If Iran can do it, anyone can.

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/28/iran-protests-phone-surveillance/

HACKED DOCUMENTS: HOW IRAN CAN TRACK AND CONTROL PROTESTERS’ PHONES

The documents provide an inside look at an Iranian government program that lets authorities monitor and manipulate people’s phones.

… According to these internal documents, SIAM is a computer system that works behind the scenes of Iranian cellular networks, providing its operators a broad menu of remote commands to alter, disrupt, and monitor how customers use their phones. The tools can slow their data connections to a crawl, break the encryption of phone calls, track the movements of individuals or large groups, and produce detailed metadata summaries of who spoke to whom, when, and where. Such a system could help the government invisibly quash the ongoing protests — or those of tomorrow — an expert who reviewed the SIAM documents told The Intercept.

“SIAM can control if, where, when, and how users can communicate,” explained Gary Miller, a mobile security researcher and fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “In this respect, this is not a surveillance system but rather a repression and control system to limit the capability of users to dissent or protest.”

Surveillance by any other name…

https://fpf.org/blog/federal-court-deems-universitys-use-of-room-scans-within-the-home-unconstitutional/

FEDERAL COURT DEEMS UNIVERSITY’S USE OF ROOM SCANS WITHIN THE HOME UNCONSTITUTIONAL

A federal court recently ruled that a public university’s use of room-scanning technology during a remotely proctored exam violated a student’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy. The decision in Ogletree v. CSU is the clearest indication to date of how courts will treat Fourth Amendment challenges to public higher education institutions’ use of video room scans within students’ homes. Schools, test administrators, and professional licensure boards often use proctoring technologies in an effort to dissuade cheating by remote test takers. These technologies take a variety of forms and may involve live proctors observing test takers via webcam, eye-tracking technology, artificial intelligence, recording via webcam and microphone, plug-ins that disable a test taker’s computer from accessing third-party websites or stored materials, and room scans. At issue in this case was a room scan of a student’s bedroom workspace.

But we think it’s useful…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/27/live-facial-recognition-police-study-uk

UK police use of live facial recognition unlawful and unethical, report finds

Police should be banned from using live facial recognition technology in all public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws, a study has concluded.

Ask instead, will lawyers turn down paying clients?

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-an-ai-hire-a-lawyer-7525341/

Can an AI Hire a Lawyer?

A recently-fired Google engineer claims that the company’s artificial intelligence program has become sentient, and—even worse—has hired a lawyer. A court may now have to face a question once considered only theoretical: is a human-like artificial intelligence (AI) a “person” in the eyes of the law?

… As it stands, California law does not appear to preclude non-human sentients. When it comes to the laws governing attorneys, neither the California Constitution nor the State Bar Act defines who (or what) is a “person.” The California Rules of Professional Conduct refer to Evidence Code section 175 for their definition of “person.” California’s Evidence Code states that a “‘[p]erson’ includes a natural person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or public entity (emphasis supplied).”

I paraphrase, “Warrants? We don’t need no stinking warrants!” (Should we ignore readily available data?)

https://theconversation.com/what-is-fog-reveal-a-legal-scholar-explains-the-app-some-police-forces-are-using-to-track-people-without-a-warrant-189944

What is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explains the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant

Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless surveillance of individuals, groups and places: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal.

… The trove of personal data Fog Data Science is selling, and government agencies are buying, exists because ever-advancing technologies in smart devices collect increasingly vast amounts of intimate data. Without meaningful choice or control on the user’s part, smart device and app makers collect, use and sell that data. It is a technological and legal dilemma that threatens individual privacy and liberty, and it is a problem I have worked on for years as a practicing lawyer, researcher and law professor.

