Did we get it right?

https://fpf.org/blog/colorado-enacts-first-comprehensive-u-s-law-governing-artificial-intelligence-systems/

COLORADO ENACTS FIRST COMPREHENSIVE U.S. LAW GOVERNING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS

On May 17, Governor Polis signed the Colorado AI Act (CAIA) (SB-205) into law, establishing new individual rights and protections with respect to high-risk artificial intelligence systems. Building off the work of existing best practices and prior legislative efforts, the CAIA is the first comprehensive United States law to explicitly establish guardrails against discriminatory outcomes from the use of AI. The Act will take effect on February 1, 2026.

Watch the video. Note how “human” ChatGPT4o sounds. What other training might benefit from this technology?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2024/05/17/new-chatgpt-eyed-better-learning

AI’s New Conversation Skills Eyed for Education

… ChatGPT’s newest version, GPT-4o (the “o” standing for “omni,” meaning “all”), has a more realistic voice and quicker verbal response time, both aiming to sound more human. The version, which should be available to free ChatGPT users in coming weeks—a change also hailed by educators —allows people to interrupt it while it speaks, simulates more emotions with its voice and translates languages in real time. It also can understand instructions in text and images and has improved video capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSmkyDNulk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidehighered.com%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt

A security heads-up! Now that you “can” it is inevitable that someone “will” point ChatGPT to your proprietary data.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/chatgpt-now-lets-you-import-files-directly-from-google-drive-microsoft-onedrive/

ChatGPT now lets you import files directly from Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive

The news from OpenAI this week continues: today, the company announced it has updated its signature large language model (LLM) chatbot ChatGPT with the capability to import files directly from external cloud drives Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.

The capability is coming to paying subscribers to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Enterprise users and will be available when using the new underlying GPT-4o model that OpenAI debuted on Monday, as well as older models.

What is the implied “or else” here? Sony will try to gain access to each LLM to determine what (trivial) percentage of the data comes from Sony. Then it will try to determine if that had an impact on the output. Then try to estimate the percentage of profits Sony is entitled to?

https://www.ft.com/content/c5b93b23-9f26-4e6b-9780-a5d3e5e7a409

Sony Music warns global tech and streamers over AI use of its artists

Sony Music is sending warning letters to more than 700 artificial intelligence developers and music streaming services globally in the latest salvo in the music industry’s battle against tech groups ripping off artists.

The Sony Music letter, which has been seen by the Financial Times, expressly prohibits AI developers from using its music — which includes artists such as Harry Styles, Adele and Beyoncé — and opts out of any text and data mining of any of its content for any purposes such as training, developing or commercialising any AI system.

Sony Music is sending the letter to companies developing AI systems including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Suno and Udio, according to those close to the group.

The world’s second-largest music group is also sending separate letters to streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple, asking them to adopt “best practice” measures to protect artists and songwriters and their music from scraping, mining and training by AI developers without consent or compensation. It has asked them to update their terms of service, making it clear that mining and training on its content is not permitted.

Did AI have a voice in this treaty?

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/council-of-europe-adopts-first-international-treaty-on-artificial-intelligence

Council of Europe adopts first international treaty on artificial intelligence

The Council of Europe has adopted the first-ever international legally binding treaty aimed at ensuring the respect of human rights, the rule of law and democracy legal standards in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The treaty, which is also open to non-European countries, sets out a legal framework that covers the entire lifecycle of AI systems and addresses the risks they may pose, while promoting responsible innovation. The convention adopts a risk-based approach to the design, development, use, and decommissioning of AI systems, which requires carefully considering any potential negative consequences of using AI systems.

The Council of Europe Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy, and the rule of law was adopted in Strasbourg during the annual ministerial meeting of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which brings together the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 46 Council of Europe member states.

The future of elections?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68918330

AI and deepfakes blur reality in India elections

In November last year, Muralikrishnan Chinnadurai was watching a livestream of a Tamil-language event in the UK when he noticed something odd.

A woman introduced as Duwaraka, daughter of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tiger militant chief, was giving a speech.

The problem was that Duwaraka had died more than a decade earlier, in an airstrike in 2009 during the closing days of the Sri Lankan civil war. The then-23-year-old's body was never found.

Perspective. Will students form the same opinions?

