True security threat or more political obfuscation? Are all other Apps safe?

https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/06/trump_administration_bans_chinese_apps/

Trump administration bans eight Chinese apps

United States president Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning the use of eight Chinese apps, namely Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay, and WPS Office.

The executive order says the apps “threaten national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States” because China can track users’ devices.

Another year end wrap-up. More reasons to hate 2020.

https://www.mofo.com/resources/insights/210104-data-breach-litigation-2020.html

Privacy Litigation 2020 Year in Review: Data Breach Litigation

Add a 270% increase in data breaches to the long list of unprecedented challenges in 2020. Cybersecurity is on the short list of major risks facing companies. And when a security incident happens, class actions often follow. Although data breach class actions are not new, we continue to see increases in the number of cases filed, evolving theories from plaintiffs’ counsel, and the development of settlement templates in these cases.

Perspective.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015779/what-buddhism-can-do-ai-ethics/

What Buddhism can do for AI ethics

… Many groups have discussed and proposed ethical guidelines for how AI should be developed or deployed: IEEE, a global professional organization for engineers, has issued a 280-page document on the subject (to which I contributed), and the European Union has published its own framework. The AI Ethics Guidelines Global Inventory has compiled more than 160 such guidelines from around the world.

… Because the development and use of AI spans the entire globe, the way we think about it should be informed by all the major intellectual traditions.

With that in mind, I believe that insights derived from Buddhist teaching could benefit anyone working on AI ethics anywhere in the world, and not only in traditionally Buddhist cultures (which are mostly in the East and primarily in Southeast Asia).

A future strategy?

https://www.wired.com/story/us-needs-more-foreign-artificial-intelligence-know-how/

The US Needs More Foreign Artificial Intelligence Know-How

Jason Furman, a top economic adviser to President Obama, says good ideas come from everywhere—but Trump has dissuaded tech workers from coming to the US.

… Furman served as deputy director of the National Economic Council before becoming chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. He also coauthored a report issued by the Obama administration in October 2016 that detailed the economic importance of AI to the US.

Furman, who is now a professor of the practice of economic policy at Harvard, spoke to WIRED senior writer Will Knight. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Reading…

https://pando.com/2021/01/05/why-we-must-democratize-AI-invest-human-prosperity-with-Frank-Pasquale/

Why we must democratize AI to invest in human prosperity, with Frank Pasquale

Four years ago, Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, catalyzed a debate over algorithmic and corporate power with the publication of his highly acclaimed and highly critical book, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money.

… Pasquale’s new book, New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI, takes a profoundly different approach towards challenging the status quo.

… The following is an edited version of a conversation between Evan Selinger, Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Frank Pasquale.

Evan: What are your new laws of robotics?

Frank: They can be stated simply. First, robotic systems and AI should complement professionals, not replace them. Second, they should not counterfeit humanity. Third, they should not intensify zero-sum arms races. And fourth, they must always indicate the identity of their creators, controllers, and owners.

More reading… (and listen to the podcast)

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/05/953515627/facial-recognition-and-beyond-journalist-ventures-inside-chinas-surveillance-sta

Facial Recognition And Beyond: Journalist Ventures Inside China's 'Surveillance State'

… German journalist Kai Strittmatter speaks fluent Mandarin and has studied China for more than 30 years. He says it's not clear whether or not the Chinese government is capable of using facial recognition software in the way it claims. But he adds, on a certain level, the veracity of the claim isn't important.

"It doesn't even matter whether it's true or not, as long as people believe it," he says. "What the Communist Party is doing with all this high-tech surveillance technology now is they're trying to internalize control. ... Once you believe it's true, it's like you don't even need the policemen at the corner anymore, because you're becoming your own policeman."

Strittmatter's new book, We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State, examines the role of surveillance in China's authoritarian state. He warns that Chinese President Xi Jinping, who came to power in 2012, has embraced an ideological rigidity unknown since the days of Mao Zedong.

