I’ll still be anti-social…

https://www.bespacific.com/an-illustrated-field-guide-to-social-media/

An Illustrated Field Guide to Social Media

Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University: “This field guide looks at social media that works on different “logics” than do Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. It features communities that have tried consciously to use different models than surveillance capitalism and includes the work of collaborators in other countries and subcultures. No field guide would be complete without images Much as a field guide to birds helps us look more closely at the birds we encounter on a walk through our neighborhoods, Fiammetta Ghedini’s remarkable illustrations in this field guide help us look at social media differently. The Institute published the illustrated guide in connection with “Reimagine the Internet,” a virtual conference about what the internet could and should become over the next decade…”

Worth reading, even if I don’t agree. So smart they’re dangerous? “We built ‘em, but we can’t control ‘em.”

https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/infrastructure-security/perspective-why-strong-artificial-intelligence-weapons-should-be-considered-wmd/

PERSPECTIVE: Why Strong Artificial Intelligence Weapons Should Be Considered WMD

Another caution.

https://analyticsindiamag.com/correlation-causation-the-couple-that-wasnt/

Correlation & Causation: The Couple That Wasn’t

… In ‘The Book of Why. The New Science of Cause and Effect’, authors Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie pointed out that machine learning suffers from causal inference challenges. The book said deep learning is good at finding patterns but can’t explain its relationship—a sort of black box. Big Data is seen as the silver bullet for all data science problems. However, the authors posit ‘data are profoundly dumb’ because it can only tell about an occurrence and not necessarily why it happened. Causal models, on the other hand, make up for the disadvantages that deep learning and data mining suffers from. Author Pearl, a Turing Awardee and the developer of Bayesian networks, thinks causal reasoning could help machines develop human-like intelligence by asking counterfactual questions.

Things I should think about.

https://thewalrus.ca/the-double-exploitation-of-deepfake-porn/

The Double Exploitation of Deepfake Porn

Discussions around deepfakes have focused on their political danger. But revenge porn and IP theft are the more pressing threats

… A 2019 study by cybersecurity company Deeptrace Labs found that 96 percent of deepfakes involve sexually explicit scenes. There are thousands of clips in which the faces of celebrities, like Gal Gadot, Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Watson, or even seventeen-year-old TikTok star Charli D’Amelio, have been superimposed onto the bodies of adult film stars.

… Sex workers have long served as canaries in the online coal mine. From being at the forefront of technologies like payment processors for online transactions to confronting censorship like deplatforming and shadowbanning (the act of social media companies blocking a user or their content without informing them), internet porn is a predictor of emerging internet norms. Interestingly, performers I spoke to have no quarrel with the deepfaking itself, only with the unethical application and stealing source material.

Perspective.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/11/ai-dominated-scientific-output-in-recent-years-unesco-report-shows/

AI ‘dominated scientific output’ in recent years, UNESCO report shows

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) today unveiled its latest Science Report. The massive undertaking — this year’s report totals 762 pages, compiled by 70 authors from 52 countries over 18 months — is published every five years to examine current trends in science governance. This latest edition includes discussion of the rapid progress toward Industry 4.0 and, for the first time, a deep analysis of AI and robotics research around the globe.

Perspective.

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3621752/the-great-cloud-computing-surge.html

The great cloud computing surge

Driven in part by the pandemic, cloud computing adoption has reached new heights. These five articles take a close look at the implications.

We reached a big milestone in 2020: Cloud services revenue finally surpassed enterprise spending on data centers, according to the Synergy Research Group. One of the longest-running trends in IT – moving to the cloud – has been turbocharged, driven in part by a pandemic that pushed enterprises to avoid the logistical challenges and capital expense of deploying on prem.

But the endless capacity to add horsepower without provisioning your own infrastructure isn’t the biggest draw. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud have become launchpads for the latest technology innovations, which developers can jump on to build innovative new applications. Machine learning libraries? Globally distributed databases? IoT platforms with all the bells and whistles? The big three clouds have ‘em all – ready, waiting, and API-accessible. It’s enough to make you wonder why you’d bother to build and maintain your own datacenter.