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/05/15/a-quarter-of-u-s-teachers-say-ai-tools-do-more-harm-than-good-in-k-12-education/

A quarter of U.S. teachers say AI tools do more harm than good in K-12 education

As some teachers start to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their work, a majority are uncertain about or see downsides to the general use of AI tools in K-12 education, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in fall 2023. [How fast will it change? Bob]

A quarter of public K-12 teachers say using AI tools in K-12 education does more harm than good. About a third (32%) say there is about an equal mix of benefit and harm, while only 6% say it does more good than harm. Another 35% say they aren’t sure.

Toward the fully artificial lawyer?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuadupuy/2024/05/15/neuro-symbolic-ai-could-redefine-legal-practices/?sh=1e76599d70f6

Neuro-Symbolic AI Could Redefine Legal Practices

In law school, grades are often viewed as predictors of future success: A students become law professors, B students become judges and C students become millionaires. But the adage may need updating. With neuro-symbolic AI, the coders and tech savants who master algorithms are poised to rule.

… The pioneering developments in neuro-symbolic AI, exemplified by AlphaGeometry, serve as a promising blueprint for reshaping legal analysis. Unlike traditional legal AI systems constrained by keyword searches and static-rule applications, neuro-symbolic AI adopts a more nuanced and sophisticated approach. It integrates the robust data processing powers of deep learning with the precise logical structures of symbolic AI, laying the groundwork for devising legal strategies that are both insightful and systematically sound.

Resources.

https://www.makeuseof.com/generative-ai-courses-best/

The 5 Best Generative AI Courses

Perspective.

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/ai-hype-and-skepticism-economist-paul-romer/

AI Hype and Skepticism: Economist Paul Romer

Paul Romer once considered himself the most optimistic economist. He rightfully predicted that technology would blow up as an economic driver coming out of the inflation of the 1970s but acknowledges he did not foresee the inequality that technology advances would lead to.

On this episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Paul shares his views on AI advances and their implications for society. Rather than pave the way for full automation, he is a proponent of keeping humans in the loop and believes that, rather than slowing down technology, it can be pointed in a direction for more meaningful and beneficial use, citing education as an area ripe to benefit from AI.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/openai-says-new-gpt-4o-model-is-twice-as-fast-costs-half-as-much-for-businesses.html

OpenAI Says New GPT-4o Model Is Twice as Fast and Costs Half as Much for Businesses

The company that ushered in the generative AI revolution with ChatGPT just announced its newest flagship model, GPT-4o. The model is said to be faster and have enhanced capabilities across text, vision, and audio. The new model will be rolled out to all ChatGPT users, both free and paid, over the next few weeks.

In a live streamed presentation, OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati explained that the "o" in GPT-4o stands for "omnimodel," meaning that it is a multimodal tool with vision and audio capabilities natively built in. Previously, for ChatGPT to process images or audio, OpenAI would string multiple models together, all of which were specialized for a different media type, or "modality." Stringing these models together led to significant lag times, but by combining all the modalities into a single model, the process is made much faster. For example, the new model can translate a conversation between two people speaking different languages in real time, without any lag for loading or processing.

It used to be that only local weather conditions impacted planting. Now a solar storm stops everything.

https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

Solar Storm Knocks Out Farmers' Tractor GPS Systems During Peak Planting Season

The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment during a critical point of the planting season, 404 Media has learned. These outages caused many farmers to fully stop their planting operations for the moment.

One chain of John Deere dealerships warned farmers that the accuracy of some of the systems used by tractors are “extremely compromised,” and that farmers who planted crops during periods of inaccuracy are going to face problems when they go to harvest, according to text messages obtained by 404 Media and an update posted by the dealership. The outages highlight how vulnerable modern tractors are to satellite disruptions, which experts have been warning about for years.

(Related) Could an enemy impact our agriculture?

https://www.ft.com/content/be9393db-cd63-4141-a4c8-c16b4fe1b6b0

How GPS warfare is playing havoc with civilian life

… So-called GPS jamming and spoofing have largely been the preserve of militaries over the past two decades, used to defend sensitive sites against drone or missile attacks or mask their own activities.

But systematic interference by armed forces — particularly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza — has caused widespread issues for civilian populations as well. The footprint of corrupted signals has become vast.

Is the need to “control” moving us away from “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

https://fpf.org/blog/now-on-the-internet-will-everyone-know-if-youre-a-child/

NOW, ON THE INTERNET, WILL EVERYONE KNOW IF YOU’RE A CHILD?

