The Daily Princetonian: October 3, 2019

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Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Thursday October 3, 2019 vol. CXLIII no. 81

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ON CAMPUS

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Former Obama, Clinton pollster Joel Benenson talks campaign strategy, interpreting polling data By Evelyn Doskoch Contributor

EVELYN DOSKOCH / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Pollster Joel Benenson (left) and Professor of History and Public Affairs Julian Zelizer (right) talk politics in the Friend Center. ON CAMPUS

On Wednesday, Oct. 2, awardwinning Democratic pollster Joel Benenson, who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns, gave University students a glimpse into the inner workings of a prominent political operation. At the event, titled “What the Press and Pundits Get Wrong: Reading the Electorate,” Benenson discussed what he sees as common errors in political strategy and misinterpretations of polling data. He also discussed his past experiences working with high-profile political candidates. Benenson consulted for Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign, and New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s 2018 successful re-election campaign. His firm currently advises presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Israeli Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz. At the event, held in the Friend Center, Benenson was joined by

CNN political analyst and Wilson School professor Julian Zelizer. Benenson has been named “Pollster of the Year” by the American Association of Political Consultants and is the founder and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, a nationwide consulting firm. He was invited to the Woodrow Wilson School as the Conor D. Reilly Distinguished Visitor in Leadership and Governance. Much of the talk centered on the challenges faced by campaign strategists, namely how to appeal to voters and respond to critics. Topics included Obama’s historic presidential campaign, the source of Clinton’s downfall in 2016, and the political dynamics that have characterized President Trump’s tumultuous tenure in office. In particular, Benenson made the distinction between “horse race” questions, which simply ask voters who they will vote for, and “more pertinent questions” about policy and the electorate itself. Many political analysts and pollsters, he said, are too focused on the “horse race.” “The job of a pollster isn’t just See BENENSON page 3

ON CAMPUS

U. faculty George, Singer discuss brain death with other professors Contributor

Months after Jahi McMath, a young California resident, was declared brain dead, she could clearly respond to instructions to move certain parts of her body. Medically ambiguous cases such as Jahi’s were the subject of a public discussion, which raised questions of what it really means to be dead, held on Wednesday. The seminar, moderated by Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of Princeton’s James Madison Program, featured D. Alan Shewmon, professor emeritus of neurology and pediatrics at UC Los Angeles; Patrick Lee, profes-

sor of philosophy and bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville; and Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics professor, spoke at the seminar. George began by offering a brief history of the controversial practice of organ removal in brain dead patients before introducing the ethical question of whether it should ever be done. “Should we abandon the dead donor rule and accept the idea that it’s morally acceptable for certain reasons, such as transplanting organs and saving lives of other people, to harvest organs from living but devastated individuals, or should we stick to the dead donor rule out of See BRAIN page 3

ALBERT JIANG / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Gen. John R. Allen (left) and Professor Edward Felten (right) discuss artificial intelligence

Gen. Allen and Prof. Felten discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence By Albert Jiang Staff Writer

U . A F FA I R S

U. signs agreement with India’s largest renewable energy producer By Ngan Chiem Contributor

The University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), and the top independent renewable energy producer in India, ReNew Power, have agreed to combine resources for future collaboration in the field of renewable energy. As part of the New Jersey division chosen by the economic development group ChooseNJ, Coleen Burrus,

In Opinion

director of the University’s Corporate Engagement and Foundation Relations team, along with representatives from Rutgers University, Rowan University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and New Jersey City University, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IITD and ReNew Power on Sept. 16 in Delhi, India. In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Burrus wrote, that “the MOU … is a first step in initiating a dialogue that See ENERGY page 3

Contributing columnist Richard Ma appreciates the tranquility which writing brings him advises others to find a similar liberating outlet, and managing editor Samuel Aftel criticizes the social exclusivity and cruelty that defines Greek life and Bicker on campus.

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“There are two components to the idea of conflict,” said Gen. John R. Allen (ret.), president of the Brookings Institution, in his opening remarks. “The nature of war and the character of war.” “They exist in equilibrium,” he explained. Technology, which Allen identified with the character of war, helps achieve the best efficiency, outcome, and capability of the military, but often, “the technology outstrips the capacity of the human dimension” — the nature of war. Therein lies the practical and ethical challenges when dealing with artificial intelligence (AI), which were explored and discussed in the lecture “AI on the Battlefield: Ethics and Rules of Engagement,” held in the Maeder Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, Oct. 2, as part of the G. S. Beckwith Gilbert ’63 Lecture

Series. Edward W. Felten, professor of computer science and public affairs, moderated the talk. Felten held previous posts as the Chief Technologist for the Federal Trade Commission and the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer under the Obama White House. Allen is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. Felten described how there has been a huge commercial interest and huge amounts of commercial research in AI. For once, he said, “the military is not in the driver’s seat of the basic development of technology here.” The reason for this, Allen explained, is because the nature of the technology is not clear. The “outer edges,” he said, are not fully understood, even among experts within the field. His main concern, how-

Today on Campus 4:00 p.m.: Hamilton Colloquium Series: “Magic Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene”McCosh Hall 50 Jadwin Hall A10

ever, isn’t the fact that technology is changing but the “mind-boggling” rate at which that change is occuring. As such, it is crucial that the private sector — in relation to civil society, and thus, the military — to fully understand the process of resource development and deployment of capabilities when it comes to artificial technology. Allen stressed the importance of applying this technology with the highest level of ethics we are capable of. “This is a capability that has the capacity for great good,” he said, but also can be “applied with great destructiveness.” Even so, the enormous benefits of AI are not lost on him. The supercomputing capabilities in society today has allowed for big data analytics, which would not have been remotely possible in the past. Allen cited his own experiences in Afghanistan as See AI page 2

WEATHER

By Caitlin Limestahl

HIGH

60˚

LOW

58˚

Showers chance of rain:

80 percent


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