Saturday, May 06, 2023

If the data is there, why ignore it? Would this be like searching car registrations when you had part of the plate number?

https://www.greeleytribune.com/2023/05/05/google-reverse-keyword-search-warrant-colorado-supreme-court-arguments/

Colorado Supreme Court hears first-of-its-kind challenge to police’s use of Google search terms to ID murder suspects

The Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday grappled with privacy and freedom of speech concerns as the justices heard a legal challenge to a controversial new law enforcement technique that Denver police used to identify the three teenagers accused of killing five people in a house fire three years ago.

The groundbreaking legal case considers for the first time in Colorado — and, attorneys said, nationally — whether police can legally issue search warrants that require Google to turn over account information for any users who searched particular keywords in a particular time frame.

Such “reverse keyword search warrants require Google to scan through potentially billions of search histories in order to find the keywords sought by law enforcement. Attorneys challenging the warrant said during oral arguments Thursday that the massive scope amounts to an illegal search that violates Google users’ constitutional protections for free speech and against unreasonable searches. Attorneys for Denver District Attorney Beth McCann argued it is an acceptable investigative tool that doesn’t violate constitutional rights or privacy rights.

The keyword warrant here made Google search everybody who searched for anything over the course of more than two weeks,” said Michael Price, an attorney with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers who argued against the use of the warrant.

Technology allows us to conduct a directed and targeted search for the information we are looking for,” said Katherine Hansen, senior deputy district attorney in the Denver DA’s office.

A Denver police detective relied on one such reverse keyword search warrant to identify the three teenagers now accused of setting a Green Valley Ranch house fire in August 2020 that killed five members of a single family, including a toddler and infant.





In case you thought this kind of stuff was over…

https://www.databreaches.net/san-bernardino-county-pays-1-1m-ransom-after-cyberattack-disrupts-sheriffs-department-systems/

San Bernardino County pays $1.1M ransom after cyberattack disrupts Sheriff’s Department systems

KABC reports an update to an attack disclosed last month:

San Bernardino County paid a $1.1 million ransom to hackers who infiltrated the Sheriff’s Department computers, officials acknowledged Friday.

Last month, the department admitted a hack encrypted many of its files, disrupting systems and blocking access to data.

County officials told ABC News on Friday that the county carries insurance for such attacks and its share of the ransom came out to just over $511,000.

Read more at KABC.





Contrast with our fear of AI. (Move fast and break things?)

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3219623/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-urges-country-seize-opportunities-artificial-intelligence-modernise

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urges country to seize opportunities in artificial intelligence to modernise industry

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of developing China’s ability in artificial intelligence (AI) for the second time in less than a fortnight, as the Sino-US tech race in AI and semiconductors ratchets up.

During a key economic meeting on Friday, Xi said China should leverage its abilities in AI to help modernisation of the country’s industrial system, state news Xinhua reported.

Xi said China should seize opportunities presented by new scientific and technological breakthroughs, such as AI, to build a “holistic, advanced, and harm-free” modern industrial system. The remarks were made during a meeting of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs.

It was the second time in recent weeks that Xi has emphasised the development of AI. His comments come amid ongoing US moves to slow China’s development of AI by restricting China-bound exports of advanced semiconductors such as CPUs and GPUs, which are vital for training sophisticated AI models.



(Related)

https://singularityhub.com/2023/05/05/a-note-from-ray-kurzweil-on-the-recent-call-to-pause-work-on-ai-more-powerful-than-gpt-4/

A Note From Ray Kurzweil on the Recent Call to Pause Work on AI More Powerful Than GPT-4

Regarding the open letter to “pause” research on AI “more powerful than GPT-4,” this criterion is too vague to be practical. And the proposal faces a serious coordination problem: those that agree to a pause may fall far behind corporations or nations that disagree. There are tremendous benefits to advancing AI in critical fields such as medicine and health, education, pursuit of renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels, and scores of other fields. I didn’t sign, because I believe we can address the signers’ safety concerns in a more tailored way that doesn’t compromise these vital lines of research.





Tools & Techniques.

https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-to-use-chatgpt-without-openai-account/

4 Ways to Use ChatGPT Without an OpenAI Account

While ChatGPT is undoubtedly a powerful tool, there are privacy concerns surrounding the platform. Understandably, this is a dissuasive argument that may lead you to avoid ChatGPT. But there are alternative ways to use the tool. Here, we take a look at some of the ways you can use ChatGPT without an OpenAI account.



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