As minors increasingly spend time online, lawmakers continue to introduce legislation to enhance the privacy and safety of kids’ and teens’ online experiences beyond the existing Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) framework. Proposals have proliferated in both the federal and state legislatures across the U.S. with varying approaches to minors’ privacy protections. Key pieces of this discussion are the age of individuals online, whether online sites and services know that an individual is a child, and how to balance kids’ and teens’ protections with anonymity online.

I think he may have a point.

https://academic.oup.com/ojls/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ojls/gqae017/7665668

The Data Crowd as a Legal Stakeholder

This article identifies a new legal stakeholder in the data economy: the data crowd. A data crowd is a collective that: (i) is unorganised, non-deliberate and unable to form an agenda; (ii) relies on productive aggregation that creates an interdependency among participants; and (iii) is subjected to an external authority. Notable examples of crowds include users of a social network, users of a search engine and users of artificial intelligence-based applications. The law currently only protects users in the data economy as individuals, and in certain cases may address broad public concerns. However, it does not recognise the collective interests of the crowd of users and its unique vulnerability to platform power. The article presents and defends the crowd’s legal interests in a stable infrastructure for participation. It therefore reveals the need for a new approach to consumers’ rights in the data economy.

Tools & Techniques.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/11/u-k-agency-releases-tools-to-test-ai-model-safety/

U.K. agency releases tools to test AI model safety

The U.K. Safety Institute, the U.K.’s recently established AI safety body, has released a toolset designed to “strengthen AI safety” by making it easier for industry, research organizations and academia to develop AI evaluations.

Called Inspect, the toolset — which is available under an open source license, specifically an MIT License — aims to assess certain capabilities of AI models, including models’ core knowledge and ability to reason, and generate a score based on the results.

In a press release announcing the news on Friday, the Safety Institute claimed that Inspect marks “the first time that an AI safety testing platform which has been spearheaded by a state-backed body has been released for wider use.”

Will a “this is AI” flag be an automatic negative?

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-label-ai-generated-images-video-openai-elsewhere-2024-05-09/

TikTok to label AI-generated content from OpenAI and elsewhere

TikTok plans to start labelling images and video uploaded to its video-sharing service that have been generated using artificial intelligence, it said on Thursday, using a digital watermark known as Content Credentials.

Researchers have expressed concern that AI-generated content could be used to interfere with U.S. elections this fall, and TikTok was already among a group of 20 tech companies that earlier this year signed an accord pledging to fight it.

The company already labels AI-generated content made with tools inside the app, but the latest move would apply a label to videos and images generated outside of the service.

We need to think about AI control…

https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/sic-ais-on-each-other-artificial-intelligence-threat-alignment-david-brin-author/

How to stop the artificial intelligence apocalypse: David Brin, Uplift author

… He says only one thing has ever worked in history to curb bad behavior by villains. It’s not asking them nicely, and it’s not creating ethical codes or safety boards.

It’s called reciprocal accountability, and he thinks it will work for AI as well.

“Empower individuals to hold each other accountable. We know how to do this fairly well. And if we can get AIs doing this, there may be a soft landing waiting for us,” he tells Magazine.

Why aren’t other states passing similar laws?

https://www.insideprivacy.com/data-privacy/employers-beware-new-wave-of-illinois-genetic-information-privacy-act-litigation/

Employers Beware: New Wave of Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act Litigation

Likely spurred by plaintiffs’ recent successes in cases under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), a new wave of class actions is emerging under Illinois’s Genetic Information Privacy Act (“GIPA”). While BIPA regulates the collection, use, and disclosure of biometric data, GIPA regulates that of genetic testing information. Each has a private right of action and provides for significant statutory damages, even potentially where plaintiffs allege a violation of the rule without actual damages. From its 1998 enactment until last year, there were few GIPA cases, and they were largely focused on claims related to genetic testing companies. More recently, plaintiffs have brought dozens of cases against employers alleging GIPA violations based on allegations of employers requesting family medical history through pre-employment physical exams. This article explores GIPA’s background, the current landscape and key issues, and considerations for employers.

Explainer.

https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-predictive-ai-and-how-does-it-work/

What Is Predictive AI, and How Does It Work?

