Serious hacking.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/11/homemade_tempes.html

Homemade TEMPEST Receiver

Tom's Guide writes about home brew TEMPEST receivers:

Today, dirt-cheap technology and free software make it possible for ordinary citizens to run their own Tempest programs and listen to what their own -- and their neighbors' -- electronic devices are doing.

Elliott, a researcher at Boston-based security company Veracode, showed that an inexpensive USB dongle TV tuner costing about $10 can pick up a broad range of signals, which can be "tuned" and interpreted by software-defined radio (SDR) applications running on a laptop computer.

Eventually, every state should have a Cyber Battalion. Techies who get called up when government agencies (or schools) get hacked. (Perhaps to do some white hat hacking to tighten security?)

https://www.securityweek.com/midwests-1st-cyber-battalion-be-based-indiana

Midwest's 1st Cyber Battalion to Be Based in Indiana

The 127th Cyber Battalion will be comprised of nearly 100 soldiers who will be trained on cyber security and cyber warfare at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Jennings County, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Indianapolis.

The center features realistic simulations with live environments for cyber and electronic warfare testing and training.

Interesting.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/iphone-5-other-apple-devices-need-gps-software-update-before-nov-3.html

Some old iPhones will stop working on Sunday unless they have the latest software

… In particular, iPhone 5 phones that do not install the iOS 10.3.4 update will no longer be able to connect to online services that require the correct date and time, meaning they might not be able to download apps from the App Store, access email, or browse the web , Apple said on its website.

If you miss the deadline, you won’t be able to download the update in the iPhone settings menu, and will need to update by plugging your phone into a computer.

Some logic missing here. Does everyone of legal age in Australia have a drivers license?

Australia Could Require Facial Scan for Online Gaming Players, Raising Concerns

Ed Silverstein reports:

Under a legislative proposal, access to sites would not be granted until the image is compared with existing government photo databases, such as those from driver’s licenses. That way, the user’s age would be confirmed.

Australia’s Parliament has yet to approve the Identity-matching Services Bill of 2019. Politicians are still wary of privacy concerns.

Read more on Casino.org.

Listen carefully when nuclear powers speak of war. No clear picture of how these technologies tie together. Keep an eye out! (This seems more about banning bitcoin than any specific military technology.)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-and-ai-have-revolutionized-war-india-defence-minister

Blockchain and AI Have ‘Revolutionized’ War — India Defence Minister

… Speaking to a range of delegates from 80 countries in Delhi, Singh appeared under no illusion about India’s plans to access innovation as the global industry evolves. He explained:

“The role of AI, big data and blockchain technologies has already revolutionized the existing paradigm of warfighting. The defence industry is undergoing a churning to cope and employ these technologies, in order to safeguard the safety and security of critical infrastructure.”

Has the age of the driverless car arrived?

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/01/hailing-a-driverless-ride-in-a-waymo/

Hailing a driverless ride in a Waymo

After more than a decade, Waymo's driverless ride-hailing service is open to customers

… Waymo, the Google self-driving-project-turned-Alphabet unit, has given demos of its autonomous vehicles before. More than a dozen journalists experienced driverless rides in 2017 on a closed course at Waymo’s testing facility in Castle; and Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, took a driverless ride in the company’s Firefly prototype on Austin’s city streets way back in 2015.

But this driverless ride is different — and not just because it involved an unprotected left-hand turn, busy city streets or that the Waymo One app was used to hail the ride. It marks the beginning of a driverless ride-hailing service that is now being used by members of its early rider program and eventually the public.

Architecture.

https://insidehpc.com/2019/11/doe-funds-center-for-artificial-intelligence-focused-architectures-and-algorithms/

DOE Funds Center for Artificial Intelligence-focused Architectures and Algorithms

Sandia National Laboratories, PNNL, and the Georgia Institute of Technology are launching a research center that combines hardware design and software development to improve artificial intelligence technologies that will ultimately benefit the public. The Department of Energy Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research will provide $5.5 million over three years for the research effort, called Artificial Intelligence-focused Architectures and Algorithms.

Lawyers don’t get it, yet.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg-law-analysis/analysis-ai-few-guardrails-the-lawyers-response

ANALYSIS: AI, Few Guardrails—The Lawyer’s Response

Results from Bloomberg Law’s 2019 Legal Operations & Technology survey showed that 23% of law firm and in-house counsel are using artificial intelligence or machine learning technology in their practices.

The other 77% of lawyers must be unaware of the AI behind much of the technology they’re using every day. A simple natural language search in a legal research tool uses AI.

… Regulatory guardrails around the use of AI are not yet well-developed. This should be particularly concerning for lawyers, who have ethical obligations to vet the quality of AI outputs and discuss legal applications of AI technology with clients.

… Some pending U.S. legislation would address algorithmic bias: The Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2019 would direct the Federal Trade Commission to conduct assessments of “automated decision systems” for fairness, bias, and data protection impact. The Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019 would require consent for the use of facial recognition technology and prevent its use for discriminatory purposes.

Harry Surden, a law professor at the University of Colorado Law School and affiliated faculty at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX) who focuses on law and technology, doesn’t expect these bills to gain much steam.

“People are hesitant to regulate in the AI space, in part because they don’t really understand it, especially on the regulatory and policy end,” Surden said. “There is also this rhetoric that AI is an engine for the economy, so there’s some hesitancy to disrupt that.”

(Related)

https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/directories/policy/annual-2019/112-annual-2019.pdf

THE LEGAL ETHICS OF AI.

Given the transformative nature of AI, it is important for courts and lawyers to understand how existing and well established ethical rules may apply to the use of AI.

A. Several Ethics Rules Apply To Lawyer’s Use (And Non-Use) of AI.

1. Duty of Competence

... lawyers also must have a basic understanding of how AI tools operate.

2. Duty to Communicate

A lawyer should obtain approval from the client before using AI, and this consent must be informed

3. Duty of Confidentiality

The use of some AI tools may require client confidences to be “shared” with third-party vendors. As a result, lawyers must take appropriate steps to ensure that their clients’ information appropriately is safeguarded.

4. Duty to Supervise

In 2012, the

In 2012, the title of Model Rule 5.3 was changed from “Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants” to “Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistance.” The change clarified that the scope of Rule 5.3 encompasses nonlawyers whether human or not.

Will this be as useful as I think? A fast way to check citations?

https://www.wired.com/story/internet-archive-wikipedia-more-reliable/

The Internet Archive Is Making Wikipedia More Reliable

… The reason people rely on Wikipedia, despite its imperfections, is that every claim is supposed to have citations. Any sentence that isn't backed up with a credible source risks being slapped with the dreaded "citation needed" label. Anyone can check out those citations to learn more about a subject, or verify that those sources actually say what a particular Wikipedia entry claims they do—that is, if you can find those sources.

It's easy enough when the sources are online. But many Wikipedia articles rely on good old-fashioned books. The entry on Martin Luther King Jr., for example, cites 66 different books. Until recently, if you wanted to verify that those books say what the article says they say, or if you just wanted to read the cited material, you'd need to track down a copy of the book.

Now, thanks to a new initiative by the Internet Archive, you can click the name of the book and see a two-page preview of the cited work, so long as the citation specifies a page number. You can also borrow a digital copy of the book, so long as no else has checked it out, for two weeks—much the same way you'd borrow a book from your local library.