This is true, so far.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/01/what-ai-can-and-cannot-do-intelligence-community/171195/

What AI Can and Cannot Do for the Intelligence Community

A seasoned intelligence professional can be forgiven for raising her eyebrows about artificial intelligence, a nascent and booming field in which it can be hard to sort real potential from hype. Addressing that raised eyebrow — and helping senior leaders understand how to invest precious time and money — will take more than vague generalities and myopic case studies. We therefore offer a hypothesis for debate: AI, specifically machine learning, can help with tasks related to collection, processing, and analysis — half of the Steps in the Intelligence Cycle — but will struggle with tasks related to intelligence planning, dissemination, and evaluation.

A whole new field.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/how-covid-19-has-accelerated-the-shift-towards-tradetech/

How COVID-19 accelerated the shift towards TradeTech

… The emerging solution to manage the challenges of both COVID-19 and techno-nationalism are coming from a burgeoning new field called TradeTech. The dynamics of the development in this field are captured in the new World Economic Forum report, ‘Mapping TradeTech: Trade in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’.

… The importance of digital trade has also been outlined in a 2019 paper published by the McKinsey Global Institute titled Globalization in transition: The future of trade and value chains.

Perspective. With air travel down due to Covid, I imagine they got these planes cheap!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-05/amazon-makes-first-aircraft-purchase-to-expand-delivery-network

Amazon Makes First Aircraft Purchase to Expand Cargo Network

Amazon.com Inc. is buying 11 used Boeing 767-300 planes, the first time the online retail giant has purchased, rather than leased, aircraft for its fast-growing air cargo operation.

The company on Tuesday said it was buying seven aircraft from Delta Air Lines Inc. and four from WestJet Airlines Ltd. The WestJet aircraft are currently being converted from passenger to cargo use and will join Amazon’s fleet this year. The Delta jets will start flying routes in 2022. By the end of next year, Amazon expects to have more than 85 planes in service, a spokesperson said.

 Imagine parallels in other countries…

https://www.bespacific.com/crs-russian-cyber-units/

CRS – Russian Cyber Units

CRS In Focus – Russian Cyber Units, January 4, 2021: “Russia has deployed sophisticated cyber capabilities to conduct disinformation, propaganda, espionage, and destructive cyberattacks globally. To conduct these operations, Russia maintains numerous units overseen by its various security and intelligence agencies. Russia’s security agencies compete with each other and often conduct similar operations on the same targets, making specific attribution and motivation assessments difficult. Congress may be interested in the various Russian agencies, units, and their attributes to better understand why and how Russia conducts cyber operations.”

Surveillance creep. “We can, therefore we must!”

https://www.engadget.com/singapore-tracetogether-police-225552941.html

Singapore police can access data from the country's contract tracing app

With a nearly 80 percent uptake among the country’s population, Singapore’s TraceTogether app is one of the best examples of what a successful centralized contact tracing effort can look like as countries across the world struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic. To date, more than 4.2 million people in Singapore have download the app or obtained the wearable the government has offered to people.

… In an update the government made to the platform’s privacy policy on Monday, it added a paragraph about how police can use data collected through the platform. “TraceTogether data may be used in circumstances where citizen safety and security is or has been affected,” the new paragraph states. “Authorized Police officers may invoke Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) powers to request users to upload their TraceTogether data for criminal investigations.”

In case them thar furriners come up with an idea worth stealing...

https://www.bespacific.com/maximizing-the-index-to-foreign-legal-periodicals-in-all-law/

Maximizing the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals In All Law

A free webinar on the IFLP on January 13, 2021. It’s open to AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) and non-AALL members, but you must register: Wednesday, January 13, 2021 (12pm – 1pm ET). There will be a post at the IALL (International Association of Law Libraries) website for more information. See also these two HeinOnline Blog posts: Discover the Power of AALL’s Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals and Tips from the Experts for Using the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals. (via Lyonette Louis-Jacques, University of Chicago Law School)

One way to explain your security…

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/customer-data-security-5-pillars-to-keep-customer-information-safe/

Customer Data Security: 5 Pillars To Keep Customer Information Safe

It is crucial to taking the right precautions when it comes to data management. Today’s world of big data and mass collection of consumer information has resulted in a significant rise in cybercrime. Consumers now look for a deeper level of trust when it comes to internet security.