Hold back the tide? Is there some data we should deliberately delete?

https://www.bespacific.com/everything-dies-including-information/

Everything dies, including information

MIT Technology Review – Digitization can help stem the tide of entropy, but it won’t stop it.” Everything dies: people, machines, civilizations. Perhaps we can find some solace in knowing that all the meaningful things we’ve learned along the way will survive. But even knowledge has a life span. Documents fade. Art goes missing. Entire libraries and collections can face quick and unexpected destruction. Surely, we’re at a stage technologically where we might devise ways to make knowledge available and accessible forever. After all, the density of data storage is already incomprehensibly high. In the ever-growing museum of the internet, one can move smoothly from images from the James Webb Space Telescope through diagrams explaining Pythagoras’s philosophy on the music of the spheres to a YouTube tutorial on blues guitar soloing. What more could you want? Quite a bit, according to the experts. For one thing, what we think is permanent isn’t. Digital storage systems can become unreadable in as little as three to five years. Librarians and archivists race to copy things over to newer formats. But entropy is always there, waiting in the wings. “Our professions and our people often try to extend the normal life span as far as possible through a variety of techniques, but it’s still holding back the tide,” says Joseph Janes, an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School. To complicate matters, archivists are now grappling with an unprecedented deluge of information. In the past, materials were scarce and storage space limited. “Now we have the opposite problem,” Janes says. “Everything is being recorded all the time.” In principle, that could right a historic wrong. For centuries, countless people didn’t have the right culture, gender, or socioeconomic class for their knowledge or work to be discovered, valued, or preserved. But the massive scale of the digital world now presents a unique challenge. According to an estimate last year from the market research firm IDC, the amount of data that companies, governments, and individuals create in the next few years will be twice the total of all the digital data generated previously since the start of the computing age. Entire schools within some universities are laboring to find better approaches to saving the data under their umbrella. The Data and Service Center for Humanities at the University of Basel, for example, has been developing a software platform called Knora to not just archive the many types of data from humanities work but ensure that people in the future can read and use them. And yet the process is fraught…”

Really nothing new here, but maybe my lawyer friends could use the reminder.

https://www.bespacific.com/8-ways-to-convince-your-organisation-to-invest-in-legal-tech/

8 Ways to Convince Your Organisation to Invest in Legal Tech

Artifical Lawyer: “All law firms and in-house legal functions know that legal tech is the future. Law is fundamentally about information – laws, precedents, documents – and therefore data. Apply tech to data to manage it efficiently and you give yourself and your clients an edge. But what technology? And once you find a solution, how do you persuade your organisation to adopt it? We have been tackling this head-on at CreateiQ, and in particular looking at ways to help our future customers manage the process of getting their wider organisation on board once they’ve identified us as their preferred solution. After speaking to three legal operations people at Linklaters, we have come up with these 8 Tips to help you get internal buy-in for legal tech initiatives…”

Remembering tech history.

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-does-the-internet-work-step-by-step/

How Does the Internet Work? A Step-By-Step Guide

Tools & Techniques. Some are free…

https://hyperallergic.com/773408/amateurs-guide-to-ai-image-generators/

An Amateur’s Guide to Using AI Image Generators

… At a distance, it looks like the four tools operate with the same premise — enter a text-based prompt and receive a series of relevant pictures through advanced machine learning that combs through and learns from millions of images on the internet. But each tool has its own unique features and drawbacks. I took the liberty of futzing around with all four of them to demystify their functionalities and limitations and show you how to gain access.

I don’t remember if I was caught in this one or not. I’ll have to look back in my blog. I wonder how they can stall so long? (I hear the answer: “Good lawyers!”)

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2022/10/judge-finalized-63m-opm-hack-settlement-feds-two-months-damages/378950/

A Judge Has Finalized the $63M OPM Hack Settlement. Feds Now Have Two Months to Sign Up for Damages.

A federal judge on Wednesday formally finalized a $63 million settlement that will soon allow thousands of current and former federal employees to receive payouts as part of the agreement stemming from a 2015 breach of data maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.

… OPM disclosed two data breaches in 2015: one that exposed the personnel files of all current and former federal employees and another that released the personally identifiable information of all applicants for security clearances, as well as their families. Those individuals are set to receive a minimum of $700 and up to $10,000 from the agreement if they can prove they were victims of the hack and incurred out-of-pocket expenses or lost compensable time. More than 22.1 million people were impacted by the breaches.

They now have until Dec. 23 to file a claim for damages.

How else could “explainable AI” work? (...and then a miracle happens!)

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2344251-ais-become-smarter-if-you-tell-them-to-think-step-by-step/

AIs become smarter if you tell them to think step by step

Artificial intelligence models can outperform humans at tasks AIs normally struggle with if they are told to think a certain way, but it doesn’t help them grasp sarcasm

Bias creeps into AI by training it on biased data, so it is great to have the government say, “Here is a completely bias free data set, trust us!”

