POSTMODERN SEANCE

‘Digital afterlife’: call for safeguards to prevent unwanted ‘hauntings’ by AI chatbots of dead loved ones

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

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A VISUALISATION OF A FICTIONAL COMPANY CALLED MANANA, ONE OF THE DESIGN SCENARIOS USED IN THE PAPER TO ILLUSTRATE THE POTENTIAL ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE EMERGING DIGITAL AFTERLIFE INDUSTRY. 

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CREDIT: DR TOMASZ HOLLANEK

Artificial intelligence that allows users to hold text and voice conversations with lost loved ones runs the risk of causing psychological harm and even digitally “haunting” those left behind without design safety standards, according to University of Cambridge researchers. 

‘Deadbots’ or ‘Griefbots’ are AI chatbots that simulate the language patterns and personality traits of the dead using the digital footprints they leave behind. Some companies are already offering these services, providing an entirely new type of “postmortem presence”.

AI ethicists from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence outline three design scenarios for platforms that could emerge as part of the developing  “digital afterlife industry”, to show the potential consequences of careless design in an area of AI they describe as “high risk”.

The research, published in the journal Philosophy and Technology, highlights the potential for companies to use deadbots to surreptitiously advertise products to users in the manner of a departed loved one, or distress children by insisting a dead parent is still “with you”.

When the living sign up to be virtually re-created after they die, resulting chatbots could be used by companies to spam surviving family and friends with unsolicited notifications, reminders and updates about the services they provide – akin to being digitally “stalked by the dead”.

Even those who take initial comfort from a ‘deadbot’ may get drained by daily interactions that become an “overwhelming emotional weight”, argue researchers, yet may also be powerless to have an AI simulation suspended if their now-deceased loved one signed a lengthy contract with a digital afterlife service.  

“Rapid advancements in generative AI mean that nearly anyone with Internet access and some basic know-how can revive a deceased loved one,” said Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, study co-author and researcher at Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI).

“This area of AI is an ethical minefield. It’s important to prioritise the dignity of the deceased, and ensure that this isn’t encroached on by financial motives of digital afterlife services, for example.

“At the same time, a person may leave an AI simulation as a farewell gift for loved ones who are not prepared to process their grief in this manner. The rights of both data donors and those who interact with AI afterlife services should be equally safeguarded.”

Platforms offering to recreate the dead with AI for a small fee already exist, such as ‘Project December’, which started out harnessing GPT models before developing its own systems, and apps including ‘HereAfter’. Similar services have also begun to emerge in China.

One of the potential scenarios in the new paper is “MaNana”: a conversational AI service allowing people to create a deadbot simulating their deceased grandmother without consent of the “data donor” (the dead grandparent).  

The hypothetical scenario sees an adult grandchild who is initially impressed and comforted by the technology start to receive advertisements once a “premium trial” finishes. For example, the chatbot suggesting ordering from food delivery services in the voice and style of the deceased.

The relative feels they have disrespected the memory of their grandmother, and wishes to have the deadbot turned off, but in a meaningful way – something the service providers haven’t considered.

“People might develop strong emotional bonds with such simulations, which will make them particularly vulnerable to manipulation,” said co-author Dr Tomasz Hollanek, also from Cambridge’s LCFI.

“Methods and even rituals for retiring deadbots in a dignified way should be considered. This may mean a form of digital funeral, for example, or other types of ceremony depending on the social context.”

“We recommend design protocols that prevent deadbots being utilised in disrespectful ways, such as for advertising or having an active presence on social media.”

While Hollanek and Nowaczyk-Basińska say that designers of re-creation services should actively seek consent from data donors before they pass, they argue that a ban on deadbots based on non-consenting donors would be unfeasible.

They suggest that design processes should involve a series of prompts for those looking to “resurrect” their loved ones, such as ‘have you ever spoken with X about how they would like to be remembered?’, so the dignity of the departed is foregrounded in deadbot development.     

