All I need is a good chop shop an I’m in business. (Digital hotwiring)

https://thehackernews.com/2022/10/european-police-arrest-gang-that-hacked.html

European Police Arrest a Gang That Hacked Wireless Key Fobs to Steal Cars

Law enforcement authorities in France, in collaboration with Spain and Latvia, have disrupted a cybercrime ring that leveraged a hacking tool to steal cars without having to use a physical key fob.

"The criminals targeted vehicles with keyless entry and start systems, exploiting the technology to get into the car and drive away," Europol said in a press statement.

It’s the thought that counts.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/10/qatar-spyware.html

Qatar Spyware

Everyone visiting Qatar for the World Cup needs to install spyware on their phone.

Everyone traveling to Qatar during the football World Cup will be asked to download two apps called Ehteraz and Hayya.

Briefly, Ehteraz is an covid-19 tracking app, while Hayya is an official World Cup app used to keep track of match tickets and to access the free Metro in Qatar.

In particular, the covid-19 app Ehteraz asks for access to several rights on your mobile., like access to read, delete or change all content on the phone, as well as access to connect to WiFi and Bluetooth, override other apps and prevent the phone from switching off to sleep mode.

The Ehteraz app, which everyone over 18 coming to Qatar must download, also gets a number of other accesses such as an overview of your exact location, the ability to make direct calls via your phone and the ability to disable your screen lock.

The Hayya app does not ask for as much, but also has a number of critical aspects. Among other things, the app asks for access to share your personal information with almost no restrictions. In addition, the Hayya app provides access to determine the phone’s exact location, prevent the device from going into sleep mode, and view the phone’s network connections.

Despite what the article says, I don’t know how mandatory this actually is. I know people who visited Saudi Arabia when that country had a similarly sketchy app requirement. Some of them just didn’t bother downloading the apps, and were never asked about it at the border.

Imagine similar laws not limited to abortion issues.

https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2022/10/17/new-california-laws-enhance-reproductive-health-privacy-protections/

New California Laws Enhance Reproductive Health Privacy Protections

On September 27, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a pair of bills designed to prevent medical information and other data held by California entities from being used in out-of-state abortion prosecutions.

The first bill, AB 2091, prohibits health care providers from releasing, in response to out-of-state subpoenas, requests, or to law enforcement, medical information related to an individual seeking or obtaining an abortion. AB 2091 applies if the requesting entity or individual seeks to interfere with the person’s rights under California’s Reproductive Privacy Act, and does not prevent the disclosure of information for medical purposes.

The second bill, AB 1242, prohibits law enforcement and California corporations from sharing information related to a lawful abortion with out-of-state entities. The office of the California Attorney General explained that AB 1242 would block other states from obtaining cell tower data from California companies to track women traveling to California to seek an abortion. In addition, the bill would prevent out-of-state agencies from serving California companies with a search warrant to procure individual users’ data, unless the investigators attest that the evidence is not related to an inquiry into abortion services.

Do you look your age? In addition to age verification the video should be enough to create ‘deep fakes’ of the user.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/13/instagram-expands-ai-powered-age-verification-program-to-india-and-brazil/

Instagram expands AI-powered age verification program to India and Brazil

Instagram, facing scrutiny from safety advocates, started testing a program in the U.S. earlier this year to verify users’ age of those claiming to be 18 or older. It uses techniques including authentication via running video selfies through an artificial intelligence system. The Meta-owned service is now ready to roll out this program to two key overseas markets: India and Brazil.

These countries together have about 400 million monthly active users on Instagram, according to market intelligence platform Sensor Tower, data of which an industry executive shared with TechCrunch. The social network said in an updated blog post that it plans to roll out this age verification program to the U.K. and EU before the end of the year.

Users can verify their age by providing an ID. Instagram has a list of documents it accepts for verification.