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/artificial-intelligence/2022/10/coming-to-an-algorithm-near-you-a-big-federally-focused-training-data-set/

Coming to an algorithm near you: A big, federally-focused training data set

Contractors trying to develop artificial intelligence applications for the government face a challenge, namely a good data set for training the algorithms. Now a big new federally-oriented data set is coming from an unlikely source.

Curious that an app that requires you to have physical access to a device is so widespread. Claiming they are ‘baby monitor’ apps may explain a bit, but babies rarely text… (Listen or read)

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/inside-thetruthspy-stalkerware/

Inside TheTruthSpy, the stalkerware network spying on thousands

A massive cache of leaked data reveals the inner workings of a stalkerware operation that is spying on hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including Americans.

The leaked data includes call logs, text messages, granular location data and other personal device data of unsuspecting victims whose Android phones and tablets were compromised by a fleet of near-identical stalkerware apps, including TheTruthSpy, Copy9, MxSpy and others.

These Android apps are planted by someone with physical access to a person’s device and are designed to stay hidden on their home screens but will continuously and silently upload the phone’s contents without the owner’s knowledge.

It’s a start.

https://www.bespacific.com/protecting-childrens-data-privacy-policy-paper-i-international-issues-and-compliance-challenges/

Protecting Children’s Data Privacy Policy Paper I: International Issues and Compliance Challenges

“Complying with the growing number of laws on children’s privacy in the global marketplace is an increasingly complex undertaking. It involves reconciling measures to protect children from online harm and intrusions into their privacy with the equally important necessity for children to participate and engage online and to access beneficial or even essential online resources. Earlier this year, CIPL launched a project to explore the difficult policy issues as well as regulatory and compliance challenges that these competing mandates and interests present. As a first milestone in this project, CIPL has produced a white paper entitled “Protecting Children’s Data Privacy, Policy Paper I, International Issues and Compliance Challenges. ” This paper

• identifies key issues and compliance challenges in the context of globally divergent legal standards and policy approaches relating to children’s data and online engagement

• creates a foundation for further discussions among stakeholders and experts about how these issues  and challenges can be addressed in a way that enables effective compliance with privacy requirements and serves the best interest of the child

• sets the stage for CIPL’s forthcoming second paper on the topic: “Protecting Children’s Data Privacy, Policy Paper II: Practical Solutions to Protect Children and Enhance Compliance (working title), which will examine existing and potential solutions for these challenges.

Policy Paper I includes discussions of the following issues: best interest of the child; consent and legitimate interest; parental consent; age assurance; profiling for targeting to children; transparency; and the risk-based approach to children’s online protection. Four appendixes to the paper contain brief summaries of key laws, regulations, codes of conduct and regulatory guidance relating to children’s online privacy.”

Perspective. I’d like to see more like this…

https://technical.ly/software-development/machine-learning-work-ethics-use-value-spotify/

How does machine learning affect our work? Technologists talk ethics and use value

… “We’re all being trained by the ML that are helping us out,” he said. “We are being trained how to use these systems rather than having the systems learn how we work.”

… a Chicago-based technologist, said that he used to work for a payroll company that used machine learning to help clients predict which of their employees may leave based on pay. He and his colleagues had to work with the employers’ ethics team to determine which variables, especially demographic ones like race or gender, could be used.

“We were intentionally not allowed by our internal ethics committee to use these kinds of variables,” he noted.

Resource?

https://netl.doe.gov/key-lab-initiatives/sami

Science-based AI/ML Institute (SAMI)

I am immune from deepfake except for an infinite number of ‘before’ ads… (Think these lawsuits will clog the courts?)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/deepfakes-of-celebrities-have-begun-appearing-in-ads-with-or-without-their-permission-11666692003

‘Deepfakes’ of Celebrities Have Begun Appearing in Ads, With or Without Their Permission

Celebrity deepfakes are coming to advertising.

Among the recent entries: Last year, Russian telecommunications company MegaFon released a commercial in which a simulacrum of Hollywood legend Bruce Willis helps defuse a bomb.

Just last week, Elon Musk seemed to star in a marketing video from real-estate investment startup reAlpha Tech Corp.