Oh, right… Analytical purposes. Remember that Ethical Hacking students.

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-web-scraping-tools/

The Best Web Scraping Tools Online

Need to collect data from websites for analytical purposes? These web scraping tools make it easy.

Forecasts to guide your 2021 planning?

https://threatpost.com/2021-cybersecurity-trends/162629/

2021 Cybersecurity Trends: Bigger Budgets, Endpoint Emphasis and Cloud

Insider threats are redefined in 2021, the work-from-home trend will continue define the threat landscape and mobile endpoints become the attack vector of choice, according 2021 forecasts.

After shrinking in 2020, cybersecurity budgets in 2021 climb higher than pre-pandemic limits. Authentication, cloud data protection and application monitoring will top the list of CISO budget and cybersecurity priorities. According to experts, these are just a few of the themes to dominate the year ahead.

Here is round-robin of expert opinions illuminating the year ahead.

Looking for new lawyers because the old ones couldn’t answer these questions?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3601991/5-questions-cisos-should-ask-prospective-corporate-lawyers.html#tk.rss_all

5 questions CISOs should ask prospective corporate lawyers

Where can you find an attorney with the knowledge and insight to help you navigate thorny privacy and security issues? These five questions will help you find the right match.

Now fix all those databases that came before the math.

https://www.bespacific.com/differential-privacy/

Differential Privacy

Harvard University Privacy Tools Project – “…Differential privacy is a rigorous mathematical definition of privacy. In the simplest setting, consider an algorithm that analyzes a dataset and computes statistics about it (such as the data’s mean, variance, median, mode, etc.). Such an algorithm is said to be differentially private if by looking at the output, one cannot tell whether any individual’s data was included in the original dataset or not. In other words, the guarantee of a differentially private algorithm is that its behavior hardly changes when a single individual joins or leaves the dataset — anything the algorithm might output on a database containing some individual’s information is almost as likely to have come from a database without that individual’s information. Most notably, this guarantee holds for any individual and any dataset. Therefore, regardless of how eccentric any single individual’s details are, and regardless of the details of anyone else in the database, the guarantee of differential privacy still holds. This gives a formal guarantee that individual-level information about participants in the database is not leaked. The definition of differential privacy emerged from a long line of work applying algorithmic ideas to the study of privacy (Dinur and Nissim `03; Dwork and Nissim `04; Blum, Dwork, McSherry, and Nissim `05 ), culminating with work of Dwork, McSherry, Nissim, and Smith `06. See our educational materials for more detail about the formal definition of differential privacy and its semantic guarantees…”

My car hates me?

https://www.pogowasright.org/insecure-wheels-police-turn-to-car-data-to-destroy-suspects-alibis/

Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects’ alibis

Olivia Solon reports:

On June 26, 2017, the lifeless body of Ronald French, a bearded auto mechanic with once-twinkling eyes, was mysteriously found in a cornfield in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

French, a grandfather of eight who always tried to help people “down on their luck,” his daughter Ronda Hamilton told NBC affiliate WOOD of Kalamazoo, had disappeared three weeks before. According to the police report, a cord had been wrapped around his neck, his face and his feet. He had been dragged behind a vehicle so forcefully that he had abrasions along his back, and his skull had been partly flattened. The medical examiner attributed French’s death to “homicidal violence.” But then his grieving family heard nothing about arrests.

Read more on NBC.

There’s really nothing shocking or new about this. PogoWasRight.org started reporting on the issues and concerns back in 2010 (search this site for “black box” and “EDR” to find about four dozen other stories over the years. But it’s something that seems needs to be repeated for new generations of drivers or car owners. And of course, it remains something that needs to be addressed in the context of surveillance. If law enforcement can use my car’s recording system to get evidence against me, do they need a warrant? What if someone else is driving my car? Do they then have no expectation of privacy in car recordings? There’s still a lot to unpack….