Might be amusing blown up to wall sized.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/map-internet-online-digital-countries/

A map of the online world in incredible detail

The internet is intangible, and because you can’t see it, it can be hard to comprehend its sheer vastness. As well, it’s difficult to gauge the relative size of different web properties. However, this map of the internet by Halcyon Maps offers a unique solution to these problems.

Inspired by the look and design of historical maps, this graphic provides a snapshot of the current state of the World Wide Web, as of April 2021.

… View the giant full-size (20 MB) version of this map.

A unique response to ransomware.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-06-14

Perspective.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02663821211020194

The new physicality of data

The mass digitisation of data arguably began in the late 1980s with the mainstream adoption of new low-cost desktop computers in the workplace and visions of a paperless office. The term reflected a focus on the digitisation of existing processes. Such comparisons continued with the arrival of the Internet and worldwide web in the mid-1990s, with visions of e-commerce replacing traditional bricks-and-mortar shops. In the first two decades of the 21st century, we have entered an era where much of the data created is now digital by design and default yet simultaneously integrated with physical objects and real-world interactions. This article explores some of the innovations made possible by this new physicality of data, from the birth of a digital twin to the death of privacy, and the growing urgency for new approaches to data governance and information lifecycle management.

Law takes longer than you think.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-021-00460-9

The European Legislation on AI: a Brief Analysis of its Philosophical Approach

Things is gonna change!

file:///C:/Users/temp/Downloads/digital-human-sciences.pdf

Digital Human Sciences

The ongoing digitization of culture and society and the ongoing production of new digital objects in culture and society require new ways of investigation, new theoretical avenues, and new multidisciplinary frameworks. In order to meet these requirements, this volume digs into questions concerning, for example: the epistemology of data produced and shared on social media platforms; the need for new legal concepts that regulate the increasing use of artificial intelligence in society; and the need for combinatory methods to research new media objects such as podcasts, web art, and online journals in relation to their historical, social, institutional, and political effects and contexts. Gathered around the perspective of what we call digital human sciences—a field of research that includes the humanities, the social sciences, and law— the chapters in this volume emanate from scholars situated within a broad range of disciplines. Nevertheless, they meet in the mutual objectives of researching the present digitization of culture and society and of discussing ways of doing research within this field of study.

(Related) Reducing anti-AI bias?

https://www.proquest.com/openview/9f706d4618f6daaf723b7a7744277c10/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1796423

Toward Industry 5.0: Ethical and Moral Responsibilities in Intelligent Autonomous Systems

By Industry 4.0, we have entered a period where machines communicate with each other. This period constitutes the first steps of the Industry 5.0 era, where machines will make autonomous decisions and these decisions will have significant effects on people's lives. High achievements obtained in many areas with Artificial Intelligence algorithms are the basis of these developments in the industry. The fact that intelligent systems, whose intelligibility decrease as their success and complexity increase, will be used in making important decisions that affect people has brought many doubts. These doubts are not only related to the end-user side but also social and economic transformations. The main obstacles to Industry 5.0 are social prejudices against the intelligent community that is planned to be developed. For this reason, it must be explained to the public about what kind of ethical and moral responsibilities intelligent and autonomous machines have. In this study, it was investigated in which situations artificial intelligence should have ethical and moral values and how it can learn these values. In addition, the possible social and technological implications of a trustworthy ethical basis for intelligent autonomous systems have been evaluated by compiling existing studies in the context of technology and sociology.

(Related) Animals got rights, just like AI rights?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-021-00065-0

Moral consideration of nonhumans in the ethics of artificial intelligence

This paper argues that the field of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics needs to give more attention to the values and interests of nonhumans such as other biological species and the AI itself. It documents the extent of current attention to nonhumans in AI ethics as found in academic research, statements of ethics principles, and select projects to design, build, apply, and govern AI. It finds that the field of AI ethics gives limited and inconsistent attention to nonhumans, with the main activity being a line of research on the moral status of AI. The paper argues that nonhumans merit moral consideration, meaning that they should be actively valued for their own sake and not ignored or valued just for how they might benefit humans. Finally, it explains implications of moral consideration of nonhumans for AI ethics research and practice, including for the content of AI ethics principles, the selection of AI projects, the accounting of inadvertent effects of AI systems such as via their resource and energy consumption and potentially certain algorithmic biases, and the research challenge of incorporating nonhuman interests and values into AI system design. The paper does not take positions on which nonhumans to morally consider or how to balance the interests and values of humans vs. nonhumans. Instead, the paper makes the more basic argument that the field of AI ethics should move from its current state of affairs, in which nonhumans are usually ignored, to a state in which nonhumans are given more consistent and extensive moral consideration.