And last month a promotional video for machine-learning firm Paperspace Co. showed talking semblances of the actors Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.

None of these celebrities ever spent a moment filming these campaigns. In the cases of Messrs. Musk, Cruise and DiCaprio, they never even agreed to endorse the companies in question.

Is this a fad like purple hair or do they actually have a use for the cameras?

https://www.wmar2news.com/matterformallory/thieves-are-targeting-video-doorbells-nearly-30-reports-in-the-last-month

Thieves are targeting video doorbells; nearly 30 reports in the last month

Thieves are targeting video doorbells in Southeast Baltimore. Patterson Park neighbors have reported a string of these thefts in the last month.

… “Guy just went and pulled it out,” said Tom Prats, who lives near Patterson Park.

Prats and others have shared recordings from their Ring cameras showing the moments right before their cameras were torn down and taken.

“I saw a group of kids and then I saw like a hand, and then I didn’t see anything.

… Ring has a replacement program. Customers must report the device theft within 15 days of the incident and provide a police report. However, Prats is skeptical it won’t happen again.

Bloomberg described it yesterday, now the IRS is telling you what it will cost you.

https://www.bespacific.com/a-new-definition-of-crypto-comes-from-the-irs/

A new definition of crypto comes from the IRS

Coin Telegraph: “…No matter how much attention the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or Commodity Futures Trading Commission gets in the crypto industry, for individual traders and investors, it often comes down to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) position — and how much tax one owes. Last week, the IRS last week released a draft bill featuring a well-defined digital assets section that outlines if and how taxpayers will account for the use of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Page 16 of the draft defines digital assets as any digital representations of the value recorded on a “cryptographically secured distributed ledger or any similar technology.” 2021’s tax form required taxpayers to indicate whether they had received, sold or exchanged in “virtual currency” — with this term changing in the yet-to-issued 1040 tax form for 2022. Taxpayers are required to answer the digital assets section of their income tax return whether or not they have engaged in digital asset transactions during the tax year. A number of situations will require American taxpayers to indicate yes to the question on digital assets of Form 1040 or 1040-SR. This includes receiving as a reward, award or payment for property or services or sold, exchanged, gifted or disposed of a digital asset in 2022…”

Tools & Techniques. (What we need is similar to a nation wide bird watching club, each member specializing on a single species.)

https://www.bespacific.com/building-an-open-source-intelligence-buyers-club/

Building An Open-Source Intelligence Buyer’s Club

War on the Rocks: “The Ukraine conflict has blown open the door on how open-source information — broadly defined as publicly and commercially available data — can be a game-changer in war and peace. The broad array of unclassified tools now allows anyone to pore over satellite imagery, monitor tank convoys, listen to troops chatting over unsecured communication devices, watch ship movements, and determine the location of Russian oligarch-owned superyachts. Governments are still trying to catch up with the amount of data flowing in all directions across hundreds of platforms, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Despite the current glossy appeal of open source, both democratic and authoritarian governments alike have struggled to collect, make sense of, and then provide relevant information to their end-users. Those in U.S. national security circles yearn for a technical solution — a database to sort and categorize this vast amount of data. The tech challenges are certainly complex, and the problems with data integrity and validation remain vexing and require real solutions to categorizing, verifying, and then sharing this information. But the United States’ decades-long romance with technological fixes to complex national security problems takes the wrong perspective. The government’s challenge with open source isn’t just a technical one; it’s a political science one. And once Washington asks the right questions, it can begin to solve the collective action problem that lies at the heart of the open-source intelligence question…”

I think my AI has reached the right conclusion, it disagrees with both extremes.

https://dailynous.com/2022/10/24/two-cultures-of-philosophy-ai-edition/

Two Cultures of Philosophy: AI Edition

Up for discussion: the following two claims (along with their presuppositions, ambiguities, etc).

“If you think artificial intelligence could improve philosophy, then you’re mistaken about a central point of philosophy.”

“If you think artificial intelligence could not improve philosophy, then you’re mistaken about a central point of philosophy.”

(Prompted by the consideration of a distinction between technology that alleviates the need for human thinking and technology that improves it, as raised in a Twitter thread by Zachary Pirtle.)