It might have been cheaper to stuff 100 Rupee notes into everyone mouth… But then, no politicians are sane.

https://thenextweb.com/in/2021/01/04/indias-misguided-internet-shutdowns-cost-the-country-2-7b-in-2020/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+%28The+Next+Web+All+Stories%29

India’s misguided internet shutdowns cost the country $2.7B in 2020

… According to a new report by Top10VPN — a site that tracks VPN and privacy tools –India lost nearly $2.7 billion due to internet shutdowns in 2020 — more than the combined total of the next 10 countries in the chart. India was also stayed offline for longer than any other country, at 8,927 hours last year. As per internetshutdowns.in — a site that tracks internet blockages in India — the country had 83 shutdowns in 2020.

But can the AI testify in its own defense?

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fd9190bb-21e5-460e-87a4-143034e12e49

When AI goes wrong, how will the courts determine why?

When decisions made by artificial intelligence (AI) are challenged, the court may need to determine the knowledge or intention which underlay such decisions. The UK Supreme Court is confident that these types of challenge can be met; 'the court is well versed in identifying the governing mind of a corporation and, when the need arises, will no doubt be able to do the same for robots' Warner-Lambert Co Ltd v Generics (UK) Ltd [2018] UKSC 56, at [165] - but as yet the issue has not arisen in UK courts so we do not know what approach will be taken.

Some guidance may be gleaned from the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), and subsequently Singapore Court of Appeal, which, in B2C2 Ltd v Quoine Pte Ltd [2019] SGHC(I) 03 and [2020] SGCA(I) 02, considered knowledge and intention in the context of ‘deterministic’ AI (where the AI simply follows pre-programmed instructions) and held that it is the programmer’s knowledge that counts. However, that may not be an appropriate approach where the decision was made by machine learning (ML). ML learns and improves from examples without all its instructions being explicitly programmed so the programmer’s intention or knowledge before the ML was deployed may only help so far. The nature of ML and the difficulty, or impossibility, of understanding how the decision was made – the ‘black box’ problem – means there may only be limited benefit of hindsight.

This article looks at the approach taken in B2C2, identifies areas which mean it may not be appropriate where the decision is taken by ML, and explains how the risk of litigation emphasises the importance of explainable ML.

...only if this has never, ever happened before. So now that excuse is gone!

https://www.bespacific.com/google-docs-versus-microsoft-word-attorneys-blame-technical-incompatibilities-for-late-filing/

Google Docs versus Microsoft Word: Attorneys blame ‘technical incompatibilities’ for late filing

ZDNet – “…The American legal system runs on deadlines. As one practicing attorney wrote in an official publication for the American Bar Association, “[M]issing any filing deadline is a lawyer’s worst nightmare.” That’s especially true if you’re representing the plaintiffs in an “Emergency Complaint For Expedited Declaratory And Emergency Injunctive Relief” involving the United States Presidential election before a Federal District Court. For those keeping score at home, that’s two Emergencies and one Expedited in a single motion. All of which makes this weekend’s filing from the plaintiffs’ legal team in Gohmert v. Pence particularly eye-catching:

Plaintiffs’ Unopposed Motion to File Responsive Brief Late – Come now the Plaintiffs, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-1), Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jake Hoffman, Anthony Kern, James R. Lamon, Sam Moorhead, Robert Montgomery, Loraine Pellegrino, Greg Safsten, Kelli Ward, and Michael Ward, by and through their undersigned counsel, and request that this Court allow Plaintiffs to file their responsive brief one hour late. In support thereof, Plaintiffs state: Plaintiffs have employed a team of lawyers to prepare their responsive brief. During the course of preparation, Plaintiffs’ counsel have encountered numerous technical incompatibilities in the software versions between Google Docs and Microsoft Word resulting in editing difficulties and text problems. WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs request an extension of one hour of the deadline for filing their responsive brief. [emphasis added]

