An interesting model for other industries?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/5-ways-ai-is-changing-baseball-and-big-data-is-up-at-bat/

5 ways AI is changing baseball - and big data is up at bat

… Dykstra has learned some important lessons during his two years with the Rangers. Here are five ways AI and data are helping to change baseball.

An increasingly popular viewpoint?

https://www.fastcompany.com/91240425/how-philosopher-shannon-vallor-delivered-the-years-best-critique-of-ai

How philosopher Shannon Vallor delivered the year’s best critique of AI

A few years ago, Shannon Vallor found herself in front of Cloud Gate, Anish Kapoor’s hulking mercury drop of a sculpture, better known as the Bean, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Staring into its shiny mirrored surface, she noticed something.

“I was seeing how it reflected not only the shapes of individual people, but big crowds, and even larger human structures like the Chicago skyline,” she recalls, “but also that these were distorted—some magnified, others shrunk or twisted.”

To Vallor, a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, this was reminiscent of machine learning, “mirroring the patterns found in our data, but in ways that are never neutral or ‘objective,’” she says. The metaphor became a popular part of her lectures, and with the advent of large language models (and the many AI tools they power), has gathered more potency. AI’s “mirrors” look and sound a lot like us because they are reflecting their inputs and training data, with all of the biases and peculiarities that entails. And whereas other analogies for AI might convey a sense of living intelligence (think of the “stochastic parrot” of widely cited 2021 paper), the “mirror” is more apt, says Vallor: AI isn’t sentient, just a flat, inert surface, captivating us with its fun-house illusions of depth.

(Related)

https://hbr.org/2024/12/ai-thinks-differently-than-people-do-heres-why-that-matters

AI Thinks Differently Than People Do. Here’s Why That Matters.

… Yet there’s a critical misconception embedded in this vision: Generative AI simply isn’t the strategic oracle many say it is. Like any other AI, it is a mirror that reflects patterns, trends, and decisions of the past.

Perspective.

https://dig.watch/updates/australian-federal-police-leverage-ai-for-investigations

Australian Federal Police leverage AI for investigations

The Australian Federal Police  (AFP) is increasingly turning to AI  to handle the vast amounts of data it encounters during investigations. With investigations involving up to 40 terabytes of data on average, AI has become essential in sifting through information from sources like seized phones, child exploitation referrals, and cyber incidents. Benjamin Lamont, AFP’s manager for technology strategy, emphasised the need for AI, given the overwhelming scale of data, stating that AI is crucial to help manage cases, including reviewing massive amounts of video footage and emails.

The AFP is also working on custom AI solutions, including tools for structuring large datasets and identifying potential criminal activity from old mobile phones. One such dataset is a staggering 10 petabytes, while individual phones can hold up to 1 terabyte of data. Lamont pointed out that AI plays a crucial role in making these files easier for officers to process, which would otherwise be an impossible task for human investigators alone. The AFP is also developing AI systems to detect deepfake images and protect officers from graphic content by summarising or modifying such material before it’s viewed.

Perspective.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/price-russian-victory

The Price of Russian Victory

… To figure out just how much money supporting Kyiv saves Washington, in a report to be released in January, my colleagues and I at the American Enterprise Institute added up the expenses the United States would face if Russia defeats Ukraine and then positions forces along NATO’s border. We considered the military capability, capacity, and posture the United States would need to deter and, potentially, defeat Russia should the Kremlin attack a NATO ally—while still preventing further conflict with emboldened adversaries in the Pacific and Middle East.

The resulting number is exorbitant. According to our calculations, defeat in Ukraine would require the United States to spend $808 billion more on defense over the next five years than it has budgeted. Since 2022, by contrast, Congress has appropriated $112 billion to the Defense Department to assist Kyiv. That means the aid provided to Ukraine through the Pentagon is less than 14 percent of what it would cost Washington to defend Europe against a victorious Russia. (That $112 billion is also mostly spent at home, on domestic weapons production.) Put another way, allowing Russia to defeat Ukraine would cost the United States about seven times more than preventing a Russian victory. Aiding Ukraine, then, is clearly the right financial decision.