Keep current.

https://www.insideprivacy.com/artificial-intelligence/u-s-ai-iot-cav-and-privacy-legislative-update-third-quarter-2022/

U.S. AI, IoT, CAV, and Privacy Legislative Update – Third Quarter 2022

This quarterly update summarizes key legislative and regulatory developments in the third quarter of 2022 related to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), the Internet of Things (“IoT”), connected and autonomous vehicles (“CAVs”), and data privacy and cybersecurity.

Learn some new stuff! I really need to read this.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-the-crypto-story/

The Crypto Story

Where it came from, what it all means, and why it still matters.

There was a moment not so long ago when I thought, “What if I’ve had this crypto thing all wrong?” I’m a doubting normie who, if I’m being honest, hasn’t always understood this alternate universe that’s been percolating and expanding for more than a decade now. If you’re a disciple, this new dimension is the future. If you’re a skeptic, this upside-down world is just a modern Ponzi scheme that’s going to end badly—and the recent “crypto winter” is evidence of its long-overdue ending. But crypto has dug itself into finance, into technology, and into our heads. And if crypto isn’t going away, we’d better attempt to understand it. Which is why we asked the finest finance writer around, Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion, to write a cover-to-cover issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, something a single author has done only one other time in the magazine’s 93-year history (“What Is Code?,” by Paul Ford). What follows is his brilliant explanation of what this maddening, often absurd, and always fascinating technology means, and where it might go. —Joel Weber, Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek

How much is ‘inspiration’ worth? How can I recognize inspiration?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2343953-shutterstock-will-sell-ai-generated-art-and-compensate-human-artists/

Shutterstock will sell AI-generated art and 'compensate' human artists

Photo licensing service Shutterstock will begin selling images generated by artificial intelligence alongside those created by humans. The AI images will be powered exclusively by OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 software. Both companies say that human creators whose work inspired the AI will be compensated, but one artist describes the move as “sewer water leak into the drinking supply”.

This might could work as long as we can find unbiased testers…

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/20/1061977/ai-bias-bounty-help-catch-unfair-algorithms-faster/

A bias bounty for AI will help to catch unfair algorithms faster

This could grow into something very interesting.

https://www.bespacific.com/introducing-democracys-library/

Introducing Democracy’s Library

Internet Archives: “Democracies need an educated citizenry to thrive. In the 21^st century, that means easy access to reliable information online for all. To meet that need, the Internet Archive is building Democracy’s Library —a free, open, online compendium of government research and publications from around the world. “Governments have created an abundance of information and put it in the public domain, but it turns out the public can’t easily access it,” said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, who is spearheading the effort to collect materials for the digital library. By having a wealth of public documents curated and searchable through a single interface, citizens will be able to leverage useful research, learn about the workings of their government, hold officials accountable, and be more informed voters. Too often, the best information on the internet is locked behind paywalls, said Kahle, who has helped create the world’s largest digital library…The first steps of Democracy’s Library are available online at https://archive.org/details/democracys-library.”

Tools & Techniques. Apparently nothing for my anti-social pages.

https://www.bespacific.com/the-top-19-tools-for-managing-social-media-accounts/

The Top 19 Tools For Managing Social Media Accounts

Search Engine Journal: “Social media has become a massive part of brand marketing strategy. And managing multiple accounts can be pretty overwhelming. How do you stay organized? What tools should you use to manage social media accounts? Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have evolved into a significant source of information for millions of people around the globe. As such, they play a crucial role in shaping public opinion. In addition, these platforms also provide businesses with powerful marketing opportunities to connect with and grow their audience. Since scheduling posts and analyzing social media insights is now a must for any content strategy, it’s vital to equip yourself with the right tools. So now, let’s break down the top tools for social media management..”

If we constrain the AI to a narrow window of options, no problem. If it can choose any topic, we might get a Terminator. (But I doubt it)

https://theconversation.com/the-danger-of-advanced-artificial-intelligence-controlling-its-own-feedback-190445

The danger of advanced artificial intelligence controlling its own feedback

How would an artificial intelligence (AI) decide what to do? One common approach in AI research is called “reinforcement learning”.

Reinforcement learning gives the software a “reward” defined in some way, and lets the software figure out how to maximise the reward. This approach has produced some excellent results, such as building software agents that defeat humans at games like chess and Go, or creating new designs for nuclear fusion reactors.