I read that and had to rub my eyes and reread it about five more times to make sure I was really seeing a Federal court filing in which the attorneys for a sitting member of the United States Congress, suing the Vice President of the United States, told a Federal District Court that they needed a one-hour extension because they were having trouble getting Google Docs and Microsoft Word to play nicely together…”

For people who don’t love to read, but think they should?

https://www.makeuseof.com/read-more-books-develop-habit-of-reading/

5 Ways to Read More Books and Develop a Habit of Reading Regularly

I like lists, but not in slide format…

https://www.bespacific.com/the-best-free-software-for-your-pc-2/

The best free software for your PC

PC World – Start off right with solid security tools, productivity software, and other programs that every PC needs.

An eye on the competition, but look who is number one…

https://successfulstudent.org/best-online-artificial-intelligence-degrees/

BEST ONLINE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DEGREES FOR 2021

… This college ranking is for students wanting an online degree in Artificial Intelligence. It is an up-to-date list of all online degrees currently available. This list includes online Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

We determined this degree ranking by extensive research into online degree programs. All schools are accredited, degree-granting universities.

A data security topic.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Dataset-Security-for-Machine-Learning%3A-Data-and-Goldblum-Tsipras/88632a39208793485754aa23fa41179e2dbdec8e

Dataset Security for Machine Learning: Data Poisoning, Backdoor Attacks, and Defenses

As machine learning systems grow in scale, so do their training data requirements, forcing practitioners to automate and outsource the curation of training data in order to achieve state-of-the-art performance. The absence of trustworthy human supervision over the data collection process exposes organizations to security vulnerabilities; training data can be manipulated to control and degrade the downstream behaviors of learned models. The goal of this work is to systematically categorize and discuss a wide range of dataset vulnerabilities and exploits, approaches for defending against these threats, and an array of open problems in this space. In addition to describing various poisoning and backdoor threat models and the relationships among them, we develop their unified taxonomy.

(Related)

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Assessing-Information-Quality-in-IoT-Forensics%3A-and-Costantini-Galvan/62882ba549e63d64835cc659f3040b62dc84395b

Assessing Information Quality in IoT Forensics: Theoretical Framework and Model Implementation

IoT technologies pose serious challenges to digital Forensics. The acquisition of digital evidence is hindered by the number and extreme variety of IoT items, often lacking physical interfaces, connected in unprotected networks, feeding data to uncontrolled cloud services. In this paper we address “Information Quality” in IoT Forensics, taking into account diferent levels of complexity

… After drawing a theoretical framework on data quality and information quality, we focus on forensic analysis challenges in IoT environments, providing a use case of evidence collection for investigative purposes. At the end, we propose a formal framework for assessing information quality of IoT devices for Forensics analysis.

For my Data Governance students.

https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/19710/three-2021-trends-in-data-governance-for-firms-to-bolster-digital-transformation-and-sustain

Three 2021 trends in data governance, for firms, to bolster digital transformation and sustain

… Three principles and associated formalized dimensions that Financial services can focus on -

1. Formalizing Data Collection from customers & third parties

2. Increased data awareness & Literacy

3. Data distribution Management

For my techie-lawyer friends.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09695958.2020.1857765

Unlocking the potential of AI for English law

This paper discusses how digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) reshape the work of lawyers and the organisations that they work for. We overview how AI is being used in legal services, and identify three distinct impacts: AI substitutes automatable legal tasks; AI enhances productivity of lawyers giving advice on the basis of AI-generated outputs; and legal expertise itself augments the deployment of AI when lawyers work as part of a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) encompassing a range of relevant professional expertise. Our survey of English solicitors shows that AI deployment is associated with MDTs, and that MDTs are less prevalent in law firms than in corporations. This latter finding is due to challenges that law firms face as mono-professional partnerships. We find evidence from our interviews that their challenges lie not so much in capital constraints, relaxed via alternative business structures in the UK, but in traditional law firms’ inability to recruit and retain talent other than those in the legal profession. Inadequate adaption is occurring in law firms shifting their structure from a funnel shape to a rocket shape with junior lawyers in partnership tournament working alongside a growing number of non-lawyers whose career paths offer no prospect of partnership.

