, as well as the perceptions of governmental action in this
field. Through the formulation of a comprehensive reproductive technology timeline and twenty
ethnographic interviews, this study uncovered physical, social, and political barriers to
contraceptive access. Individuals perceived Poland as providing poor-quality information on
sexual health in academia and the media. They believed the information barrier created a culture
of hierarchy for contraception, leading doctors, pharmacists, and lawmakers to make arbitrary
decisions on behalf of the population. Finally, the participants believed this acceleration of
hostility resulted from the Church-State relationship. The research concludes that the government
posits increased regulation as a way to promote Polish population growth; the interest, they say,
comes from the historical persecution of Polish people. However, the population views this
regulation as a calculated ploy to restrict the public’s autonomy, allowing the ruling party to
instill institutional mechanisms to uphold its power. Finally, this study suggests that limiting
autonomous reproductive choice may lead to resignation and lack of civic participation,
facilitating democratic backsliding in a fragile stronghold for Western democracy