Without all the rhetoric, it is legal to require your employees to take drugs?

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/558173-judge-dismisses-staff-lawsuit-against-houston-methodist-vaccine-mandate

Judge dismisses staff lawsuit over Houston Methodist vaccine mandate

A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a lawsuit from more than 100 employees of the Houston Methodist hospital system over the hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes said the employees weren’t illegally being forced to get vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.

The decision is a victory for Houston Methodist, which was the first hospital system in the U.S. to mandate its employees get vaccinated, though plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling.

… Houston Methodist gave its employees until June 7 to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or face termination.

… The 117 plaintiffs, led by Jennifer Bridges, a nurse, accused the hospital of “forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.”

The suit further alleged that the vaccines were experimental and dangerous, and that being forced to get vaccinated violated federal law.

Perspective. This won’t be the only industry impacted.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/software-eating-car

How Software Is Eating the Car

Predictions of lost global vehicle production caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage continue to rise. In January, analysts forecast that 1.5 million fewer vehicles would be produced as a result of the shortage; by April that number had steadily climbed to more than 2.7 million units, and by May, to more than 4.1 million units.

The semiconductor shortage has underscored not only the fragility of the automotive supply chain, but placed an intense spotlight on the auto industry’s reliance on the dozens of concealed computers embedded throughout vehicles today.

“No other industry is undergoing as rapid technological change as the auto industry,” says Zoran Filipi, Chair of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research. “This is driven by the need to address impending, evermore stringent CO2 and criteria emission regulations, while sustaining unprecedented rate of progress with development of automation and infotainment, and meeting the customer expectations regarding performance, comfort, and utility.”

A teaser for better writers?

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-become-a-paid-writer/

How to Become a Paid Writer: A Guide for Graduates

Looking for a career as a writer, but don't know where to begin? Read this guide for top tips and helpful websites to kickstart your writing career.

Would make a great April Fool story, unfortunately..

https://gizmodo.com/this-shockingly-invasive-malware-stole-data-from-3-25-m-1847079897

This Shockingly Invasive Malware Stole Data from 3.25 Million Windows Computers

Between 2018 and 2020, [No one noticed? Bob] a mysterious strain of malware infected and stole sensitive data from approximately 3.25 million Windows-based computers—taking with it a horrifying amount of intimate information about the users of those devices.

The data includes login credentials—both usernames and passwords—for dozens of online platforms, as well as billions of browser cookies, millions of user files stolen right off of infected desktops and, in some cases, pictures of the device’s user taken with the computer’s own webcam.

The malicious epidemic was uncovered recently when a large database of the stolen information was spotted on the dark web, reports NordLocker in a new analysis of the incident.

… The compromised login information includes 1,471,416 Facebook credentials; 261,773 Twitter credentials; 145,436 PayPal credentials; 87,282 Dropbox credentials; 1,540,650 Google account credentials, and so on. Other compromised accounts include Coinbase, Blockchain, Outlook, Skype, Netflix...you get the picture.

On top of this, the malware also apparently took screenshots of the desktops it had infected, which retroactively helped researchers piece together just how much information had been compromised. To get a better idea of how extensive the damage is, here is a little breakdown:

2 billion cookies

26 million login credentials

6.6. million files (apparently stolen off of desktops)

Upwards of 1 million images (696,000 .png and 224,000 .jpg files)

More than 650,000 Word documents and .pdf files

… You can check out a more detailed breakdown of all of the stolen files here.