Perspective.

https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2023

Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2023

Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2023 comprise trends that we expect to impact enterprise strategies in the coming three years by enabling organizations to address four key priorities:

Optimizing resilience, operations or trust

Scaling vertical solutions, product delivery or everywhere

Pioneering customer engagement, accelerated responses or opportunity

Pursuing sustainable technology solutions

Download now: Your Detailed Guide to Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends 2023

(Related)

https://venturebeat.com/ai/deloitte-state-of-ai-report-2022-calls-out-underachievers/

Deloitte State of AI Report 2022 calls out underachievers

Deloitte released the fifth edition of its State of AI in the Enterprise research report today, which surveyed more than 2,600 global executives on how businesses and industries are deploying and scaling artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

Most notably, the Deloitte report found that while AI continues to move tantalizingly closer to the core of the enterprise – 94% of business leaders agree that AI is critical to success over the next five years – for some, outcomes seem to be lagging.

Download now: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/state-of-ai-2022.html

Could be an interesting hack…

https://www.bespacific.com/game-changing-aba-approved-online-law-schools-make-becoming-a-lawyer-easier-and-more-affordable/

Game-Changing ABA-Approved Online Law Schools Make Becoming a Lawyer Easier and More Affordable

Jaen, Ulysses and Miller, Rebekah, The Future of Legal Education: Game-Changing ABA-Approved Online Law Schools Make Becoming a Lawyer Easier and More Affordable (April 30, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4234790 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4234790

“As the ABA allows law schools to implement a distance education program for legal education, opportunities for potential lawyers will grow due to numerous factors, including lower costs and more versatility of when and how they complete their education. This group of future lawyers will be better able to serve their local communities because they can remain at home rather than moving away for three years to go to law school, which allows them to remain more active in their community and in touch with the legal needs of their neighbors and city. Further, these lawyers will be better off financially post-graduation because their legal education will cost less due to the distance aspect and their living expenses will cost less due to remaining at home versus moving away. Thus, they will be better able to focus on the why of practicing law versus the need for income to pay off debt weighing more important than anything else. “

A field for discussion. What must be disclosed?

https://www.databreaches.net/a-data-breach-is-bad-but-disclosing-too-much-could-be-worse/

A Data Breach Is Bad, But Disclosing Too Much Could be Worse

Adam Stone reports:

When state and local IT systems get breached, there’s a balancing act to be struck. How much can and should the public be told?

Some advocates of transparency and accountability say anything that happens in the public realm ought to be public knowledge. On the opposite extreme, some IT leaders worry that anything they disclose can and will be used against them by the bad actors: Better to say little or even nothing about a cyber incident.

Some are ready to codify the latter view. Recent legislation passed in Georgia, for example, puts limits on what government has to share about cybersecurity incidents. It provides for “certain information, data and reports related to cybersecurity and cyber attacks to be exempt from public disclosure and inspection.” That’s vague, and possibly ominous: state legislatures telling IT leaders what they can and can’t say about a breach.

Read more at Governing.

Backgrounder…

https://www.bespacific.com/data-protection-and-privacylaw-an-introduction/

Data Protection and PrivacyLaw: An Introduction

CRS in Focus – Data Protection and PrivacyLaw: An Introduction, Updated October 12, 2022 – “Recent controversy surrounding how third parties protect the privacy of individuals in the digital age has raised national concerns over legal protections of Americans’ electronic data. The current legislative paradigms governing cybersecurity and data privacy are complex and technical and lack uniformity at the federal level. This InFocus provides an introduction to data protection laws and an overview of considerations for Congress. (For a more detailed analysis, see CRS Report R45631, Data Protection Law: An Overview, by Stephen P. Mulligan, Wilson C. Freeman, and Chris D. Linebaugh.)

Is this an example of AI gone wild or is the algorithm much simpler and managers are using it as an excuse to raise rents?

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

Rent Going Up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why.