Another scenario featured in the paper, an imagined company called “Paren’t”, highlights the example of a terminally ill woman leaving a deadbot to assist her eight-year-old son with the grieving process.

While the deadbot initially helps as a therapeutic aid, the AI starts to generate confusing responses as it adapts to the needs of the child, such as depicting an impending in-person encounter.

The researchers recommend age restrictions for deadbots, and also call for “meaningful transparency” to ensure users are consistently aware that they are interacting with an AI. These could be similar to current warnings on content that may cause seizures, for example.

The final scenario explored by the study – a fictional company called “Stay” – shows an older person secretly committing to a deadbot of themselves and paying for a twenty-year subscription, in the hopes it will comfort their adult children and allow their grandchildren to know them.

After death, the service kicks in. One adult child does not engage, and receives a barrage of emails in the voice of their dead parent. Another does, but ends up emotionally exhausted and wracked with guilt over the fate of the deadbot. Yet suspending the deadbot would violate the terms of the contract their parent signed with the service company.

“It is vital that digital afterlife services consider the rights and consent not just of those they recreate, but those who will have to interact with the simulations,” said Hollanek.

“These services run the risk of causing huge distress to people if they are subjected to unwanted digital hauntings from alarmingly accurate AI recreations of those they have lost. The potential psychological effect, particularly at an already difficult time, could be devastating.”

The researchers call for design teams to prioritise opt-out protocols that allow potential users terminate their relationships with deadbots in ways that provide emotional closure.

Added Nowaczyk-Basińska: “We need to start thinking now about how we mitigate the social and psychological risks of digital immortality, because the technology is already here.”   

A visualisation of a fictional company called MaNana, one of the design scenarios used in the paper to illustrate the potential ethical issues in the emerging digital afterlife industry. 

    

A visualisation of a fictional company called Stay, one of the design scenarios used in the paper to illustrate the potential ethical issues in the emerging digital afterlife industry. 

CREDIT

Dr Tomasz Hollanek

---

JOURNAL

Philosophy & Technology

DOI

10.1007/s13347-024-00744-w 

ARTICLE TITLE

Griefbots, Deadbots, Postmortem Avatars: on Responsible Applications of Generative AI in the Digital Afterlife Industry

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-May-2024

End Criminalization, Secure Equal Rights of Same-Sex Relationships, Secretary-General Observance Message Urges, Pointing to Worrying Surge in Opposite Direction


Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, observed on 17 May:

On this International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, I applaud the brave work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) human rights defenders fighting to outlaw discrimination and secure equality before the law. Yet there is a worrying surge in the opposite direction. New laws are codifying old bigotries, exploiting fears and stoking hate.

The theme of this year’s Day — “No one left behind: equality, freedom and justice for all” — reminds us of our obligations to respect the human rights and dignity of every person. We need action around the world to make those rights a reality. The criminalization of same-sex relationships must end, so must all violence, discrimination and harmful practices against LGBTQI+ communities.

On this and every day, let’s commit to building a world of respect, dignity and human rights for all around the world.

Buddha’s Timeless Teachings of Peace, Compassion Are Pathway to Better, More Harmonious World, Secretary-General Says in Day of Vesak Observance Message

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the Day of Vesak, observed on 23 May:

Today, Buddhists across the globe celebrate Vesak Day, which marks the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha.

Last October, I had the privilege of travelling to the Buddha’s birthplace of Lumbini, Nepal. This deeply inspiring visit re-affirmed my conviction that the Buddha’s timeless teachings of peace, compassion and service to others are the pathway to a better, more understanding and harmonious world for all.

Today and every day, let us be guided by the spirit of Vesak and by a renewed faith in what we can accomplish as a united human family. Let’s work as one to build a more peaceful and sustainable future.

Happy Vesak Day.

9 May 2024

Sky News wins Amnesty award for coverage of Myanmar civil war

Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his team spent a month living in the jungle with the rebels, with the conflict raging - and found people brave enough to share their harrowing stories of survival and resistance against the army.