(Related)

https://threatpost.com/supply-chain-attack-airlines-state-actor/166842/

Monumental Supply-Chain Attack on Airlines Traced to State Actor

A monster cyberattack on SITA, a global IT provider for 90 percent of the world’s airline industry, is slowly unfurling to reveal the largest supply-chain attack on the airline industry in history.

The enormous data breach, estimated to have already impacted 4.5 million passengers, has potentially been traced back to the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor APT41, and analysts are warning airlines to hunt down any traces of the campaign concealed within their networks.

Politics for fun and profit? Would Machiavelli approve?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3621774/nation-states-cyberconflict-and-the-web-of-profit.html#tk.rss_all

Nation States, Cyberconflict, and the Web of Profit.

HP recently announced the findings of a new study – Nation States, Cyberconflict, and the Web of Profit – showing that nation state cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, varied, and open, moving us closer to a point of “advanced cyberconflict” than at any time since the inception of the internet.

Download the report: Nation States, Cyberconflict and the Web of Profit

Download the infographic: Nation States, Cyberconflict and the Web of Profit Infographic

(Related) Frustration is rising.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/uk_ungge_cyber_norms_submission/

UK tells UN that nation-states should retaliate against cyber badness with no warning

Britain has told the UN that international cyber law should allow zero-notice digital punishment directed at countries that attack others' infrastructure.

A statement made by UK diplomats to the UN's Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing Responsible State Behaviour in the Context of International Security (UN GGE) called for international law to permit retaliation for cyber attacks with no notice.

"The UK does not consider that States taking countermeasures are legally obliged to give prior notice (including by calling on the State responsible for the internationally wrongful act to comply with international law) in all circumstances," said the British submission to the UN GGE, made in advance of the G7 heads of government meeting in Cornwall this week.

What is likely, doable or at least possible?

https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/human-rights-and-ai-interesting-insights-from-australias-commission/

Human rights and AI: interesting insights from Australia’s commission

The conundrum is one that many governments face: how do you make the most of technological advances in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) while protecting people’s rights? This applies to government as both a user of the tech and a regulator with a mandate to protect the public.

Australia’s Human Rights Commission recently undertook an exercise to consider this very question. Its final report, Human Rights and Technology, was published recently and includes some 38 recommendations – from establishing an AI Safety Commissioner to introducing legislation so that a person is notified when a company uses AI in a decision that affects them.

Price fixing, government style.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/ny-cant-force-isps-to-offer-15-low-income-broadband-plans-judge-rules/

NY can’t force ISPs to offer $15 low-income broadband plans, judge rules

On Friday, the broadband industry won a court order that prohibits New York from enforcing a state law that would require ISPs to sell $15-per-month broadband plans to low-income households.

Lobby groups for ISPs sued New York to block the law that was scheduled to take effect on June 15 and received a preliminary injunction today from US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The state law is preempted by federal law, US District Judge Denis Hurley wrote in the order. While the case will continue, Hurley found that the industry is likely to succeed in its lawsuit.

Future war?

https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/2021/06/11/drone-wars-new-book-wonders-who-will-be-the-next-drone-superpower/

‘Drone Wars’: New book wonders who will be the next drone superpower

Victory in the next major conflict could very well depend on the effectiveness of drones — from their swarm capabilities to their surveillance and artificial intelligence technologies. In “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future,” author and Defense News correspondent Seth J. Frantzman wonders: Who will be this victorious drone superpower?

Tools & Techniques. Forgery made easy?

https://about.fb.com/news/2021/06/ai-can-now-emulate-text-style-in-images-in-one-shot-using-just-a-single-word/

AI Can Now Copy Text Style in Images Using Just a Single Word

… Today, we’re introducing TextStyleBrush, the first self-supervised AI model that replaces text in existing images of both scenes and handwriting — in one shot — using just a single example word. The work will also be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-record-a-phone-call-on-iphone/

How to Record Phone Calls and Conversations on iPhone

As a result of country and state-specific laws, Apple has not created a built-in phone recording option. Apple's impeccable privacy settings are one reason it has attracted so many worldwide customers. However, you can still record iPhone phone calls using some workarounds.