Texas-based RealPage’s YieldStar software helps landlords set prices for apartments across the U.S. With rents soaring, critics are concerned that the company’s proprietary algorithm is hurting competition.

See? Cops have all the fun software!

https://www.databreaches.net/feds-ex-louisville-police-officer-used-law-enforcement-tech-to-help-hack-sexually-explicit-photos-from-women/

Feds: Ex Louisville Police Officer Used Law Enforcement Tech To Help Hack Sexually Explicit Photos From Women

Josh Wood reports:

A former Louisville Metro Police Department officer used law enforcement technology as part of a scheme that involved hacking the Snapchat accounts of young women and using sexually explicit photos and videos they had taken to extort them, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed on Tuesday.

According to a sentencing memorandum, Bryan Wilson used his law enforcement access to Accurint, a powerful data-combing software used by police departments to assist in investigations, to obtain information about potential victims. He would then share that information with a hacker, who would hack into private Snapchat accounts to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos.

Read more at LEO Weekly.

Will this lead others to rebel?

https://www.pogowasright.org/dont-spy-on-a-privacy-lab-and-other-career-advice-for-university-provosts/

“Don’t spy on a privacy lab” (and other career advice for university provosts)

Cory Doctorow writes:

This is a wild and hopeful story: grad students at Northeastern successfully pushed back against invasive digital surveillance in their workplace, through solidarity, fearlessness, and the bright light of publicity. It’s a tale of hand-to-hand, victorious combat with the “shitty technology adoption curve.”

What’s the “shitty tech adoption curve?” It’s the process by which oppressive technologies are normalized and spread. If you want to do something awful with tech – say, spy on people with a camera 24/7 – you need to start with the people who have the least social capital, the people whose objections are easily silenced or overridden.

Read more at Pluralistic.net.

(Related) Pay for the privilege of being spied on?

https://www.pogowasright.org/tour-amazons-dream-home-where-every-appliance-is-also-a-spy/

Tour Amazon’s dream home, where every appliance is also a spy

Geoffrey A. Fowler reports:

You may not realize all the ways Amazon is watching you.

No other Big Tech company reaches deeper into domestic life. Two-thirds of Americans who shop on Amazon own at least one of its smart gadgets, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Amazon now makes (or has acquired) more than two dozen types of domestic devices and services, from the garage to the bathroom.

Read more at The Washington Post.

You look guilty!

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-13952-9_4

Facial Recognition for Preventive Purposes: The Human Rights Implications of Detecting Emotions in Public Spaces

Police departments are increasingly relying on surveillance technologies to tackle public security issues in smart cities. Automated facial recognition is deployed in public spaces for real-time identification of suspects and warranted individuals. In some cases, law enforcement is going even further by exploiting also emotion recognition technologies. In preventive operations indeed, emotion facial recognition (EFR) is being used to infer individuals’ inner affective states from traits like facial muscle movements. In this way, law enforcement aims to obtain insightful hints on unknown persons acting suspiciously in public or strategic venues (e.g. train stations, airports). While the employment of such tools still seems to be relegated to dystopian scenarios, it is already a reality in some parts of the world. Hence, there emerges a need to explore their compatibility with the European human rights framework. The Chapter undertakes this task and examines whether and how EFR can be considered compliant with the rights to privacy and data protection, the freedom of thought and the presumption of innocence.

All faces are famous?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4243000

The Right of Publicity: A New Framework for Regulating Facial Recognition

In this article, I develop a novel theory for how ROP claims could apply to FR systems and detail how their history and development, both statutory and common law, demonstrate their power to impose liability on entities that conduct mass image and identity appropriation, especially through innovative visual technologies. This provides a robust framework for FR regulation while at the same time balancing issues of informed consent and various public interest concerns, such as compatibility with copyright law and First Amendment-protected news reporting.