… Predictive AI uses information from things that have already happened to make predictions and projections for what might happen in the future. To be used successfully, it requires access to high-quality data and subject matter expertise from humans to correctly identify trends.

Perspective.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-doesnt-threaten-humanity-its-owners-do/

AI Doesn’t Threaten Humanity. Its Owners Do

We shouldn’t be afraid of AI taking over humanity; we should fear the fact that our humanity hasn’t kept up with our technology

Is AI a peer?

https://www.bespacific.com/researchers-warned-against-using-ai-to-peer-review-academic-papers/

Researchers warned against using AI to peer review academic papers

Semafor [read free on first click only]: “Researchers should not be using tools like ChatGPT to automatically peer review papers, warned organizers of top AI conferences and academic publishers worried about maintaining intellectual integrity. With recent advances in large language models, researchers have been increasingly using them to write peer reviews — a time-honored academic tradition that examines new research and assesses its merits, showing a person’s work has been vetted by other experts in the field. That’s why asking ChatGPT to analyze manuscripts and critique the research, without having read the papers, would undermine the peer review process. To tackle the problem, AI and machine learning conferences are now thinking about updating their policies, as some guidelines don’t explicitly ban the use of AI to process manuscripts, and the language can be fuzzy. The Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) is considering setting up a committee to determine whether it should update its policies around using LLMs for peer review, a spokesperson told Semafor. At NeurIPS, researchers should not “share submissions with anyone without prior approval” for example, while the ethics code at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), whose annual confab kicked off Tuesday, states that “LLMs are not eligible for authorship.” Representatives from NeurIPS and ICLR said “anyone” includes AI, and that authorship covers both papers and peer review comments. A spokesperson for Springer Nature, an academic publishing company best known for its top research journal Nature, said that experts are required to evaluate research and leaving it to AI is risky. “Peer reviewers are accountable for the accuracy and views expressed in their reports and their expert evaluations help ensure the integrity, reproducibility and quality of the scientific record,” they said. “Their in-depth knowledge and expertise is irreplaceable and despite rapid progress, generative AI tools can lack up-to-date knowledge and may produce nonsensical, biased or false information.”

What if the AI does not agree? Will it be able to provide feedback?

https://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-posts-model-spec-revealing-how-it-wants-ai-to-behave/

OpenAI posts Model Spec revealing how it wants AI to behave

… Today, it unveiled “Model Spec,” a framework document designed to shape the behavior of AI models used within the OpenAI application programming interface (API) and ChatGPT, and on which it is soliciting feedback from the public using a web form here, open till May 22.

Perspective.

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3715422/how-generative-ai-is-redefining-data-analytics.html

How generative AI is redefining data analytics 

Generative AI not only makes analytics tools easier to use, but also substantially improves the quality of automation that can be applied across the data analytics life cycle.

… Our survey found that generative AI is already impacting the achievement of organizational goals at 80% of organizations. What led the way, as the #2 and #3 use cases, were analytics—both the creation of and the synthesis of new insights for the organization. These use cases trailed only content generation in terms of embrace.

This could get really complicated, unless there a few options offered. Out of a global library, how much value would be lost?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/07/openai-says-its-building-a-tool-to-let-content-creators-opt-out-of-ai-training/?guccounter=1

OpenAI says it’s building a tool to let content creators ‘opt out’ of AI training

OpenAI says that it’s developing a tool to let creators better control how their content’s used in training generative AI.

The tool, called Media Manager, will allow creators and content owners to identify their works to OpenAI and specify how they want those works to be included or excluded from AI research and training.

The goal is to have the tool in place by 2025, OpenAI says, as the company works with “creators, content owners and regulators” toward a standard — perhaps through the industry steering committee it recently joined.

“This will require cutting-edge machine learning research to build a first-ever tool of its kind to help us identify copyrighted text, images, audio and video across multiple sources and reflect creator preferences,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “Over time, we plan to introduce additional choices and features.”

Put employees in a pot of cool water then gradually nudge up the heat.

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-hazards-of-putting-ethics-on-autopilot/

The Hazards of Putting Ethics on Autopilot

… Our examination of the consequences of “nudging” techniques, used by companies to influence employees or customers to take certain actions, has implications for organizations adopting the new generation of chatbots and automated assistants. Companies implementing generative AI agents are encouraged to tailor them to increase managerial control. Microsoft, which has made copilots available across its suite of productivity software, offers a tool that enterprises can customize, thus allowing them to more precisely steer employee behavior. Such tools will make it much easier for companies to essentially put nudging on steroids — and based on our research into the effects of nudging, that may over time diminish individuals’ own willingness and capacity to reflect on the ethical dimension of their decisions.

Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/microsoft-linkedin-release-2024-work-trend-index-on-state-of-ai-at-work/

Microsoft LinkedIn release 2024 Work Trend Index on state of AI at work

“On Wednesday May 8, 2024 Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn released the 2024 Work Trend Index, a joint report on the state of AI at work titled, “AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part.” The research — based on a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, labor and hiring trends on LinkedIn, trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, and research with Fortune 500 customers — shows how, just one year in, AI is influencing the way people work, lead and hire around the world. Microsoft also announced new capabilities in Copilot for Microsoft 365, and LinkedIn made free more than 50 learning courses for LinkedIn Premium subscribers designed to empower professionals at all levels to advance their AI aptitude. The data is in: 2024 is the year AI at work gets real. Use of generative AI at work has nearly doubled in the past six months. LinkedIn is seeing a significant increase in professionals adding AI skills to their profiles, and most leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills. But with many leaders worried their company lacks an AI vision, and employees bringing their own AI tools to work, leaders have reached the hard part of any tech disruption: moving from experimentation to tangible business impact.”…The report highlights three insights every leader and professional needs to know about AI’s impact on work and the labor market in the year ahead:

• Employees want AI at work — and won’t wait for companies to catch up

• For employees, AI raises the bar and breaks the career ceiling

• The rise of the AI power user — and what they reveal about the future…”

Contacting potential voters online using AI has to be cheaper than going door to door. Can it also be more truthful?

https://apnews.com/article/ai-trump-campaign-2024-election-brad-parscale-3ff2c8eba34b87754cc25e96aa257c9d

Brad Parscale helped Trump win in 2016 using Facebook ads. Now he’s back, and an AI evangelist

… Parscale, the digital campaign operative who helped engineer Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, vows that his new, AI-powered platform will dramatically overhaul not just polling, but campaigning. His AI-powered tools, he has boasted, will outperform big tech companies and usher in a wave of conservative victories worldwide.

It’s not the first time Parscale has proclaimed that new technologies will boost right-wing campaigns. He was the digital guru who teamed up with scandal-plagued Cambridge Analytica and helped propel Trump to the White House eight years ago. In 2020, he had a public blowup then a private falling out with his old boss after the Capitol riot. Now he’s back, playing an under-the-radar role to help Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in his race against Democratic President Joe Biden.

Parscale says his company Campaign Nucleus can use AI to help generate customized emails, parse oceans of data to gauge voter sentiment and find persuadable voters, then amplify the social media posts of “anti-woke” influencers, according to an Associated Press review of Parscale’s public statements, his company websites, slide decks, marketing materials and other documents not previously made public.

(Related) Imagine FDR proclaiming, “We have nothing to fear but Trump himself.”

https://restofworld.org/2024/dead-relatives-ai-deepfake-india/

Indian politicians are bringing the dead on the campaign trail, with help from AI

Digital rights activists have questioned the ethics of using “soft fakes” to resurrect the past and manage the future.

Even AI finds AI confusing…

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-says-it-can-now-detect-images-spawned-by-its-softwaremost-of-the-time-83011149?st=hfix05fvfnpjfo1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

OpenAI Says It Can Now Detect Images Spawned by Its Software—Most of the Time

Startup’s new tool detects 98% of pictures generated by its DALL-E 3 system, but success drops if the images are altered

… OpenAI said its new tool is about 98% accurate in detecting content created by DALL-E 3 under most circumstances—if the image isn’t altered. When those images are screenshot or cropped, the classifier is slightly less successful, but can still often make an accurate identification.

The tool’s performance declines further under certain conditions, such as when the hue of those images is changed, said Sandhini Agarwal, an OpenAI researcher focused on policy in an interview.

Tools & Techniques. (I just couldn’t pass this one up)

https://www.kdnuggets.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-essential-tools-for-data-analysts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-comprehensive-guide-to-essential-tools-for-data-analysts

A Comprehensive Guide to Essential Tools for Data Analysts

Data analyst tools encompass programming languages, spreadsheets, BI, and big data tools. Here are 9ish tools that cover all the tasks of data analysts well.