Perspective. Business-like to deflect suspicion from the countries that control them?

https://news.softpedia.com/news/u-s-gets-hit-by-more-than-7-ransomware-attacks-an-hour-533191.shtml

U.S. Gets Hit by More Than 7 Ransomware Attacks an Hour

… The increase in attacks has been seen for years. According to Recorded Future, a Boston-based cybersecurity firm, there were 65,000 ransomware attacks last year.

… DarkSide, the Russia-based criminal organization responsible for the Colonial Pipeline attack, even employs what some analysts call a "customer service contact" to answer questions from targets under attack.

The start of an avalanche or an aberration?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93y3np/new-york-senate-passes-electronics-right-to-repair-legislation

New York Senate Passes Electronics Right-to-Repair Legislation

The legislation still has to pass the Assembly, but the Senate became the first legislative body in the US to pass a bill that would make it easier to fix your things.

Shouldn’t we have access to all (non-classified) data already? FOIA is spreading access, right?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/biden-administration-forms-new-ai-task-force/

Biden administration forms new AI task force

The Biden administration on Thursday announced the formation the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Resource Task Force, a group of 10 AI experts who will create a plan for giving AI researchers more access to data, computational resources and other tools.

I don’t think this is true, except in rare instances. Worth reading.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/what-if-ai-is-the-problem-not-the-solution/

What if AI is the problem, not the solution?

Artificial intelligence is a kind of modern alchemy. It promises to put the spark of humanity into inanimate objects. It says it can transmute dross into gold - taking heaps of formless data and magically creating new insights from it.

Of course that is hype, and we know it.

Learning.

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/webinar-proposed-eu-regulation-on-ai-1005030/

[Webinar] Proposed EU Regulation on AI - Impact and Ripple Effect - June 23rd, 9:00 am ET

Members of WLG's Artificial Intelligence Group will explore the proposed EU legal framework for AI - what businesses, institutions, and processes will be impacted; its implications; and the likely ripple effect to other jurisdictions.

This seems confusing. I see (suspect?) problems.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/09/house-democrats-announce-tech-bills-492703

House Democrats about to uncork 5-pronged assault on tech

House Democrats are set to introduce a package of five bills as soon as this week that would prohibit tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google from discriminating against rivals or buying potential competitors, [hostile takeovers only? Bob] two individuals familiar with the discussions told POLITICO — the most serious effort yet to rein in Silicon Valley’s power after years of complaints from Congress.

The most controversial bill would let prosecutors sue to break up major tech companies by forcing the platforms to sell off lines of business if they represent a conflict of interest. POLITICO obtained drafts of all five bills.

… Democrats on the House Judiciary antitrust panel circulated the draft bills to potential co-sponsors this week. They hope to lure at least some GOP members into supporting the bills, particularly Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, a critic of the large tech companies and the top Republican on the panel.

… “This is not traditional antitrust law. This is a broader concept of competition policy that borrows some antitrust concepts, but relies on a broader notion on what behavior for individual firms is inappropriate.”

… Under four of the bills, the Justice Department or the FTC would first be required to designate "covered platforms" — those with at least 500,000 U.S. users, $600 billion in revenue or market cap and a “critical trading partner” for other businesses. Those platforms would then have limitations on their conduct, mergers and data use. [No need to show monopolistic practices? Bob]

… Conflicts of interest: takes aim at companies like Amazon that operate a dominant platform and promote their own goods or services on it.

… Mergers: The platform would be required to show “clear and convincing evidence” in court that the potential rival doesn’t compete with it or pose a competitive threat. [At what level? Could a railroad buy an airline? Bob]

If they pay once, will they pay the next time?

https://www.databreaches.net/meat-processor-jbs-paid-11-million-in-ransom-to-hackers/

Meat processor JBS paid $11 million in ransom to hackers.

Rebecca Robbins reports:

The world’s largest meat processor said on Wednesday that it paid an $11 million ransom in Bitcoin to the hackers behind an attack that forced the shutdown last week of all the company’s U.S. beef plants and disrupted operations at poultry and pork plants.

The company, JBS, said in a statement that the decision to pay the ransom was made to protect its data and hedge against risk for its customers. The company said most of its facilities were back up and running when the payment was made.

Read more on The New York Times.