What happens when they turn the “ethics dial” down? (No quarter)

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1181102

Ethics-The Key to Operationalizing AI-Enabled Autonomous Weapons

The so-called killer robots have arrived, and artificial intelligence-enabled autonomous weapons stand to be a prominent feature of future war. Against a backdrop of international competitor development of these systems overlaid against international and multinational corporate concern, the National Security Commission on AIs Final Report judges that these types of unmanned weapons can and should be used in ways consistent with international humanitarian law by applying the conditions of human-authorized use and proper design and testing. AI-enabled autonomy and its military applications carry with it the foundational risks in these technologies, and their use in unmanned weapons further challenges militaries seeking legal use within the frameworks of international humanitarian law and Just War Theory. Ethics therefore provides the superior conceptual vehicle to appoint and empower human authorizers and users and to qualitatively establish what constitutes proper design and testing. Each of the seven AI worker archetypes established by the DoDs Campaign for an AI Ready Force should apply role-relevant, AI-related ethics to fully realize the conditions established in the Final Report and retain and support the humanity necessary to control the monopoly on violence. The need for ethics education individually and collectively permeates each of the archetypes, and the DoD must recognize the value of publicprivate partnerships to fully account for these conditions.

Age makes little difference?

https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.01369

Understanding Older Adults' Perceptions and Challenges in Using AI-enabled Everyday Technologies

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled everyday technologies could help address age-related challenges like physical impairments and cognitive decline. While recent research studied older adults' experiences with specific AI-enabled products (e.g., conversational agents and assistive robots), it remains unknown how older adults perceive and experience current AI-enabled everyday technologies in general, which could impact their adoption of future AI-enabled products. We conducted a survey study (N=41) and semi-structured interviews (N=15) with older adults to understand their experiences and perceptions of AI. We found that older adults were enthusiastic about learning and using AI-enabled products, but they lacked learning avenues. Additionally, they worried when AI-enabled products outwitted their expectations, intruded on their privacy, or impacted their decision-making skills. Therefore, they held mixed views towards AI-enabled products such as AI, an aid, or an adversary. We conclude with design recommendations that make older adults feel inclusive, secure, and in control of their interactions with AI-enabled products.

A start?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4238951

A Proposal for a Definition of General Purpose Artificial Intelligence Systems

The European Union (EU) is in the middle of comprehensively regulating artificial intelligence (AI) through an effort known as the AI Act. Within the vast spectrum of issues under the Act’s aegis, the treatment of technologies classified as general purpose AI systems (GPAIS) merits special consideration. Particularly, existing proposals to define GPAIS do not provide sufficient guidance to distinguish these systems from those designed to perform specific tasks, denominated as fixed-purpose. Thus, our working paper has three objectives. First, to highlight the variance and ambiguity in the interpretation of GPAIS in the literature. Second, to examine the dimensions of generality of purpose available to define GPAIS. Lastly, it proposes a functional definition of the term that facilitates its governance within the EU. Our intention with this piece is to spark a discussion that improves the hard and soft law efforts to mitigate these systems’ risks and protect the well-being and future of constituencies in the EU and globally.

So sue the AI!

http://jlr.sdil.ac.ir/article_153656_a4cb53f744bd047adeb18b7d671f1346.pdf?lang=en

Civil Liability of the User in Using the Artificial Intelligence System in the Car

Although self-deriving vehicles can be considered a revolution in the transportation industry, this new technology, which is based on artificial intelligence, in addition to its high efficiency, also creates challenges for the current system of civil liability, and since Accidents will always be an integral part of vehicles, so it is important to create a new liability plan that outlines the legal obligations of potential litigants. The present study, with a descriptive-analytical approach and a comparative view on the issue of civil liability of self-driving car users, concludes that unlike conventional vehicles, which traditionally immediately introduces the driver immediately responsible for road accidents, self-driving cars based on AI It allows the car to move even in the complete absence of a human factor, and also in the presence of the user - except in special cases - he is considered a passenger of the car, so in practice the discussion of guilt due to lack of participation in control A vehicle that can enable the user to change its behavior is ruled out, and as a result the current view is inconsistent with the structure of these vehicles, and the traditional rules must be redefined, and until then the principle must be the responsibility of the manufacturer The car compensated for the damage and considered the user's responsibility in this regard exceptional.