I carry cash for the same reason…

https://databreaches.net/2024/12/13/dutch-people-advised-to-carry-cash-in-case-of-cyberattack-by-russia/

Dutch people advised to carry cash in case of cyberattack by Russia

Sarah McKenna Barry reports:

The Dutch Central Bank has issued an unprecedented warning to the public to keep cash at home due to the risk of cyberattacks from Russia.

Officials are concerned that cyberattacks have the potential to cause massive disruption to digital banking systems and want citizens to have some cash on them as an insurance policy. 

The Dutch Central Bank did not tell clients exactly how much money they should hide at home – but they promised more detailed instructions in the new year.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Cyber Risk International CEO Paul Dwyer said the Dutch Central Bank’s alert is a “stark warning”.

Read more at NewsTalk.

Better late then never?

https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/11/telecom_cybersecurity_standards/

Blocking Chinese spies from intercepting calls? There ought to be a law

US telecoms carriers would be required to implement minimum cyber security standards and ensure their systems are not susceptible to hacks by nation-state attackers – like Salt Typhoon – under legislation proposed by senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The Secure American Communications Act  [PDF], if signed into law, would require the Federal Communications Commission to issue binding rules for telecom systems, following what Wyden calls the FCC's "failure" to implement security standards already required by federal law. 

Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024

Pew:  Most teens use social media and have a smartphone, and nearly half say they’re online almost constantly. “Nine-in-ten teens report using YouTube, slightly down from 95% in 2022. Roughly six-in-ten teens say they use TikTok and Instagram, and 55% say the same for Snapchat.

Keeping up…

https://pogowasright.org/what-is-happening-in-privacy-law/

What Is Happening in Privacy Law?

Odia Kagan of Fox Rothschild writes:

Here are eight recent developments in privacy law you should consider as you get ready for the holidays.

Don’t Lie on Your AI

• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently issued a new enforcement action on AI “Greenwashing.”

• Make sure any AI-related marketing claims you make are accurate.

Data Brokers and Sensitive Information

• The FTC recently issued new enforcement actions on sensitive location, demonstrating the FTC’s strong stance on this topic. It also could hint at what the Trump Administration’s FTC will care about.

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau initiated NPRM for rules on situations that put data brokers inside scope for Fair Credit Reporting Act.

• CCPA amended its definition of “broker,” putting more companies in its scope than before

Privacy Notices

• The Texas Attorney General recently issued new notices of potential violation of the new Texas privacy law. If cured, these will not lead to enforcement.

• Interesting focus on clarity in privacy disclosures. It’s not enough to check boxes regarding what you need to disclose. It’s important that people be able to readily understand what you do with their data, and with whom you share that information.

Read about the other recent developments at Privacy Compliance & Data Security.

A look ahead?

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/tech-trends.html

Tech Trends 2025

In Deloitte’s 16th annual Tech Trends report, AI is the common thread of nearly every trend. Moving forward, it will be part of the substructure of everything we do.

Tech Trends 2025 reveals the extent to which AI is being woven into the fabric of our lives. We’ll eventually think of AI in the same way that we think of HTTP or electricity. We won’t proactively use it; we’ll simply experience a world in which it makes everything work smarter, faster, and more intuitively—like magic, but grounded in algorithms.

I should look for more like this in various industries.

https://www.bespacific.com/ebook-legal-knowledge-and-information-systems/

Ebook: Legal Knowledge and Information Systems

JURIX 2024: The Thirty-seventh Annual Conference, Brno, Czech Republic, 11-13 December 2024 – Series Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. Volume 395. Published 2024. Editors Jaromir Savelka, Jakub Harasta, Tereza Novotna, Jakub Misek. ISBN 978-1-64368-562-5 (online) Open Access. “Description – In the research community and the legal industry, interest continues to grow in technological advances related to legal information, knowledge representation, engineering, and processing in areas such as computational and formal models of legal reasoning, legal data analytics and information retrieval, as well as in the application of machine learning techniques to legal tasks, and the evaluation of these systems. This book presents the proceedings of JURIX 2024, the 37th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, held from 11 to 13 December in Brno, Czech Republic. The annual JURIX conference has become an international forum for academics and professionals to exchange knowledge and experiences at the intersection of law and artificial intelligence, and a total of 90 submissions were received for the conference. Following a rigorous review process, 21 long-paper submissions were selected for presentation and publication together with 17 short papers, representing an acceptance rate of 23% for long papers and 42% overall. An additional 16 submissions were accepted as posters. Topics covered included formal approaches applied to various aspects of legal reasoning; machine learning; natural language processing and information retrieval methods as applied to various legal tasks; hybrid approaches to working on the frontier between symbolic and sub-symbolic methods; experimental inquiries on the interface between computational systems and legal systems; and network analysis in law. Covering a wide range of topics and providing an overview of recent advances, the book will be of interest to all those working at the intersection between artificial intelligence and law.”