Another non-standard law.

https://www.databreaches.net/connecticut-on-its-way-to-an-enhanced-data-breach-notification-law/

Connecticut on its Way to an Enhanced Data Breach Notification Law

Joseph J. Lazzarotti, Jason C. Gavejian, and Maya Atrakchi of Jackson Lewis write:

State legislatures across the nation are prioritizing privacy and security matters, and Connecticut is no exception. This week, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced the passage of An Act Concerning Data Privacy Breaches, a measure that will enhance and strengthen Connecticut’s data breach notification law. The Connecticut House of Representatives unanimously approved the bill on May 27th, and Senate followed with unanimous approval shortly after. The bill now heads to Governor Ned Lamont for signage.

Read more on The National Law Review.

(Related)

https://www.insideprivacy.com/data/colorado-legislature-passes-comprehensive-consumer-privacy-bill/

Colorado Legislature Passes Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Bill

Colorado is poised to join the growing number of states enacting a comprehensive privacy law. On Monday, June 7, both houses of the legislature passed the Colorado Privacy Act. The bill will now be sent to the Governor for approval.

The law is too specific? Legislators didn’t think about the future?

https://www.theverge.com/22522486/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-avoid-escape-privacy

Is there any way out of Clearview’s facial recognition database?

… Clearview’s massive surveillance apparatus claims to hold 3 billion photos, accessible to any law enforcement agency with a subscription, and it’s likely you or people you know have been scooped up in the company’s dragnet. It’s known to have scraped sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram, and is able to use profile names and associated images to build a trove of identified and scannable facial images.

Little is known about the accuracy of Clearview’s software, but it appears to be powered by a massive trove of scraped and identified images, drawn from social media profiles and other personal photos on the public internet. That scraping is only possible because social media platforms like Facebook have consolidated immense amounts of personal data on their platforms, and then largely ignored the risks of large-scale data analysis projects like Clearview.

… Laws in some states and countries are also starting to catch up with privacy threats online. These laws circumvent platforms like Facebook and instead demand accountability from the companies actually scraping the data. The California Consumer Privacy Act allows residents to ask for a copy of the data that companies like Clearview have on them, and similar provisions exist in the European Union. Some laws mandate that the data must be deleted at the user’s request.

But King notes that just because the data is deleted once doesn’t mean the company can’t simply grab it again.

“It’s not a permanent opt-out,” she said. “I’m concerned that you execute that ‘delete my data’ request on May 31st, and on June 1st, they can go back to collecting your data.”

“Schoolkids got no rights!” (It’s not like they vote.)

https://www.pogowasright.org/massachusetts-school-committee-allows-real-time-crime-center-to-monitor-students-live/

Massachusetts School Committee Allows Real-Time Crime Center To Monitor Students Live

Joe Cadillic writes:

How does a school committee respond to a year of remote student learning? How will the Springfield, MA School Committee respond to post-COVID schooling?

Now that public schools are reopening (just in time for summer vacation) what are officials worried about? Is it face-to-face learning? Is it in-person interactions with students? Nope, it is mass surveillance and how to let Real-Time Crime Centers (RTCC) monitor students under the guise of public safety,

As MassLive reports, the decision to let the Springfield Police Department monitor students in real-time “feels tone deaf.”

Read more on MassPrivateI.

Is there any way to put a positive spin on this? Clearly you don’t like my face. If you claim to be ‘improving’ my looks, I find that rude.

https://texasnewstoday.com/tiktok-changed-the-shape-of-some-peoples-faces-without-asking/307743/

TikTok changed the shape of some people’s faces without asking

On the surface, it was a strange, temporary problem that affected some users and not others. But it also forced people to change their appearance. This is an important issue for apps used by about 100 million people in the United States. So I also sent a video to Amy Niu, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin who is studying the psychological effects of beauty filters. She pointed out that in China and several other places, some apps add subtle beauty filters by default. If Niu is using an app like WeChat, you can only really know that the filter is set by comparing your photo using the camera with the image generated by the app. I can do it.

A few months ago she said she downloaded a Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin. “Even if you turn off beauty mode and filters, you can still see facial adjustments,” she said.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to have beauty filters in your app, but app designers are responsible for considering how these filters are used and how they change the people who use them. Even temporary bugs can affect people’s perspectives.