Perspective.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63228466

AI tools fail to reduce recruitment bias - study

"There is growing interest in new ways of solving problems such as interview bias," the Cambridge University researchers say, in the journal Philosophy and Technology

The use of AI is becoming widespread - but its analysis of candidate videos or applications is "pseudoscience".

… "These tools can't be trained to only identify job-related characteristics and strip out gender and race from the hiring process, because the kinds of attributes we think are essential for being a good employee are inherently bound up with gender and race," she said. [Some jobs must have attributes like “White” and “Male?” Bob]

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.bespacific.com/review-haikubox/

Review: Haikubox

Wired – “This AI-enabled device can identify the species around your home by their songs and alert you when new ones arrive. For bird watchers, being able to identify birds by their song is the holy grail. Some people seem to be naturals, hearing a song once and remembering it forever. If you’re like me—not one of those people—you’ve probably had the thought, “Why isn’t there a Shazam for birds?” Surely if Shazam can identify a song with a few seconds of bad audio playing over some blown-out speakers, someone can figure out how to do the same for a bird singing clearly in a nearby tree. That, in a nutshell, is what the creators of the Haikubox have done—created the Shazam of birdsong. That in itself is welcome and remarkable, but the Haikubox turns out to be much more than that. It’s one of the rare pieces of technology that actually increases your connection to the world around you, rather than cutting you off…”

An argument with no basis?

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/clientside_scanning_csam_anderson/

Scanning phones to detect child abuse evidence is harmful, 'magical' thinking

Laws in the UK and Europe have been proposed that would give authorities the power to undermine strong end-to-end encryption in the pursuit of, in their minds, justice.

If adopted, these rules would – according to a top British computer security expert – authorize the reading and analysis of people's previously private communication for the sake of potentially preventing the spread of child sex abuse material and terrorism communications.

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the UK's University of Cambridge, argues that these proposed regulations – which, frankly, rely on technical solutions such as device-side message scanning and crime-hunting machine-learning algorithms in place of police, social workers, and teachers – lead to magical thinking and unsound policies.

In a paper titled Chat Control or Child Protection?, to be distributed via ArXiv, Anderson offers a rebuttal to arguments advanced in July by UK government cyber and intelligence experts Ian Levy, technical director of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, and Crispin Robinson, technical director of cryptanalysis at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK's equivalent to the NSA.

That pro-snoop paper, penned by Levy and Robinson and titled Thoughts on Child Safety on Commodity Platforms, was referenced on Monday by EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, before the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee in support of the EU Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (2022/0155), according to Anderson.

Podcast.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/computers-vs-crime/

Computers v. Crime

In police departments and courts across the country, artificial intelligence is being used to help decide who is policed, who gets bail, how offenders should be sentenced, and who gets parole. But is it actually making our law enforcement and court systems fairer and more just? This timely investigation digs into the hidden biases, privacy risks, and design flaws of this controversial technology.

Perspective.

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/secs-gary-gensler-how-artificial-intelligence-changing-finance

SEC’s Gary Gensler on how artificial intelligence is changing finance

… “I think that we’re living in a truly transformational time,” said Gensler, who spoke at the recent  AI Policy Forum summit at MIT. Artificial intelligence is “every bit as transformational as the internet,” especially when it comes to predictive data analytics, “but it comes with some risks.”

During the conversation, Gensler shared his thoughts on how artificial intelligence is changing finance. Here are four of his takeaways:

Translating technical terms for managers…

https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-10-13

A problem in the short term only.

https://slate.com/technology/2022/10/artificial-intelligence-superintelligence-gullibility.html

The Real Threat From A.I. Isn’t Superintelligence. It’s Gullibility.