Anything truly new here? We (parents or society) must do this when technologies change. Unfortunately, we do it poorly.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13371301/Children-starting-using-AI.html

Children should starting using AI at 6 years old so they don't become the lost generation of workers, expert recommends

Two-thirds of preschoolers will do jobs that don't currently exist. Trade jobs and being able to think without using the internet will be valued.

Beyond a search for potential school shooters.

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/9/1671

Artificial Intelligence in Social Media Forensics: A Comprehensive Survey and Analysis

Social media platforms have completely revolutionized human communication and social interactions. Their positive impacts are simply undeniable. What has also become undeniable is the prevalence of harmful antisocial behaviors on these platforms. Cyberbullying, misinformation, hate speech, radicalization, and extremist propaganda have caused significant harms to society and its most vulnerable populations. Thus, the social media forensics field was born to enable investigators and law enforcement agents to better investigate and prosecute these cybercrimes. This paper surveys the latest research works in the field to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are being utilized in social media forensics investigations. We examine how natural language processing can be used to identify extremist ideologies, detect online bullying, and analyze deceptive profiles. Additionally, we explore the literature on GNNs and how they are applied in social network modeling for forensic purposes. We conclude by discussing the key challenges in the field and suggest future research directions.

Is this the court’s fault?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/ai-tool-used-thousands-criminal-cases-facing-legal-challenges-rcna149607

An AI tool used in thousands of criminal cases is facing legal challenges

Cybercheck's founder has said the software tops 90% accuracy. Defense lawyers have said he lied under oath about his expertise and made false claims about when and where the technology has been used.

Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors from Colorado to New York have turned to a little-known artificial intelligence tool in recent years to help investigate, charge and convict suspects accused of murder and other serious crimes.

But as the software, called Cybercheck, has spread, defense lawyers have questioned its accuracy and reliability. Its methodology is opaque, they’ve said, and it hasn’t been independently vetted.

The company behind the software has said the technology relies on machine learning to scour vast swaths of the web and gather “open source intelligence” — social media profiles, email addresses and other publicly available information — to help identify potential suspects’ physical locations and other details in homicides and human trafficking crimes, cold cases and manhunts.

The tool’s creator, Adam Mosher, has said that Cybercheck’s accuracy tops 90% and that it performs automated research that would take humans hundreds of hours to complete. By last year, the software had been used in nearly 8,000 cases spanning 40 states and nearly 300 agencies, according to a court decision that cited prosecutors in a New York case that relied on the tool.

Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg thinks this is true?

https://apnews.com/article/facebook-election-misinformation-ads-trump-democrats-meta-5326da196688d2de85c5eb448dfa4e15

Democratic officials criticize Meta ad policy, saying it amplifies lies about 2020 election

Several Democrats serving as their state’s top election officials have sent a letter to the parent company of Facebook, asking it to stop allowing ads that claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

In the letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the secretaries of state from Colorado, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont said allowing such ads will further erode trust in elections and fuel threats of political violence against election workers, which already has led some to leave the profession. Also signing the letter was Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who does not oversee elections.

Can I make a ‘deepfake’ video of myself? For example, I might want to create a Rap version of my campaign speech.

https://www.wpri.com/news/politics/house-passes-bill-to-ban-ai-generated-media-90-days-before-elections/

House passes bill to ban AI-generated media 90 days before elections

… The legislation defines deep fakes, or synthetic media, as images, audio recordings or video recordings of someone’s “appearance, speech or conduct that has been intentionally manipulated with the use of generative adversarial network techniques or other digital technology to create a realistic but false image, audio or video.”

The ban itself would concern any depiction of political candidates that are made to look authentic and would “present a fundamentally different understanding or impression of the appearance, action or speech” than if it were real media.

If the person who made the deep fake discloses it is AI-generated, then this bill’s ban wouldn’t apply.

It can’t hurt. Googling “list of default passwords” was the first step for any hacker.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/05/the-uk-bans-default-passwords.html

The UK Bans Default Passwords

The UK is the first country to ban default passwords on IoT devices.

On Monday, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to ban default guessable usernames and passwords from these IoT devices. Unique passwords installed by default are still permitted.

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 (PSTI) introduces new minimum-security standards for manufacturers, and demands that these companies are open with consumers about how long their products will receive security updates for.