Thursday 9 May 2024 

46:49 Special programme: Inside Myanmar

Sky News's reporting of the civil war in Myanmar has been recognised at the Amnesty International UK Media Awards.

The channel was the winner in the Broadcast News category for Myanmar's Hidden War.
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Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his team spent a month last year living in the jungle with the rebels, with the conflict raging - and found people brave enough to share their harrowing stories of survival and resistance against the army.

Stuart Ramsay with his crew in Myanmar

Reflecting later on his time in the country, Ramsay wrote: "The jungle of Myanmar was to be our home for a month as we reported on a war that has been so rarely witnessed by outsiders.

"Our job was to gather the evidence of a conflict the junta denies and record the testimony of thousands of civilians forced from their homes by wave after wave of airstrikes, artillery shells, and infantry attacks."


Ramsay added: "We were always on the move, and changed camp frequently because you couldn't stay anywhere for too long because of the likelihood of spies spotting us and reporting back to the authorities.

"But we felt it was a risk worth taking, to bear witness to the incredible bravery of the volunteers, medics, doctors and nurses, working in horrendous and dangerous conditions - and to record the resilience of families, surviving and even thriving in an atmosphere of daily danger, death and destruction.

Related Topics: Myanmar

"Most of those we spoke to told us how instead of breaking their resolve, in many ways the Myanmar military is actually making that resolve even stronger."

Read more:
Inside Myanmar's secret jungle hospital
As war ravages Myanmar, locals have given up any hope of help

Amnesty says the annual awards highlight excellence in human rights journalism, as well as the bravery of journalists who risk their lives to uncover human rights abuses around the world and hold power to account.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK's chief executive, said: "The events of this year serve as a potent reminder that journalists and media workers continue to be threatened, prosecuted and even killed for speaking truth to power.

"It is clear that nowhere is truly safe for a journalist speaking truth to power right now.

"However, amid the global threats to press freedom, tonight's Media Awards winners and finalists have all proven that we will not be silenced."


He added: "Their tireless efforts truly make an impact on the world, and if brave media workers continue to document, investigate, and share the stories of those who often have no voice, change will happen."

 

Fighting in Rakhine state townships displaces 40,000 Rohingyas

They now face a humanitarian crisis.

By RFA Burmese
2024.05.09

Rohingya people protest in Buthidaung township, Rakhine state, Myanmar, March 19, 2024.

 Han Nyein Oo

At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

The fighting in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships came amid widespread gains in Rakhine state by the Arakan Army, or AA, that prompted the junta to implement a draft to shore up depleted troop losses.

As part of its efforts, the military has reportedly forcibly recruited Rohingyas into pro-junta militias which it says must be formed to protect their Muslim faith in majority Buddhist Rakhine state. 

But observers say the junta is trying to stoke ethnic tensions in the region to slow the Arakan Army’s advance.

Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya rights activist who is monitoring the situation, said that the 40,000 first began to flee on Monday and hail from more than 10 villages, including Buthidaung’s Ka Kyet Bet, Ah Lel Chaung and Ba Gon Nar villages, and Maungdaw’s Paung Zar and Hla Baw Zar villages – all of which are located in close proximity to the fighting.

“Rohingyas are not allowed to take shelter at IDP [internally displaced people] camps, so they will not receive humanitarian aid,” he said. “Between 40,000 and 50,000 Rohingyas – including women, children, the elderly and the disabled – have been forced to flee from the villages in Buthidaung and Maungdaw.”

Nay San Lwin said that the number of displaced was confirmed after speaking to Rohingyas from the villages by phone over the last three days.

Rohingya sources say the situation in Rakhine state has grown increasingly complex in recent weeks and that members of their ethnic community are being exploited and oppressed by both the military and the AA.

Rohingya activists estimate the Rohingya population of Buthidaung to be around 200,000 and of Maungdaw to be some 80,000, totaling nearly 300,000 people. Those who have fled since Monday account for nearly 15% of the Rohingya population in the two townships.