… Don’t worry about superintelligent A.I.s trying to enslave us; worry about ignorant and venal A.I.s designed to squeeze every penny of online ad revenue out of us.

And worry about police agencies that gullibly think A.I.s can anticipate crimes before they occur—when in reality all they do is perpetuate harmful stereotypes about minorities.

The reality is that no A.I. could ever harm us unless we explicitly provide it the opportunity to do so—yet we seem hellbent on putting unqualified A.I.s in powerful decision-making positions where they could do exactly that.

What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkgma8/police-are-using-dna-to-generate-3d-images-of-suspects-theyve-never-seen

Police Are Using DNA to Generate 3D Images of Suspects They've Never Seen

On Tuesday, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) shared a computer generated image of a suspect they created with DNA phenotyping, which it used for the first time in hopes of identifying a suspect from a 2019 sexual assault case. Using DNA evidence from the case, a company called Parabon NanoLabs created the image of a young Black man. The composite image did not factor in the suspect’s age, BMI, or environmental factors, such as facial hair, tattoos, and scars. The EPS then released this image to the public, both on its website and on social media platforms including its Twitter, claiming it to be “a last resort after all investigative avenues have been exhausted.”

The laws creative AI should know.

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/key-rules-and-cases-patent-practitioners-working-ai-patent-applications

Key Rules and Cases for Patent Practitioners Working on AI Patent Applications

On September 22, 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) directed patent practitioners to current case law and sections of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) as reminders as the patent practitioners continue to work in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology space. A summary of these reminders (and links to more information) are provided herein.

Tools & Techniques. (Because I have no artistic talent…)

https://beebom.com/best-ai-text-to-image-art-generators/

12 Best AI Art Generators You Should Use (Free & Paid)

(Related)

https://www.makeuseof.com/ai-art-generators-things-you-can-create/

5 Things You Can Create With AI Art Generators

Should lawyers be trusted with technology?

https://www.bespacific.com/do-we-need-more-technologies-in-courts-mapping-concerns-for-legal-technologies-in-courts/

Do We Need More Technologies in Courts? Mapping Concerns for Legal Technologies in Courts

Barysė, Dovilė, Do We Need More Technologies in Courts? Mapping Concerns for Legal Technologies in Courts (September 6, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4218897 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4218897

“Courts use progressively more technologies, and there is no consensus on how much and what technologies would benefit or harm courts and in what ways. The analysis of the variety of concerns in law is gaining momentum. However, there is little data on lawyers’ beliefs and attitudes toward technologies in courts. In this study, practicing lawyers and researchers from three countries were interviewed to map their main concerns for technologies in courts. Thematic analysis was conducted. The main reasons for skepticism toward technologies in courts are based on the lack of knowledge, research, and regulation. The primary concerns involve specific properties of technologies, effects on human decision-making, issues in the legal system, lack of research, advantages and disadvantages in access, equality, effectiveness, and fairness, and the “human factor”. The latter includes the need for human interaction, flexible decision-making, and perceived fairness. More focus on humans in human-automation interaction is needed.”

Resources.

https://www.bespacific.com/a-list-of-text-only-news-sites-updated-2022/

A List Of Text-Only News Sites (Updated 2022)

Greycoder: “Text-only websites are quite useful, especially today. Web pages are increasingly filled with ads, videos, and bandwidth-heavy content. Here is a list of text-only, clutter-free news sites:

Tools & Techniques. (I’m still trying to predict next week)

https://www.openculture.com/2022/10/how-to-predict-what-the-world-will-look-like-in-2122-insights-from-futurist-peter-schwartz.html

How to Predict What the World Will Look Like in 2122: Insights from Futurist Peter Schwartz

“It’s very easy to imagine how things go wrong,” says futurist Peter Schwartz in the video above. “It’s much harder to imagine how things go right.” So he demonstrated a quarter-century ago with the Wired magazine cover story he co-wrote with Peter Leyden, “The Long Boom.” Made in the now techno-utopian-seeming year of 1997, its predictions of “25 years of prosperity, freedom, and a better environment for a whole world” have since become objects of ridicule. But in the piece Schwartz and Leyden also provide a set of less-desirable alternative scenarios whose details — a new Cold War between the U.S. and China, climate change-related disruptions in the food supply, an “uncontrollable plague” — look rather more prescient in retrospect.