Perspective.

https://hls.harvard.edu/today/stephanopoulos-buckland-discuss-the-impact-of-ai-on-justice-systems-and-democracy/

‘Justice is not justice if it is a desiccated calculating machine’

… “Even when instructed to be a merciful, kind judge focused on practical consequences for the community, still the AI didn’t want to deviate away from the plain text of the statute and the precedent. [It] shows us that it’s not easy at all to get an AI to behave the way that a human judge does. Maybe that’s bad, maybe that’s good, but you can’t just clearly emulate human judging, at least at present, with AI.”

The Future as seen in 1978.

https://www.openculture.com/2024/12/arthur-c-clarke-predicts-the-rise-of-artificial-intelligence-questions-what-will-happen-to-humanity-1978.html

Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Rise of Artificial Intelligence & Questions What Will Happen to Humanity (1978)

… Yet even deep into one such fallow season, AI could still inspire enough fascination to become the subject of the 1978 NOVA documentary “Mind Machines.”

The program includes interviews with figures now recognized as luminaries in the history of AI: John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Terry Winograd, ELIZA creator Joseph Weizenbaum. It also brings on no less a technological prophet than Arthur C. Clarke, who notes that the dubious attitudes toward the prospect of thinking machines expressed in the late seventies had much in common with those about the prospect of space travel during his youth in the thirties. In his view, we were already “creating our successors. We have seen the first, crude beginnings of artificial intelligence,” and we would “one day be able to design systems that can go on improving themselves.”

Could be amusing to listen in. I wonder if they will make them available?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-alleges-china-hacked-calls-very-senior-political-figures-official-says-2024-12-07/

US alleges China hacked calls of 'very senior' political figures, official says

The U.S. believes that an alleged sweeping Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded telephone calls of "very senior" American political figures, a White House official said on Saturday.

… She did not elaborate, including revealing the identities of those who were targeted.

… The New York Times in October reported that members of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's family and Biden administration officials were among those targeted by China-linked hackers who broke into telecommunications companies.

A leading indicator?

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sheeba-Afridi/publication/386341455_The_Role_of_Artificial_Intelligence_in_Modern_Warfare_and_International_Security/links/674e0d36a7fbc259f1a62676/The-Role-of-Artificial-Intelligence-in-Modern-Warfare-and-International-Security.pdf

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Modern Warfare and International Security

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly transforming the landscape of modern warfare and international security, introducing new capabilities, challenges, and ethical dilemmas. AI technologies, ranging from autonomous weapons systems to advanced data analysis tools, are being integrated into military strategies and defense systems, altering the way conflicts are fought and security is maintained. AI's potential to enhance decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and enable real-time responses to threats has led to its rapid adoption by military forces around the world. These advancements promise significant improvements in precision, speed, and effectiveness in both offensive and defensive operations. However, the integration of AI in warfare also raises serious concerns about accountability, control, and the potential for unintended consequences. Autonomous weapons, capable of operating without human intervention, present risks in terms of ethical decision-making, potential escalation of conflicts, and the loss of human oversight. The possibility of AI systems being hacked or malfunctioning also presents vulnerabilities in military operations, potentially leading to catastrophic outcomes. Moreover, AIdriven warfare could exacerbate global security tensions, as states race to develop and deploy these technologies, potentially triggering a new arms race in autonomous weaponry and cybersecurity. In the realm of international security, AI also plays a significant role in intelligence gathering, surveillance, and cyber defense. AI-powered algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data quickly, identifying patterns and threats that would otherwise go unnoticed, thus strengthening national security frameworks. However, the use of AI for surveillance and cybersecurity raises privacy concerns and the risk of state overreach