Warned to flee by AA

A Rohingya resident of Maungdaw township who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that his escape was prompted by warnings of impending clashes from the AA. 

"The AA told us that there would be a fight here, so we fled," he said, adding that the ethnic rebels advised seeking shelter in urban areas to avoid junta heavy artillery and airstrikes. “The AA didn’t attack us, they urged us to flee.”

Attempts to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha about the situation in the two townships went unanswered Thursday.

Destroyed homes in Wai Thar Li village, Rakhine state, Myanmar, May 7, 2024. (Citizen Journalist)

Armed conflict escalated in Maungdaw in May, and the Rohingya resident said that while the junta has bombarded the township, the pro-junta No. 5 Border Guard Police Force, based in Maungdaw’s Myo Thu Gyi village, has “opened fire every day.” 

A Rohingya from Buthidaung called the situation there “life-threatening.”

"We are not safe at all and have already been targeted in an airstrike,” he said. “I have fled with all of my family members from the conflict areas. People from six or seven villages have run away … Now we are facing difficulties getting food.”

He went on to say that Rohingyas from Maungdaw and Buthidaung had been unable to flee to urban areas and were forced to take shelter in nearby villages.

Ethnic Rakhines also at risk

Other residents told RFA that ethnic Rakhines have also been fleeing Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.

On Tuesday, RFA reported that junta troops and their pro-junta Rohingya militias set fire to nearly 50 houses in Maungdaw’s Shwe Yin Aye and Wai Thar Li villages from May 6-9. 

RFA was unable to reach Attorney General Hla Thein, the junta’s spokesperson for Rakhine state, for comment on the situation in Maungdaw and Buthidaung on Thursday.

In a message posted to the social media platform Telegram on Wednesday, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha accused the junta of forcibly recruiting Rohingya from camps for the displaced in neighboring Bangladesh, where nearly 1 million languish after fleeing ethnic violence in Rakhine state in recent years.

He also condemned insurgent groups the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Arakan Rohingya Army and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization for claiming that they had aligned with the AA to fight junta troops.

Fatima Khatun, a Rohingya survivor of a capsized refugee boat, cleans her temporary shelter in Meulaboh, Indonesia, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (Reza Saifullah/AP)

The same day, Rohingya refugees told RFA that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization had forcibly recruited “at least 500 people” for military service from camps for displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar between April 29 and May 8.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Arakan Rohingya Army and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization have not made any announcement about recruitment at the camps.

Residents of Rakhine state say that more than 2,000 Rohingyas have been forcibly taken for conscription from the capital Sittwe, and the townships of Kyaukphyu, Buthidaung and Maungdaw since February, when the junta announced it was implementing the military service law.

More than 166,000 people have fled their homes amid the conflict in Rakhine state, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The fighting began in November, when the AA ended a ceasefire agreement that had been in place with the military since it seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup d’etat.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Why the UAW is Winning Workers in the South

The UAW has been able to make gains in the south because of its new leadership and closer cooperation with VW workers in Germany.

BY STEPHEN J. SILVIA

MAY 9, 2024

The UAW succeeded on its third attempt to unionize the VW plant in Chattanooga, TN. (Image Credit: Harrison Keely)

Workers at two Mercedes plants near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will soon vote for the first time on whether they want to join a union.

Until recently, it would have been safe to presume that a majority of the 5,200 people eligible to participate in this election — scheduled to run May 13-17, 2024 — would reject this opportunity to join the United Auto Workers.

The UAW, which has about 150,000 members employed by Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, made eight failed attempts to unionize foreign-owned auto plants in the South over the past 35 years. Two of those drives aimed to organize the entire Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

But the third time the UAW tried to organize the VW plant, it prevailed, winning 73 percent of all ballots cast in an election held there in April.

I conduct research about organized labor in the United States and other countries. My most recent book, “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-owned Vehicle Plants,” highlights the big challenges workers and the UAW have long faced when trying to organize auto plants in the South. In my view, the union was finally able to succeed in Chattanooga because of its new leadership and closer cooperation with VW workers in Germany.