The intelligent futurist, in Schwartz’s view, aims not to get everything right. “It’s almost impossible. But you test your decisions against multiple scenarios, so you make sure you don’t get it wrong in the scenarios that actually occur.” The art of “scenario planning,” as Schwartz calls it, requires a fairly deep rootedness in the past.

Tools & Techniques. (Has potential but need work)

https://www.bespacific.com/consensus-evidence-based-answers-faster/

Consensus – Evidence-Based Answers, Faster

Consensus: “Consensus only searches through peer-reviewed scientific research to find the most credible insights to your queries. We recommend asking questions related to topics that have likely been studied by scientists. Consensus has subject matter coverage that ranges from medical research and physics to social sciences and economics. Consensus is NOT meant to be used to ask questions about basic facts such as: “How many people live in Europe?” or “When is the next leap year?” as there would likely not be research dedicated to investigating these subjects..”

I must be misinterpreting some of this...

https://www.insideprivacy.com/european-union-2/the-digital-markets-act-for-privacy-professionals/

The Digital Markets Act for Privacy Professionals

This post is the first of a series of blog posts about the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”), which was adopted on July 18, 2022, and it deals specifically with those provisions of the DMA that are relevant to organizations’ privacy programs.

The DMA sets out the following obligations and restrictions on gatekeepers that are relevant to compliance with privacy rules:

1. it restricts the GDPR legal bases gatekeepers may rely on to process personal data in certain cases;

2. it prohibits the processing of certain data generated or received from other businesses or their end users for the purpose of competing with other businesses;

3. it requires the sharing of end users’ personal data with businesses operating on a gatekeeper’s platform, and with advertising companies the gatekeeper works with, at their request;

4. it requires gatekeepers to port end users’ data at their request; and

5. it requires gatekeepers to share independently audited information about profiling techniques with the European Commission.

Below we explain these obligations and prohibitions in more detail.

Is this too unique to set a useful precedent?

https://nltimes.nl/2022/10/09/dutch-employee-fired-us-firm-shutting-webcam-awarded-eu75000-court

Dutch employee fired by U.S. firm for shutting off webcam awarded €75,000 in court

… He worked for the American firm for over a year and a half, but on 23 August he was ordered to take part in a virtual training period called a "Corrective Action Program." He was told that during the period he would have to remain logged in for the entire workday with screen-sharing turned on and his webcam activated.

The telemarketing worker replied back two days later, “I don't feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. that's the reason why my camera isn't on. You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.” He was summarily fired on 26 August, for “refusal to work” and “insubordination.”

I admit I know very little about crypto…

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-cryptocurrency-podcasts/

The 5 Best Podcasts to Learn More About Cryptocurrency

Any poorly defined goal can lead to processes optimized poorly.

https://philpapers.org/rec/EDIAAT-3

AI and the Law: Can Legal Systems Help Us Maximize Paperclips while Minimizing Deaths?