(Related) Trying to keep up…

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/9/22525953/biden-tiktok-wechat-trump-bans-revoked-alipay?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Biden revokes and replaces Trump orders banning TikTok and WeChat

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat. In place of the Trump order, Biden will direct the commerce secretary to investigate apps with ties to foreign adversaries that may pose a risk to American data privacy or national security.

In case my AI wants to go into business...

https://www.bespacific.com/artificial-intelligence-as-a-service-legal-responsibilities-liabilities-and-policy-challenges/

Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges

Cobbe, Jennifer and Singh, Jatinder, Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges (April 12, 2021). Forthcoming in Computer Law & Security Review, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3824736 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3824736

“Artificial Intelligence as a Service (‘AIaaS’) will play a growing role in society’s technical infrastructure, enabling, facilitating, and underpinning functionality in many applications. AIaaS providers therefore hold significant power at this infrastructural level. We assess providers’ position in EU law, focusing on assignment of controllership for AIaaS processing chains in data protection law and the availability to providers of protection from liability for customers’ illegal use of AIaaS. We argue that in data protection law, according to current practice, providers are often joint controllers with customers for aspects of the AIaaS processing chain. We further argue that providers lack protection from liability for customers’ illegal activity. More fundamentally, we conclude that the role of providers in customer’s application functionality – as well as the significant power asymmetries between providers and customers – challenges traditional understandings of roles and responsibilities in these complex, networked, dynamic processing environments. Finally, we set out some relevant issues for future regulation of AIaaS. In all, AIaaS requires attention from academics, policymakers, and regulators alike.”

For a minute there, I thought their AI had written the paper…

https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/09/deepmind-says-reinforcement-learning-is-enough-to-reach-general-ai/

DeepMind says reinforcement learning is ‘enough’ to reach general AI

… In a new paper submitted to the peer-reviewed Artificial Intelligence journal, scientists at U.K.-based AI lab DeepMind argue that intelligence and its associated abilities will emerge not from formulating and solving complicated problems but by sticking to a simple but powerful principle: reward maximization.

Titled “Reward is Enough,” the paper, which is still in pre-proof as of this writing, draws inspiration from studying the evolution of natural intelligence as well as drawing lessons from recent achievements in artificial intelligence. The authors suggest that reward maximization and trial-and-error experience are enough to develop behavior that exhibits the kind of abilities associated with intelligence. And from this, they conclude that reinforcement learning, a branch of AI that is based on reward maximization, can lead to the development of artificial general intelligence.

Perspective.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/10/1026008/the-coming-productivity-boom/

The coming productivity boom

Productivity growth, a key driver for higher living standards, averaged only 1.3% since 2006, less than half the rate of the previous decade. But on June 3, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US labor productivity increased by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2021. What’s better, there’s reason to believe that this is not just a blip, but rather a harbinger of better times ahead: a productivity surge that will match or surpass the boom times of the 1990s.

Soon: “We don’t need no stinking humans!”

https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/08/compose-ai-raises-2-1m-to-help-everyone-write-faster/

Compose.ai raises $2.1M to help everyone write faster

… Compose.ai is essentially an auto-complete function that works wherever you browse the web. The company is also building the capability for its AI-powered backend to learn your voice, imbibe context to help provide better responses, and, in time, absorb a company’s larger voice to help align its aggregate writing output.

Co-founders Landon Sanford and Michael Shuffett told TechCrunch that Compose.ai believes that in five years, average folks won’t type every word that they write. They want to bring that future to more people through the Compose.ai Chrome extension, which hopefully workers can access without having to get corporate permission. [A hacker’s dream is a security managers nightmare. Bob]

I chose for my text, ‘English, as she is spoke.”

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-teach-english-online-and-work-from-anywhere-in-the-world/

How to Teach English Online and Work From Anywhere in the World

... If you’re new to the idea of teaching English online or have any questions about qualifications, finding jobs, different teaching platforms, and what the difference between TEFL and TESOL is, read this handy guide and introduction to teaching English online.