A Successful Model

As I explain in my book, one reason it took the UAW so long to score its first plantwide win was that an employer playbook for discouraging unionization had worked according to plan.

The automotive companies operating in the American South had largely located their plants in rural areas with little union membership. They screened out hires who might be sympathetic to unions and divided the workforce by using temp agencies to fill a significant share of positions. They deployed television monitors throughout the plant to run pro-company and anti-union messaging. And they donated lavishly to local churches, charities, and politicians to undercut local support for unionization.

At the same time, Southern political and business leaders sought to attract investment — especially from foreign-owned manufacturers — by offering massive subsidies, low taxes, lower labor costs, and a largely compliant workforce.

Southern autoworkers get paid less than their Northern peers and have, until now, had little say over what happens in their workplace.

This model succeeded. Today, roughly 30 percent of U.S. auto workers are in the South, up from around 15 percent in 1990.

Whenever the UAW has sought to unionize the industry throughout the region, the Southern political establishment, which the Republican Party dominates, has pushed back.

Most recently, six Southern GOP governors encapsulated that tradition in a joint letter shortly before the VW vote. In it, they denounced the UAW’s organizing drive as “special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.”

Strong Leadership

The UAW’s win in Tennessee suggests that this model has begun to break down. Three factors can explain why it may no longer work.

First, the election of Shawn Fain as UAW president in March 2023 marked a turning point. The charismatic electrician from Kokomo, Indiana, whom MotorTrend recently named “Man of the Year,” wasted no time shifting the UAW away from its prior accommodation with automakers.

Fain used forceful rhetoric and innovative tactics to score wins at the bargaining table throughout the UAW’s concurrent strikes at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis in the fall of 2023.

The new contracts that followed gave workers substantial pay and benefits increases and restored cost-of-living adjustments. Those deals also eliminated a two-tier wage structure that paid workers hired since 2007 significantly less for doing the same job than colleagues with more seniority.

By the end of 2023, the UAW had shown Southern autoworkers that it could deliver gains that their employers were unlikely to grant on their own. More autoworkers throughout the region became interested in joining the union as a result.
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New Organizing Approach

Second, the UAW revamped its approach to labor organizing.

Out went its top-down approach, led by union staffers who weren’t necessarily the most skilled at organizing. Under Fain’s leadership, the UAW hired Brian Shepherd — a proven organizer from the Service Employees International Union — to take charge.

Shepherd has empowered the automotive employees who were supportive of unionization to tailor the organizing drive to what they thought would work best.

For example, at the Mercedes plant, committed employees began to distribute union authorization cards far earlier than UAW had previously recommended, and it dispensed with visiting undecided workers at their homes because they thought that tactic would be counterproductive in the South.

Shepherd has hired professional organizers to back up his team, and he’s promoted the creation of much more highly structured networks within plants than the voluntary organizing committees the UAW had traditionally used.

These changes have paid off. More Southern workers have signed cards authorizing the UAW as their collective bargaining agent than ever before.

German Solidarity

Third, the UAW’s relationship with Volkswagen’s German works council leadership, which represents employees in the workplace, has dramatically improved. A works council is an elected body of employees anchored in German law that represents employee interests at the workplace and company levels. It is distinct from the German metalworkers union, IG Metall, which has always been supportive of unionization at German-owned auto plants in the American South.

Ties between the UAW and the works council were strained during the 2014 and 2019 organizing campaigns. But the works council leadership changed in 2021.

This time, the German works council intervened in several instances to soften VW management’s resistance to unionization and to urge Chattanooga employees to vote for the UAW.

Tougher Territory

Just because the UAW won by almost a 3-to-1 margin in Chattanooga doesn’t mean that victory at Mercedes in Alabama or elsewhere is a sure thing.

Both the Alabama political establishment and the factory’s management have fought this labor organizing campaign much harder at Mercedes than Volkswagen executives and Tennessee officials did ahead of the vote at the Chattanooga plant.

