ORCID Profile
0000-0001-7072-2701
Current Organisation
University of Cambridge
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-08-2018
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 24-09-2021
DOI: 10.1017/CAN.2021.23
Abstract: Automated Influence is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to collect, integrate, and analyse people’s data in order to deliver targeted interventions that shape their behaviour. We consider three central objections against Automated Influence, focusing on privacy, exploitation, and manipulation, showing in each case how a structural version of that objection has more purchase than its interactional counterpart. By rejecting the interactional focus of “AI Ethics” in favour of a more structural, political philosophy of AI, we show that the real problem with Automated Influence is the crisis of legitimacy that it precipitates.
Publisher: ACM
Date: 21-07-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 15-03-2021
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 16-07-2023
DOI: 10.1029/2023AV000910
Abstract: Earth system models (ESMs) typically simplify the representation of land surface spectral albedo to two values, which correspond to the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400–700 nm) and the near infrared (NIR, 700–2,500 nm) spectral bands. However, the availability of hyperspectral observations now allows for a more direct retrieval of ecological parameters and reduction of uncertainty in surface reflectance. To investigate sensitivity and quantify biases of incorporating hyperspectral albedo information into ESMs, we examine how shortwave soil albedo affects surface radiative forcing and simulations of the carbon and water cycles. Results reveal that the use of two broadband values to represent soil albedo can introduce systematic radiative‐forcing differences compared to a hyperspectral representation. Specifically, we estimate soil albedo biases of ±0.2 over desert areas, which can result in spectrally integrated radiative forcing ergences of up to 30 W m −2 , primarily due to discrepancies in the blue (404–504 nm) and far‐red (702–747 nm) regions. Furthermore, coupled land‐atmosphere simulations indicate a significant difference in net solar flux at the top of the atmosphere ( .3 W m −2 ), which can impact global energy fluxes, rainfall, temperature, and photosynthesis. Finally, simulations show that considering the hyperspectrally resolved soil reflectance leads to increased maximum daily temperatures under current and future CO 2 concentrations.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-02-2021
DOI: 10.1007/S11229-020-02547-W
Abstract: Morally supererogatory acts are those that go above and beyond the call of duty. More specifically: they are acts that, on any in idual occasion, are good to do and also both permissible to do and permissible to refrain from doing. We challenge the way in which discussions of supererogation typically consider our choices and actions in isolation. Instead we consider sequences of supererogatory acts and omissions and show that some such sequences are themselves problematic. This gives rise to the following puzzle: what problem can we have with a sequences of actions if each in idual act or omission is itself permissible? In this paper, we develop a response to this question, by exploring whether solutions analogous to those proposed in the rational choice literature are available in the case of supererogatory sequences. Our investigation leads us to the view that making sense of the supererogatory requires accepting that there are global moral norms that apply to sequences of acts alongside the local moral norms that apply to in idual acts.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.1029/2022GB007524
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-06-2023
Abstract: Abstract. Terrestrial carbon cycle models are routinely used to determine the response of the land carbon sink under expected future climate change, yet these predictions remain highly uncertain. Increasing the realism of processes in these models may help with predictive skill, but any such addition should be confronted with observations and evaluated in the context of the aggregate behavior of the carbon cycle. Here, two formulations for leaf area index (LAI) phenology are coupled to the same terrestrial biosphere model: one is climate agnostic, and the other incorporates direct environmental controls on both timing and growth. Each model is calibrated simultaneously to observations of LAI, net ecosystem exchange (NEE), and biomass using the CARbon DAta-MOdel fraMework (CARDAMOM) and validated against withheld data, including eddy covariance estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) across six ecosystems from the tropics to high latitudes. Both model formulations show similar predictive skill for LAI and NEE. However, with the addition of direct environmental controls on LAI, the integrated model explains 22 % more variability in GPP and Re and reduces biases in these fluxes by 58 % and 77 %, respectively, while also predicting more realistic annual litterfall rates due to changes in carbon allocation and turnover. We extend this analysis to evaluate the inferred climate sensitivity of LAI and NEE with the new model and show that the added complexity shifts the sign, magnitude, and seasonality of NEE sensitivity to precipitation and temperature. This highlights the benefit of process complexity when inferring underlying processes from Earth observations and representing the climate response of the terrestrial carbon cycle.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-08-2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-08-2019
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 02-2018
DOI: 10.1017/S0953820818000018
Abstract: Moral theories that demand that we do what is morally best leave no room for the supererogatory. One argument against such theories is that they fail to realize the value of autonomy: supererogatory acts allow for the exercise of autonomy because their omissions are not accompanied by any threats of sanctions, unlike obligatory ones. While this argument fails, I use the distinction it draws – between omissions of obligatory and supererogatory acts in terms of appropriate sanctions – to draw a parallel with psychological perfectionism. Through this parallel, I demonstrate that requiring what is morally best is in fact counter-productive. Thus, by its own lights, a theory that wants us to do what is best ought at the very least to tell us to believe that some actions are supererogatory. As the old adage goes, the best is the enemy of the good I argue here that the supererogatory is the solution.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Claire Benn.