Before we let them loose...

https://journal.fi/ta/article/view/101300

Ethical issues in the use of artificial intelligence in military command, especially in the use of deadly autonomous weapon systems

The ethics of warfare and military leadership must pay attention to the rapidly increasing use of artificial intelligence and machines. Who is responsible for the decisions made by a machine? Do machines make decisions? May they make them? These issues are of particular interest in the context of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). Are they autonomous or just automated? Do they violate the international humanitarian law which requires that humans must always be responsible for the use of lethal force and for the assessment that civilian casualties are proportionate to the military goals?

… The article’s argument is that the question of responsibility is most naturally perceived by abandoning the most controversial philosophical considerations and simply stating that an individual or a group of people is always responsible for the creation of the equipment they produce and use.

(Related)

https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/auhfd/issue/58829/848714

AN EXPERIMENT ON THE LEGAL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF ROBOTS

Roman law did not grant rights to slaves (D. 4.5.3.1: “Servile caput nullum ius habet”). In the legal system in question, slaves were considered as things that can be included in the property of free people (res). However, because they are human beings, they are kept separate from other things that can be included in their property. When the situation of the slaves in Roman law is examined in detail, it can be seen that their situation is similar to the robots we believe will be a part of our lives in the near future. The slave can be defined as a kind of emotional commodity that can think and make decisions by itself. The same features will be seen in the robots of our future. In other words, it is possible to evaluate robots as technological relatives of slaves in terms of their legal status. All this information If there is a legal regulation for robots, it leads to the conclusion that this regulation can easily be taken from Roman law. In this study, we gave detailed information about the concepts of slaves and robots in order to enlighten why robots and slaves can be considered in the same status. After defining and analyzing the concepts of robot and artificial intelligence in detail, we examined the situation of slaves and compared them and discussed the legal responsibility of robots. Then, we evaluated the criminal liability of robots under the title of punishing artificial intelligence and shared our ideas on this issue. After defining and analyzing the concepts of robot and artificial intelligence in detail, we examined the situation of slaves and compared them and discussed the legal responsibility of robots. Then, we evaluated the criminal liability of robots under the title of punishing artificial intelligence and shared our ideas on this issue.

(Related)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0265964620300503

The Advent of Artificial Intelligence in Space Activities: New Legal Challenges

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the ability of a computer or a robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings – represents both a new challenge and a significant opportunity for the future of space activities. Indeed, increasing connectivity and symbiotic interactions between humans and intelligent machines raise significant questions for the rule of law and contemporary ethics, including the applicable rules relating to liability in case of damage arising from advanced AI. AI also encompasses a series of complex issues that cut across social, economic, public policy, technological, legal, ethical and national security boundaries. The development of AI-based autonomous systems is equally relevant in the context of military operations and on the battlefield, particularly with the use of drones and, more controversially, Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems. After outlining the legal and ethical challenges posed by this technology, this article focuses on AI systems for space operations that give rise to questions about how these interact with existing legal concepts and technical standards. This article also describes how space law is relevant and applicable to AI use in the context of space missions. The specific attributes of autonomous space systems may also require further consideration as to the traditional application of the authorization of space missions, the international responsibility of States and the liability regime in case of damage. As a precursor to more detailed research in the future, this article seeks to introduce some of the more significant legal issues that AI-driven automated processes might pose for space operations.

Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but since it is already in my local library it might be worth a read.

https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-the-power-of-ethics-susan-liautaud-simon-and-schuster-163058320.html

Hitting the Books: What do we want our AI-powered future to look like?

Ethical decision making must be a cornerstone of the coming robot revolution.