Forging a close relationship between Mercedes’ German works council and the UAW has proved elusive. On the other hand, a core of Mercedes Alabama employees has proved particularly adept at organizing. They set up a dense network in the plant based on “walkers” — that is, people whose jobs require them to move about the plant.

They have also summarized their circumstances with snappy lines that have gone viral. For example, longtime Mercedes employee Jeremy Kimbrell declared “We are going to end the Alabama discount” — a reference to the lower pay they receive compared to their peers in Michigan and other more established automotive manufacturing hubs.

Mercedes management in Alabama has also made a series of moves that have enraged and emboldened the workers at that plant. It let pay stagnate for many years and instituted a deeply unpopular two-tier wage structure in 2020, which management quickly undid last year after the UAW’s successful strikes.

Mercedes management judged the anti-union campaign to be going so badly that it fired the plant’s chief executive officer, Michael Göbel, and replaced him with the current vice president of operations, Federico Kochlowski, just two weeks before voting was set to begin.

Sacking an unpopular plant manager is a common union-avoidance tactic, much like firing the head coach of a poorly performing sports team to appease fans. VW did it in 2019.
An Outcome That’s Hard to Predict

The outcome of the vote at the Mercedes plant is harder to predict than it was for the Volkswagen factory because Mercedes has never had a union recognition election before. One thing is certain, however: The UAW’s organizing campaign is not ending there.

Fain has repeatedly declared that the UAW intends to get all U.S. autoworkers to join the union — potentially doubling the ranks of its members in the industry.

There are about a dozen more campaigns underway that could follow the vote at Mercedes. At least 30 percent of the workers at Toyota’s Missouri engine plant and Hyundai’s factory in Alabama have already embraced the UAW — a key first step toward a formal election.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

What’s behind the wave of recent incidents on Boeing planes?

Boeing has been under scrutiny since January 5, when a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines made an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out, somehow avoiding serious injuries in an incident that safety officials say could have been catastrophic.  — AFP pic

Friday, 10 May 2024 

NEW YORK, May 10 — Boeing has been in the headlines lately following a series of problems with its aircraft, with the most recent incidents in Turkiye and Senegal.

The episodes, which follow a near-disastrous panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines jet in January, point to production and maintenance issues, say experts, who don’t see an obvious pattern behind the myriad incidents.

Rash of incidents

The US plane maker has been under scrutiny since January 5, when a Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines made an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out, somehow avoiding serious injuries in an incident that safety officials say could have been catastrophic.

United Airlines has experienced recent issues on various flights involving Boeing planes, as has Southwest Airlines, which in early April had an engine fire on one flight.

Yesterday, a Boeing 737-300 skidded off a runway in Senegal, resulting in 11 injuries, including four that were serious.

That followed a Wednesday incident in Istanbul in which a Boeing 767 cargo plane belonging to FedEx landed on its nose after its front landing gear failed to deploy.

Such a confluence of incidents is “pretty rare” within air travel, said aviation expert Bertrand Vilmer, who described the myriad “abnormal” problems as reflecting “an alignment of unfavourable planets.”

Alternative causes

Aviation experts usually look to three possible explanations for problems.

There can be a design defect, as with the two fatal crashes on 737 MAX jets in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia that involved a flaw in a flight stabilising system.

Aviation watchers have pointed to a production defect as the likely source of the Alaska Airlines incident, which entailed a Boeing 737 MAX 9 that had only been delivered in October.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board published in February found that four bolts meant to help secure the panel that blew off were missing.

A third possible cause would be insufficient maintenance.

While design and production are the responsibility of the plane maker, the airline is in charge of keeping up the plane once it receives it.

“Once the aircraft is delivered, Boeing has nothing to do with it anymore” in relation to maintenance, said Richard Aboulafia of AeroDynamic Advisory.

Safest form of transport?

Notwithstanding the recent spate of incidents, aviation experts point to a strong safety record overall.

