It’s not just hospitals… Should we assume all transcripts have been (or should have been) edited? What does that do to their evidentiary value?

https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14

Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said

Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.”

But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

… The full extent of the problem is difficult to discern, but researchers and engineers said they frequently have come across Whisper’s hallucinations in their work. A University of Michigan researcher conducting a study of public meetings, for example, said he found hallucinations in 8 out of every 10 audio transcriptions he inspected, before he started trying to improve the model.

A machine learning engineer said he initially discovered hallucinations in about half of the over 100 hours of Whisper transcriptions he analyzed. A third developer said he found hallucinations in nearly every one of the 26,000 transcripts he created with Whisper.

Sensible?

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/26/worker_surveillance_credit_reporting_privacy_requirement/

Worker surveillance must comply with credit reporting rules

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday published guidance advising businesses that third-party reports about workers must comply with the consent and transparency requirements set forth in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

… "Workers shouldn't be subject to unchecked surveillance or have their careers determined by opaque third-party reports without basic protections," declared CFPB director Rohit Chopra in a statement. "The kind of scoring and profiling we've long seen in credit markets is now creeping into employment and other aspects of our lives. Our action today makes clear that longstanding consumer protections apply to these new domains just as they do to traditional credit reports."

A very foreign foreign policy?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-has-regularly-held-secret-talks-with-vladimir-putin/

Musk Has Regularly Held Secret Talks With Vladimir Putin

… The report is alarming on several fronts, as Musk has taken on an outsized role in former President Donald Trump’s campaign for re-election. He holds top-secret clearance as the head of SpaceX, which launches satellites that are vital to U.S. national security, and he owns X, a social media platform with 600 million active users.

… It’s not clear from the report whether Musk was already talking to the Russians when he was in the process of buying X, formerly Twitter, in the fall of 2022. But since the contact started, he’s begun criticizing U.S. military aid in Ukraine, allowed Russian disinformation to run rampant on X and become Trump’s second-biggest campaign booster.

Too expensive? (LinkedIn’s 2024 revenue was $16.37 billion)

https://thehackernews.com/2024/10/irish-watchdog-imposes-record-310.html

Irish Watchdog Imposes Record €310 Million Fine on LinkedIn for GDPR Violations

The Irish data protection watchdog on Thursday fined LinkedIn €310 million ($335 million) for violating the privacy of its users by conducting behavioral analyses of personal data for targeted advertising.

"The inquiry examined LinkedIn's processing of personal data for the purposes of behavioral analysis and targeted advertising of users who have created LinkedIn profiles (members)," the Data Protection Commission (DPC) said. "The decision [...] concerns the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency of this processing."

Perspective. (On the other hand, would it be as good an investment as Standard Oil?)

https://thenextweb.com/news/how-online-world-change-big-tech-companies-google-forced-break-u

How your online world could change if big tech companies like Google are forced to break up

The downsides of a big tech break up

The US Department of Justice may be on the verge of seeking a break-up of Google in a bid to make it less dominant. If the government goes ahead and is successful in the courts, it could mean the company being split into separate entities – a search engine, an advertising company, a video website, a mapping app – which would not be allowed to share data with each other.

While this is still a distant prospect, it is being considered in the wake of a series of rulings in the US and the EU which suggest that regulators are becoming increasingly frustrated by the power of big tech. That power tends to be highly concentrated, whether it’s Google’s monopoly as a search engine, Meta’s data gathering from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, or by small businesses becoming dependent on Amazon.

Well, not everything…

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/23/1105192/ai-hype-index-nov-dec-2024/

Introducing: The AI Hype Index

Everything you need to know about the state of AI.

… Our first index is a white-knuckle ride that ranges from the outright depressing—rising numbers of sexually explicit deepfakes; the complete lack of rules governing Elon Musk’s Grok AI model—to the bizarre, including AI-powered dating wingmen and startup Friend’s dorky intelligent-jewelry line.

Click an icon to read more on the topic.

Because… (Easy to print and share)

https://www.bespacific.com/national-security-agency-mobile-device-best-practices/

National Security Agency Mobile Device Best Practices

NSA Mobile Device Best Practices report offers tips to thwart hackers and attackers from assaulting your mobile device. One method is as simple as turning your phone off and on.

Perspective.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/the-global-surveillance-free-for-all-in-mobile-ad-data/

The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data

Not long ago, the ability to digitally track someone’s daily movements just by knowing their home address, employer, or place of worship was considered a dangerous power that should remain only within the purview of nation states. But a new lawsuit in a likely constitutional battle over a New Jersey privacy law shows that anyone can now access this capability, thanks to a proliferation of commercial services that hoover up the digital exhaust emitted by widely-used mobile apps and websites.

Surveillance is inevitable? (At least in public spaces…)

https://www.404media.co/lawsuit-argues-warrantless-use-of-flock-surveillance-cameras-is-unconstitutional/

Lawsuit Argues Warrantless Use of Flock Surveillance Cameras Is Unconstitutional

A civil liberties organization has filed a federal lawsuit in Virginia arguing that widespread surveillance enabled by Flock, a company that sells networks of automated license plate readers, is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

“The City of Norfolk, Virginia, has installed a network of cameras that make it functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored in an AI-assisted database that enables the warrantless surveillance of their every move.