However, we might want to hold off on making reinforcement learning agents too flexible and effective.

As we argue in a new paper in AI Magazine, deploying a sufficiently advanced reinforcement learning agent would likely be incompatible with the continued survival of humanity.

Perspective. Bad news for the little guy?

https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/10/24/how-giant-ai-workloads-and-the-looming-bandwidth-wall-are-impacting-system-architectures/

How Giant AI Workloads and the Looming “Bandwidth Wall” are Impacting System Architectures

… Over the past few years, we’ve seen break-neck advancements in AI. Just consider that in 2019 Transformer, the biggest natural language processing (NLP) model, had 465 million parameters, or fewer synapses than a honeybee. By mid-2020, Gshard MoE included more than a trillion parameters, or roughly the same number of synapses as a mouse. And NVIDIA has projected that we could see models with 100 trillion or more connections—or roughly the equivalent synapses as a Macaque—in 2023. If the progress continues at its current rate, models with human-levels of synapses won’t be far off. But only if our computing infrastructure is ready.

I don’t want to listen for the whole eight hours…

https://www.bespacific.com/the-trump-tapes-20-interviews-that-show-why-he-is-an-unparalleled-danger/

The Trump Tapes: 20 interviews that show why he is an unparalleled danger

Washington Post – Bob Woodward: “…In the “The Trump Tapes,” I share my personal reporting journey through the eight hours of interviews. I provide commentary at more than 200 points in the audiobook, explicitly offering my own reactions, hesitations, conclusions, and explanations of my method of gathering and confirming information. When Trump came on the political scene in 2015, he was immediately a big presence, regularly making outrageous statements. He seized the attention of the media and gave regular interviews before and after he was elected president. But for someone who talked so much, he insulated himself from long and sustained questioning. In our extended conversations, I was able to press him for prolonged periods and with dozens of follow-up questions. Trump agreed that all of our interviews were on the record and could be recorded. “When did it become yes?” I asked about his decision to run for president. On his handling of the coronavirus, “What grade would you give yourself?” And about the presidency, “What have you learned about yourself?” In all, I asked him more than 600 questions.

I am also releasing “The Trump Tapes” for the historical archive. The content of the interviews was comprehensively quoted in my 2020 book, “Rage,” and some of the audio of the most dramatic news released. But the full exchange amplifies an understanding of Trump and the unique concentration of power in the presidency… In 2020, I ended ‘Rage’ with the following sentence: ‘When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.’ Two years later, I realize I didn’t go far enough. Trump is an unparalleled danger. When you listen to him on the range of issues from foreign policy to the virus to racial injustice, it’s clear he did not know what to do. Trump was overwhelmed by the job. He was largely disconnected from the needs and leadership expectations of the public and his absolute self-focus became the presidency… ‘The Trump Tapes’ leaves no doubt that after four years in the presidency, Trump has learned where the levers of power are, and full control means installing absolute loyalists in key Cabinet and White House posts. The record now shows that Trump has led — and continues to lead — a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which in effect is an effort to destroy democracy.”

It’s clear that this will be a ‘thing.’ Might be useful to track how it is used.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/21/metaverse_interpol/

Team Interpol: Metaverse Police

Interpol this week unveiled what it has called a Metaverse for police around the world while signalling a lawless virtual universe will not be tolerated.

The Interpol Metaverse is "fully operational" and available from the international police force's cloud service, we're told. To us, it seems to be a shared virtual reality space that you connect into using a suitable VR headset. Once in, you can visit a virtual version of the organization's headquarters in Lyon, France; interact with other cops' avatars just as they can interact with yours; and take training courses, such as learning all about forensic investigations.

The police have got themselves a 3D chat room. Well, at least it saves them a trip to France.

Perhaps we need some new definitions. “That image wasn’t exactly/100% copied, but my AI thinks that at least 12.8% was derived from my images.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/21/tech/artists-ai-images/

These artists found out their work was used to train AI. Now they’re furious

… Hanson, who’s based in McMinnville, Oregon, is one of many professional artists whose work was included in the data set used to train Stable Diffusion, which was released in August by London-based Stability AI. She’s one of several artists interviewed by CNN Business who were unhappy to learn that pictures of their work were used without someone informing them, asking for consent, or paying for their use.