“We haven’t had a single casualty in the entire US airline industry in way over a decade, despite millions of people flown,” said Aboulafia. “That’s incredible.”

Aboulafia calls modern flying “the safest form of transport ever created by people,” noting that “everyday, hundreds of people get killed on the roads.”

Boeing’s rival, Airbus, has not been completely spared of difficulty. Hundreds of planes produced by the European company are being taken out of service to check for microscopic “contamination” of metals in engines made by Pratt & Whitney.

Airbus also had a public dispute with Qatar Airways involving the degradation of exterior plane surfaces.

But there have been fewer such issues at Airbus and not one incident that drew a comparable level of attention as Alaska Airlines, experts said.

“Every incident that has occurred on Boeing airplanes this year has made headlines, suggesting that Boeing airplanes are unsafe,” said a note from equity research firm Bernstein.

“The reality is that the number of incidents in the US on Airbus and Boeing airplanes so far this year is proportional to the number of airplanes in the fleets of US carriers.”

The US commercial fleet currently has about 4,800 planes, with about 60 per cent Boeing planes, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. 

— AFP 

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden's policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, and other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry.  

By Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow Washington Post

 

MAY 9, 2024 — 3:36PM

JABIN BOTSFORD, WASHINGTON POST

Former President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who is leading the Trump campaign’s development of its energy policy, at a rally in Laconia, N.H., on Jan. 22.

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As Donald Trump sat with some of the country's top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year.

Trump's response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Joe Biden's environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Giving $1 billion would be a "deal," Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people.

Trump's remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection bid. At the same time, he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda for a second term, including the rollbacks of some of Biden's signature achievements on clean energy and electric vehicles.

The contrast between the two candidates on climate policy could not be more stark. Biden has called global warming an "existential threat," and over the last three years, his administration has finalized 100 new environmental regulations aimed at cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, restricting toxic chemicals, and conserving public lands and waters. In comparison, Trump has called climate change a "hoax," and his administration weakened or wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and policies over four years.

In recent months, the Biden administration has raced to overturn Trump's environmental actions and issue new ones before the November election. So far, Biden officials have overturned 27 Trump actions affecting the fossil fuel industry and completed 23 new actions affecting the sector, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Interior Department, for instance, recently blocked future oil drilling across 13 million acres of the Alaskan Arctic.

Despite the oil industry's complaints about Biden's policies, the United States is now producing more oil than any country ever has, pumping nearly 13 million barrels per day on average last year. ExxonMobil and Chevron, the largest U.S. energy companies, reported their biggest annual profits in a decade last year.

Yet oil giants will see an even greater windfall — helped by new offshore drilling, speedier permits and other relaxed regulations — in a second Trump administration, the former president told the executives over the dinner of chopped steak at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump vowed at the dinner to immediately end the Biden administration's freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports — a top priority for the executives, according to three people present. "You'll get it on the first day," Trump said, according to the recollection of an attendee.

The roughly two dozen executives invited included Mike Sabel, the CEO and founder of Venture Global, and Jack Fusco, the CEO of Cheniere Energy, whose proposed projects would directly benefit from lifting the pause on new LNG exports. Other attendees came from companies including Chevron, Continental Resources, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, according to an attendance list obtained by the Post.

Trump told the executives that he would start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a priority that several of the executives raised. He railed against wind power, as the Post previously reported. And he said he would reverse the restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.

"You've been waiting on a permit for five years; you'll get it on Day 1," Trump told the executives, according to the recollection of the attendee.

At the dinner, Trump also promised that he would scrap Biden's "mandate" on electric vehicles — mischaracterizing ambitious rules that the Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized, according to people who attended. The rules require automakers to reduce emissions from car tailpipes, but they don't mandate a particular technology such as EVs. Trump called them "ridiculous" in the meeting with donors.

The fossil fuel industry has aggressively lobbied against the EPA's tailpipe rules, which could eat into demand for its petroleum products. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry trade group, has launched a seven-figure campaign against what it calls a de facto "gas car ban." The campaign includes ads in battleground states warning that the rule will restrict consumer choice.