The UK may be the first country, but as far as I know, California is the first jurisdiction. It banned default passwords in 2018, the law taking effect in 2020.

This sort of thing benefits all of us everywhere. IoT manufacturers aren’t making two devices, one for California and one for the rest of the US. And they’re not going to make one for the UK and another for the rest of Europe, either. They’ll remove the default passwords and sell those devices everywhere.

Another news article.

What price poor security?

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/unitedhealth-ceo-says-company-paid-hackers-22-million-ransom.html

UnitedHealth CEO tells lawmakers the company paid hackers a $22 million ransom

… Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., held up a bright yellow copy of “Hacking for Dummies” during the hearing, saying the breach is UnitedHealth’s responsibility to fix.

“This is some basic stuff that was missed, so shame on internal audit, external audit and your systems folks tasked with redundancy, they’re not doing their job,” Tillis said.

Resource.

https://tech.co/news/google-ai-essentials

Google AI Essentials: Learn How to Use Generative AI for Work

… The course from Google — titled AI Essentials — is designed to give students some hands-on experience with generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, so they can feel comfortable using it in a work setting.

Is this the same as asking for compensation because I might have read an article in your newspaper (or a competitor’s) and might have incorporated “a fact” into the answer to a user’s question?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/business/media/newspapers-sued-microsoft-openai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oU0.rw13.BUd-iupR_iNx&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

8 Daily Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I.

Eight daily newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital sued OpenAI and Microsoft on Tuesday, accusing the tech companies of illegally using news articles to power their A.I. chatbots.

The publications — The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Sun Sentinel of Florida, The San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register and The St. Paul Pioneer Press — filed the complaint in federal court in the U.S. Southern District of New York. All are owned by MediaNews Group or Tribune Publishing, subsidiaries of Alden, the country’s second-largest newspaper operator.

In the complaint, the publications accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of copyrighted articles without permission to train and feed their generative A.I. products, including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. The lawsuit does not demand specific monetary damages, but it asks for a jury trial and said the publishers were owed compensation from the use of the content.

The complaint said the chatbots regularly surfaced the entire text of articles behind subscription paywalls for users and often did not prominently link back to the source. This, it said, reduced the need for readers to pay subscriptions to support local newspapers and deprived the publishers of revenue both from subscriptions and from licensing their content elsewhere.

Do I have a right to not identify myself?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-declines-block-texas-pornography-restriction-rcna149877

Supreme Court declines to block Texas pornography restriction

… The challengers said the 2023 law violates the Constitution’s First Amendment by requiring anyone using the platforms in question, including adults, to submit personal information.

Is this spontaneous or directed? We need to find out quick!

https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2024/04/state-ag-demands-answers-about-meta-ai-chatbots-false-accusations/396144/

State AG demands answers about Meta AI chatbot’s false accusations

State Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, demanding answers about the company’s AI chatbot fabricating allegations of sexual harassment against state lawmakers. The letter is dated April 27, one day after City & State reported that the Meta AI chatbot was informing users about completely made-up allegations of harassment concerning elected officials.

In the letter, which directly cites City & State’s reporting, James wrote that her office tested the chatbot and found it “yielded similar results, including citations to fabricated source articles.” “We are deeply concerned about the creation and dissemination of such misinformation, which is likely to harm the reputation of New York State officials and mislead New York residents,” James wrote.

I make it 18 of 50.

https://www.insideprivacy.com/privacy-and-data-security/nebraska-enacts-nebraska-data-privacy-act/

Nebraska Enacts Nebraska Data Privacy Act

On April 17, the Nebraska governor signed the Nebraska Data Privacy Act (the “NDPA”) into law. Nebraska is the latest state to enact comprehensive privacy legislation, joining California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Florida, Delaware,  New Jersey, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Maryland. The NDPA will take effect on January 1, 2025. This blog post summarizes the statute’s key takeaways.

Any ideas for tapping that market?

https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2024/04/26/legal-tech-market-will-be-worth-50bn-by-2027-because-of-genai-gartner/

‘Legal Tech Market Will Be Worth $50bn by 2027…Because of GenAI’ – Gartner

Technology market analysts Gartner have announced that ‘the legal tech market will reach $50 billion in value by 2027’– with genAI as the key driver for growth. In comparison, one recent estimate from Fairfield research stated that the market in 2022 was worth $25.6 billion. So, that’s quite a big leap.