Once the shining city on a hill that the rest of the world looked to for leadership and guidance, America’s moral high ground has steadily eroded in recent decades — and rapidly accelerated since Trump’s corrupt, self-dealing tenure in the White House began. Our corporations, and the technologies they develop, are certainly no better. Amazon treats its workers like indentured servants at best, Facebook algorithms actively promotes genocide overseas and fascism here in the States, and Google doesn’t even try to live up to its own maxim of “don’t be evil” anymore.

In her upcoming book, The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World, Susan Liautaud, Chair of Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science, lays out an ambitious four-step plan to recalibrate our skewed moral compass illustrating how effective ethical decision making can be used to counter damage done by those in power and create a better, fairer and more equitable world for everyone.

and as alarm grows, does the potential for retaliation grow as well? “Generals always fight the last war”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/us/politics/russian-hacking-government.html

As Understanding of Russian Hacking Grows, So Does Alarm

On Election Day, General Paul M. Nakasone, the nation’s top cyberwarrior, reported that the battle against Russian interference in the presidential campaign had posted major successes and exposed the other side’s online weapons, tools and tradecraft.

“We’ve broadened our operations and feel very good where we’re at right now,” he told journalists.

Eight weeks later, General Nakasone and other American officials responsible for cybersecurity are now consumed by what they missed for at least nine months: a hacking, now believed to have affected upward of 250 federal agencies and businesses, that Russia aimed not at the election system but at the rest of the United States government and many large American corporations.

Three weeks after the intrusion came to light, American officials are still trying to understand whether what the Russians pulled off was simply an espionage operation inside the systems of the American bureaucracy or something more sinister, inserting “backdoor” access into government agencies, major corporations, the electric grid and laboratories developing and transporting new generations of nuclear weapons.

At a minimum it has set off alarms about the vulnerability of government and private sector networks in the United States to attack and raised questions about how and why the nation’s cyberdefenses failed so spectacularly.

Learn from the mistakes of others or become an “other” yourself.

https://syncedreview.com/2021/01/01/2020-in-review-10-ai-failures/

2020 in Review: 10 AI Failures

The global artificial intelligence market is expected to top US$40 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.39 percent, according to Market Insight Reports. AI’s remarkable achievements and continuing rapid expansion into new domains are undeniable. However, as with most nascent technologies, there are still bugs to work out.

This is the fourth Synced year-end compilation of “Artificial Intelligence Failures.” Our aim is not to shame nor downplay AI research, but to look at where and how it has gone awry with the hope that we can create better AI systems in the future.

(Related) Learn how to inform your clients before someone else does it for you.

https://www.databreaches.net/__trashed-3/

ROMWE’s press release reflects an abundance of …. something, but not caution.

This week, I drafted a commentary mocking ROMWE’s for claiming that they were notifying their consumers about a breach out of “an abundance of caution.” Then I decided to try to be nice, and I trashed it.

Yesterday, Marco de Felice wrote a piece about the breach that shows that it was even worse than ROMWE admitted to. Not only does he dispute their claim about the breach only impacting some consumers’ “usernames and passwords” by pointing out that the breach impacted more than 7.3 million customers, but he also points out that he had found some data from the breach on the dark web as early as February 2020 — months before ROMWE discovered it after other data appeared on a popular forum.

Read SuspectFile’s report on this breach. I’ve asked him how and where he found the earlier data dump, so there may be an update to this post.

Perspective. Yes, it’s a thing, but this is not a particularly useful Infographic.

https://insidebigdata.com/2021/01/01/infographic-the-rise-of-no-code-development-platforms/

Infographic: The Rise of No-Code Development Platforms

Our friends over at Saas Platform company in Ireland called TeamKonnect have developed new infographic called “The Rise of No-Code Development Platforms” which is provided below. This infographic is a 101 guide to No-Code Development Platforms. Rising in popularity in the last decade, these platforms offer an exciting opportunity for businesses and organizations to develop apps that meet their needs without the engagement of software engineers. Due to the lack of tech knowledge needed, it’s no wonder that Gartner projects that by 2025, 65% of all app development will be done on No-Code Development Platforms!