This Chapter provides a short undergraduate introduction to ethical and philosophical complexities surrounding the law’s attempt (or lack thereof) to regulate artificial intelligence. Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed a simple thought experiment known as the paperclip maximizer. What would happen if a machine (the “PCM”) were given the sole goal of manufacturing as many paperclips as possible? It might learn how to transact money, source metal, or even build factories. The machine might also eventually realize that humans pose a threat. Humans could turn the machine off at any point, and then it wouldn’t be able to make as many paperclips as possible! Taken to the logical extreme, the result is quite grim—the PCM might even start using humans as raw material for paperclips. The predicament only deepens once we realize that Bostrom’s thought experiment overlooks a key player. The PCM and algorithms like it do not arise spontaneously (at least, not yet). Most likely, some corporation—say, Office Corp.—designed, owns, and runs the PCM. The more paperclips the PCM manufactures, the more profits Office Corp. makes, even if that entails converting some humans (but preferably not customers!) into raw materials. Less dramatically, Office Corp. may also make more money when PCM engages in other socially sub-optimal behaviors that would otherwise violate the law, like money laundering, sourcing materials from endangered habitats, manipulating the market for steel, or colluding with competitors over prices. The consequences are predictable and dire. If Office Corp. isn’t held responsible, it will not stop with the PCM. Office Corp. would have every incentive to develop more maximizers—say for papers, pencils, and protractors. This chapter issues a challenge for tech ethicists, social ontologists, and legal theorists: How can the law help mitigate algorithmic harms without overly compromising the potential that AI has to make us all healthier, wealthier, and wiser? The answer is far from straightforward.

We want to protect our children in the worst way…

https://reason.com/2022/10/06/a-california-law-designed-to-protect-childrens-digital-privacy-could-lead-to-invasive-age-verification/

A California Law Designed To Protect Children's Digital Privacy Could Lead to Invasive Age Verification

While the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was hailed as a victory for digital privacy, critics warn of a litany of unintended consequences.

The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was signed last month by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). The law requires that online businesses create robust privacy protections for users under 18.

However, critics of the law have raised concerns about its vague language, which leaves unclear what kinds of business might be subject to the law's constraints and what specific actions companies must take to comply with the law.

For instance, due to the law's strict age requirements, online businesses may resort to invasive age verification regimes—such as face-scanning or checking government-issued IDs.

They are coming. Think about dealing with them.

https://elibrary.verlagoesterreich.at/article/10.33196/ealr202201003201

The Use of Autonomous Weapons – fortunium dei?

Weapons were created to inflict damage, whether to property or to people. With the “help” of innovation and digitalisation, there has been a rapid increase in the development and promotion of autonomous weapons. Among other things, pictures and videos of people are used in order to feed the artificial intelligence with material and therefore let it process and develop itself further.

This paper describes the issues of using such weapons in connection with international humanitarian and human rights law. It is divided into four chapters, starting with the functioning and description of the actual weapon and autonomous weapons, and the types of such armament. Furthermore, the points of being in favour or against these systems will be dismantled in a detailed way within the scope of international human rights and humanitarian law, and philosophical standards, the latter in a brief way. Lastly, the conclusion will briefly summarise the results, suggestions for improvements and concerns in the future of using such weapons. Due to the specialisation on to what extent the use of autonomous weapon systems is permissible under human and international humanitarian law, this paper intentionally will not deal with liability and immunity by using them because it would go beyond the scope of this essay.

Ethics for Designers, a basic class for computer scientists?

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09716858221119546

Artificial Intelligent Systems and Ethical Agency

The article examines the challenges involved in the process of developing artificial ethical agents. The process involves the creators or designing professionals, the procedures to develop an ethical agent and the artificial systems. There are two possibilities available to create artificial ethical agents: (a) programming ethical guidance in the artificial Intelligence (AI)-equipped machines and/or (b) allowing AI-equipped machines to learn ethical decision-making by observing humans. However, it is difficult to fulfil these possibilities due to the subjective nature of ethical decision-making. The challenge related to the developers is that they themselves lack training in ethical skills. The creators who develop an artificial ethical agent should be able to foresee the ethical issues and have knowledge about ethical decision-making to improve the ethical use of AI-equipped machines. The suggestion is that the focus should be on training professionals involved in the process of developing these artificial systems in ethics rather than developing artificial ethical agents and thereby attributing ethical agency to it.