If we can sneak this by, our lives will be much easier...
Draft EU plans to allow spying on journalists are dangerous, warn critics
Draft legislation published by EU leaders that would allow national security agencies to spy on journalists has been condemned by media and civic society groups as dangerous and described by a leading MEP as “incomprehensible”.
On Wednesday, the European Council – which represents the governments of EU member states – published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act that would allow spyware to be placed on journalists’ phones if a national government thought it necessary.
Unusually, the council did not take the step of holding an in-person meeting of ministers responsible for media before the draft was published.
The Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld, who has overseen the European parliament’s investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware on journalists and public figures, said the claim that permission to spy on the press was needed in the interests of national security was “a lie”.
“I think what the council is doing is unacceptable. It’s also incomprehensible. Well, it’s incomprehensible if they are serious about democracy,” said In ‘t Veld.
Maybe so, maybe not.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-9980-2_6
Technology and Lawyering: On Legal Practice and Value in a Digital Age
In 2010, Richard Susskind documented the impact of digital transformation and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the legal industry. He portentously queried, are we on the precipice of witnessing ‘The End of Lawyers’? It is now a decade since Susskind’s seminal publication on the future of the legal profession, and certainly, many of his proclamations ring true. The changes to the legal profession have been immense: robo judges, ‘newlaw’, online dispute resolution and blockchain technologies, to name a few. A fear that robots will replace lawyers preoccupies the profession. And yet, in 2021, the legal profession has not been transformed by digital technology and lawyers have not become extinct. There are still judges hearing cases and handing down judgements, and there are still bricks and mortar courts in which lawyers appear, paper brief in hand. So what does this say about the continued relevance of legal professionals in the digital world? How can we understand the human value of solicitors, barristers and judges in the face of digital transformation? What is it about the human element in the practice of law that pushes against its replacement by technologies often lauded as better, cheaper and faster? This chapter uses the legal profession as a prism to explore these themes, specifically through the narratives of five legal actors: a barrister, a law firm partner, an in-house lawyer, an ethics lawyer and a law student. It asks them to reflect upon their human value, which perhaps the world of law can’t do without. In tracking the changing nature of the legal profession and interweaving the rich narratives of central protagonists in the legal world, this chapter contributes to the broader understanding of the digital human condition with which this book is concerned.
A large part of my working life was involved with computer auditing, so this caught my eye.
CHANGE FROM THE OUTSIDE: TOWARDS CREDIBLE THIRD-PARTY AUDITS OF AI SYSTEMS
When artificial intelligence (AI) systems cause harm, it is important to identify the responsible stakeholders and hold them accountable. Recently, AI audits have become an increasingly popular proposed accountability mechanism, and a growing ecosystem of AI auditors has emerged. By AI audit, we mean a process through which an auditor evaluates an AI system or product according to a specific set of criteria and provides findings and recommendations. AI audits can help identify whether AI systems meet stated performance targets, or in terms of other concerns such as bias and harm, data protection and privacy, transparency and accountability, adherence to standards and regulatory requirements, or labor practices and ecological impacts. AI audits may be conducted by first-party (internal), second-party (contracted), or third-party (external and fully independent) auditors. Third-party auditors, such as independent researchers, investigative journalists, community advocates, law firms, and regulators, have conducted many of the most impactful audits of AI systems to date. However, despite the importance of third-party auditors to AI accountability, this group has been mostly overlooked in AI policy.
In this chapter, we propose seven key policy interventions to strengthen the ability of third-party auditors to scrutinize AI systems: legal protections for third-party AI auditor access; accreditation for AI auditors; standards development for AI products; AI harm incident reporting; mandatory public disclosure of AI systems use; a frame shift beyond AI bias to harms; and accountability mechanisms to ensure appropriate audit responses.
By identifying these missing links, we hope to help advance a regulatory landscape that enables, protects and supports the ability of “outsiders” such as third-party auditors and other external stakeholders to scrutinize AI systems. We believe that credible third-party audits will help protect the human rights of communities that are most likely to be harmed by the use of AI systems
A look into the crystal ball.
As AI Spreads, Experts Predict the Best and Worst Changes in Digital Life by 2035
Spurred by the splashy emergence of generative artificial intelligence and an array of other AI applications, experts participating in a new Pew Research Center canvassing have great expectations for digital advances across many aspects of life by 2035. They anticipate striking improvements in health care and education. They foresee a world in which wonder drugs are conceived and enabled in digital spaces; where personalized medical care gives patients precisely what they need when they need it; where people wear smart eyewear and earbuds that keep them connected to the people, things and information around them; where AI systems can nudge discourse into productive and fact-based conversations; and where progress will be made in environmental sustainability, climate action and pollution prevention.
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