Because research?

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-open-access-journal-sites/

The 8 Best Open Access Journal Sites for Students

The Ethical Hacker’s dilemma.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-01-02

Good riddance to 2020! I agree with Mr Peabody.

https://theweek.com/articles/957946/5-cartoons-about-end-bad-year

5 cartoons about the end of a very, very bad year

What we think, what we know and what we think we know...

https://www.itproportal.com/features/fiction-vs-reality-the-true-potential-of-ai/

Fiction vs. reality: The true potential of AI

The roots of artificial intelligence (AI) in popular culture and science fiction run deep. The concept has been used in films, television and books to cause panic and laughter or to highlight how the world might one day be overrun by technology. Unsurprisingly, such a framing of AI hasn’t encouraged positive development of the technology and has by no means depicted it accurately. In fact, the proliferation of AI technology in popular culture has skewed public perception of the technology’s applications and capabilities.

To understand this further, O’Reilly recently conducted research into consumer opinion of AI, including how consumers would like to see the technology applied. Notably, the research gave AI-creators insight into how and where consumers believe AI plays a role in their day-to-day lives.

The results highlighted a distinct disconnect. So we ask, is science fiction and popular culture to blame?

Covid or poor time management?

https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2020/12/30/lawyer-blames-covid-for-missed-deadline-dividing-an-appellate-panel/

Lawyer Blames COVID for Missed Deadline—Dividing an Appellate Panel

Some appellate justices disagreed with colleagues, and would have reinstated a woman's appeal even though the litigant's attorney's work-from-home arrangement during the pandemic made him miss the deadline to file the client's appeal.

SciFi is my favorite genre.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/12/future-tense-fiction-2020-roundup.html

12 Short Sci-Fi Stories to Make You Think Hard About the Future

When the present is scary, the future can be virtually unthinkable. But it’s at times of great change and uncertainty—and 2020 surely qualifies—that it is most important to try to look ahead, to think about how decisions made right now can reverberate.

… Each story comes with a response essay in which an expert—like a technologist, a scientist, a journalist, or a researcher—responds to the real-world themes, bringing even the most fantastical imagined tomorrow down to earth.

… Below, you’ll find links to each story, accompanied by its response essay.

“The Truth Is All There Is,” by Emily Parker

“Trust No One. Not Even a Blockchain.,” by Jill Carlson

“It Came From Cruden Farm,” by Max Barry

“Why Would the Government Lie About Aliens?” by Sarah Scoles

“Paciente Cero,” by Juan Villoro

“How China Turns Trash Into Wealth,” by Adam Minter

“Daffodil’s Baby,” by Alyssa Virker

“What’s Missing From Conversations About Designer Babies,” by David Plotz

“Scar Tissue,” by Tobias S. Buckell

“When the Robot You Consider Family Tries to Sell You Something,” by John Frank Weaver

“The Last of the Goggled Barskys,” by Joey Siara

“How Not to Optimize Parenthood,” by Brigid Schulte

“Legal Salvage,” by Holli Mintzer

“How Can an A.I. Develop Taste?” by Kate Compton

“How to Pay Reparations: a Documentary,” by Tochi Onyebuchi

“Racism Cannot Be Reduced to Mere Computation,” by Charlton McIlwain

“The State Machine,” by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

“Under the Gaze of Big Mother,” by S.B. Divya

“The Suicide of Our Troubles,” by Karl Schroeder

“When Nature Speaks for Itself,” by Anna V. Smith

“Dream Soft, Dream Big,” by Hal Y. Zhang

“Can We Convince the Sleeping Brain to Process Our Problems?” by Kristin E.G. Sanders

“The Vastation”” by Paul Theroux

“Who Do Health Care Workers Owe Their Ultimate Loyalty to in a Pandemic?? by Allison Bond