We can, therefore we must.

https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/news-corp-dow-jones-ny-post-sue-perplexity-copyright-infringement-1236184900/

Dow Jones and New York Post Sue AI Startup Perplexity, Alleging ‘Massive’ Copyright Infringement

… “Perplexity is a generative artificial intelligence company that claims to provide its users accurate and up-to-date news and information in a platform that, in Perplexity’s own words, allows users to ‘Skip the Links’ to original publishers’ websites,” the companies said in the federal lawsuit, filed Monday. “Perplexity attempts to accomplish this by engaging in a massive amount of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and diverting customers and critical revenues away from those copyright holders. This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce.”

Perspective.

https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-it-symposium-xpo-highlights-2024

IT Symposium/Xpo 2024

Gartner experts explore the technology, insights and trends shaping the future of IT and business at IT Symposium/Xpo 2024 in Orlando, FL.

… Download your detailed guide to the Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2025 and learn how they align to your digital ambitions. 

My AI and I need a side hustle…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/10/ai-and-the-sec-whistleblower-program.html

AI and the SEC Whistleblower Program

… Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is engaged in a modern-day version of tax farming. And the potential for abuse will grow when the farmers start using artificial intelligence.

… In one case, the SEC’s largest ever, it paid $279 million to an individual whistleblower. That single award was nearly one-third of the funding of the SEC’s entire enforcement division last year.

Imagine an enemy targeting the US without Google Maps…

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/tesla_tsmc_china_legal_worries/

Tesla, Intel, deny they're the foreign company China just accused of making maps that threaten national security

… The Ministry of State Security (MSS) last Wednesday accused the unnamed firm of evading supervision and hiding its true motive, and equated it to spying.

"According to China's laws and regulations, the original data of surveying and mapping geographic information may involve high-precision measurement information such as military centers and key departments, and there is a risk that it will be used abroad to mark China's key core parts," explained the ministry. In this particular scenario, the foreign entity allegedly controlled the flow of data, and ordered it transferred overseas.

AI vs a classroom full of law students? Which way did the ‘agreement’ lean?

https://krcgtv.com/news/local/mizzou-professor-trains-artificial-intelligence-to-negotiate-with-law-students

Mizzou professor trains artificial intelligence to negotiate with law students

Renee Henson trained an AI chatbot to conduct a legal negotiation with her law students.

… Students in Henson'sLawyering: Problem-Solving and Dispute Resolution class engaged in a products liability case with the trained AI Chatbox deemed "Toby."

"My class collectively represented the plaintiff. Toby represented the defendant. And we were able to come to an agreement.," Henson said.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.bespacific.com/ditttext/

DittText

• What is Diff Text? A simple diff checker tool to quickly find the difference between two blocks of text.

• What can it be used for? It can be used to compare changes with plain text, code, json, yaml, html, css, markdown, and more.

• What do the colors mean? Green means the text was added, red means the text was removed, and the rest is unchanged.

• What is the difference between comparison modes? “Word” compares the text broken down by words, while “char” compares the text broken down by individual characters.

• Can I compare files directly without copy and pasting? Yes, click the open file button or simply drag and drop the file into the text inputs.

• Is my text secure? Yes, all text is processed client-side and never leaves your browser.

Is AI the answer?

https://bpasjournals.com/library-science/index.php/journal/article/view/2284

An Analysis of the Impact of Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Sector

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the legal field has made drastic changes to the traditional practices of legal profession by improving on the aspects of efficiency, accuracy and access. This paper looks at how innovations in AI like machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics help or hinder the several processes of work in law including case studies, contracts, and legal decisions. The paper examines the efficiencies which include cutting down on costs and time, the reduction of human errors, and risk assessment of the legal operations through integration of AI technologies, the disadvantages of introducing the free use of AI, the ethical consideration, and issue that might be a hindrance in the integration process such as bias in the application of AI and the dilemma of data privacy. Therefore, while summarising the opportunities and challenges AI provides for the purpose of the legal work presented in this paper it is possible to conclude that this scholarship outlines how the AI is changing the nature of the legal services and the directions of such alterations in the future.

Would AI be fair?

https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781035337934/book-part-9781035337934-22.xml

Chapter 14: Artificial intelligence and the right to a fair trial

In the administration of justice, the court’s decision is based on the processing of information, regardless of the type of case or the nature of the proceedings. When a case is brought to court, the parties present certain information in the form of allegations and evidence. This information is then often supplemented or modified in the course of the proceedings by the formulation of new allegations or the taking of further evidence which is a source of information relevant to the case. In the end, the courts process and evaluate this information, draw conclusions, and make a decision about the case.

It is theoretically possible to attempt to reduce the judicial process to a simple ‘calculation’ in which the input, in the form of information about the law, evidence, and facts of a particular case, is the basis for the generation of the output, i.e. a decision by the court. In this view, the use of algorithms or artificial intelligence (AI) to generate court decisions on the basis of information provided by the parties, derived from the content of the evidence taken and illustrating the state of the law, is a theoretically feasible solution for the practice of justice. Indeed, some court cases today are not so informationally complex that they cannot be resolved using AI mechanisms.