"Clearly, if you are producing gasoline and diesel, you want to make sure that there's enough market there," said Stephen Brown, an energy consultant and a former lobbyist for Tesoro, an oil refining company. "I don't know that the oil industry would walk in united with a set of asks for the Trump administration, but I think it's important for this issue to get raised."

Although the repeal of the EPA rule would benefit the fossil fuel industry, it would probably anger the auto industry, which has invested billions of dollars in the transition away from gasoline-powered cars. Many automakers are under increasing pressure to sell more EVs in Europe, which has tightened its own tailpipe emissions rules, and they are eager to avoid a patchwork of regulations around the globe.

"Automakers need some degree of regulatory certainty from government," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota and other car companies.

"What has emerged instead is a wholesale repeal … and then reinstatement … and then repeal again of regulations every four or eight years," Bozzella said in an email.

Biden's EV policies have also sparked opposition in rural, Republican-led states such as North Dakota, where there are far more oil pump jacks than charging stations. A key figure leading the Trump campaign's development of its energy policy is Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has been talking extensively to oil donors and CEOs.

At a fundraiser on Saturday in Palm Beach, Fla., Burgum told donors that Trump would halt Biden's "attack" on fossil fuels, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by the Post.

"What would be the No. 1 thing that President Trump could do on Day 1? It's stop the hostile attack against all American energy, and I mean all," Burgum said. "Whether it's baseload electricity, whether it's oil, whether it's gas, whether it's ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels."

Burgum also criticized the Biden administration's policies on gas stoves and vehicles with internal combustion engines, falsely claiming that they would prevent consumers from buying both technologies.

"They've got some liberal idea about what products we need," Burgum said. "You all need EV cars. You don't need internal combustion. We'll decide what kind of car you're going to drive, and we're going to regulate the other ones out of business. I mean, it's just in every industry, not just in cars, not just in energy. They're telling people what stoves you can buy. This is not America."

While the Energy Department recently set new efficiency standards for gas stoves, they would not affect the stoves in people's kitchens or those currently on the market. The Biden campaign declined to comment for this story.

Burgum has pushed harder to address climate change than many other Republicans, setting a goal in 2021 for North Dakota — the third-largest oil-producing state — to become carbon-neutral by 2030. He has stressed, however, that the goal won't be achieved via government mandates or the elimination of fossil fuels.

Burgum's approach to climate policy makes him an unusual messenger for Trump, who has falsely called global warming a hoax invented by China. But many oil executives view Burgum — a possible contender to lead the Energy Department in a second Trump term — as sympathetic to their concerns, and he has cultivated deep support among oil donors.

Despite Trump's huge fundraising ask, oil donors and their allies have yet to donate hundreds of millions to his campaign. They have contributed more than $6.4 million to Trump's joint fundraising committee in the first three months of this year, according to an analysis by the advocacy group Climate Power. Oil billionaire Harold Hamm and others are scheduling a fundraiser for Trump later this year, advisers said, where they expect large checks to flow to his bid to return to office.

One person involved in the industry said many oil executives wanted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or another Republican to challenge Biden. But now that Trump is the nominee, this person said, they are going to embrace his policies and give.

Dan Eberhart, chief executive of the oil-field services company Canary and a Trump donor, said the Republican onslaught of donations was not surprising.

"Biden constantly throws a wet blanket to the oil and gas industry," Eberhart said. "Trump's 'drill baby drill' philosophy aligns much better with the oil patch than Biden's green-energy approach. It's a no-brainer."

Alex Witt, a senior adviser for oil and gas with Climate Power, said Trump's promise is he will do whatever the oil industry wants if they support him. With Trump, Witt said, "everything has a price."

"They got a great return on their investment during Trump's first term, and Trump is making it crystal clear that they're in for an even bigger payout if he's reelected," she said.

John Muyskens contributed to this report.