Perspective.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/ai-weapons-and-dangerous-illusion-human-control

AI Weapons and the Dangerous Illusion of Human Control

… Although it’s comforting to imagine that living, breathing people will restrain mindless algorithms from killing indiscriminately, this consensus is out of step with technological reality. The AI models driving contemporary autonomous weapons are often too sophisticated for even the best-trained operators to supervise. What is more, every proposed use for autonomous weapons imagines them operating at massive scale, which would require levels of data, speed, and complexity that would make meaningful human intervention impossible. Under normal conditions, expecting a human being to weigh the merits of an AI system’s analysis and suggest courses of action would be challenging. Under combat conditions—marked by severe stress, limited time, and interrupted or nonexistent communications between individuals, units, and higher authorities—doing so would be impossible. Rather than indulge the illusion that humans will have the capacity to control autonomous weapons in wartime, therefore, militaries must build trust in their models for autonomous weapons now—under peacetime conditions—and let them function without excessive human intervention when the shooting starts.

This is a first. Is it possible they have proof but are unwilling to admit their security failure?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/europe/romania-annuls-presidential-election-intl/index.html

Romania’s top court annuls presidential election result

Romania’s constitutional court has annulled the first round of the country’s 2024 presidential election process, which was narrowly won by far-right ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu amid allegations of Russian interference.

The historic decision means a second-round runoff that was scheduled for Sunday, when Georgescu would have gone head to head with his centrist rival Elena Lasconi, will no longer take place.

In a press release, the court said the annulment was based on Article 146(f) of the Constitution, emphasizing the need to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process.

… It also comes just days after the vote was hit with fears over foreign interference, after declassified documents from Romania’s top security council found evidence of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks.”

Not quite Skynet, but getting closer.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/openai-partners-with-defense-company-anduril.html

OpenAI partners with defense company Anduril

OpenAI and Anduril on Wednesday announced a partnership allowing the defense tech company to deploy advanced artificial intelligence systems for “national security missions.”

… The OpenAI-Anduril partnership announced Wednesday will “focus on improving the nation’s counter-unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) and their ability to detect, assess and respond to potentially lethal aerial threats in real-time,” according to a release, which added that “Anduril and OpenAI will explore how leading edge AI models can be leveraged to rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators, and improve situational awareness.”

Anduril, co-founded by Palmer Luckey, did not answer a question about whether reducing the onus on human operators will translate to fewer humans in the loop on high-stakes warfare decisions.

Perspective.

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/century-of-ai-innovations

Overnight Success? AI Has Been a Century in the Making.

AI’s emergence in recent years may appear sudden to some, but its development has been years in the making. Professor of finance Sergio Rebelo digs into AI’s past through the lens of a macroeconomist to uncover four lessons that can help people prepare for AI’s growing role in society: recognize that success can take decades; let intuition guide people toward smart risks; stay the course through challenges; and mind the hype.

Useful for non-lawyers too?

https://www.bespacific.com/the-right-way-to-use-genai-to-draft-a-brief/

The Right Way to Use GenAI to Draft a Brief

The Right Way to Use GenAI to Draft a Brief, Carolyn Elefant (December 2024) – “It’s been two years since the public release of ChatGPT and lawyers are still using it improperly and facing sanctions, as reported last week in Reuters about an incident in the Eastern District of Texas Instead of wringing our hands or using stories like these to hawk pricey commercial products (spoiler alert: the lawyer claimed he used a feature on LEXIS AI to verify citations), let’s learn how to use genAI correctly. Methodology: The reported E.D. Texas hallucination case involved this response in opposition to this Motion for Summary Judgement which I used as the basis for this exercise. I don’t like to criticize other lawyers’ work because we never know what was going on behind the scenes (non-paying client or personal struggles), but let’s just say that even without the handful of AI inaccuracies, this response could use some improvement. Here’s how I would have used Claude (the lawyer’s preferred AI tool) to respond to the SJ Motion…”

Human error or out of control AI?

https://www.huntonak.com/privacy-and-information-security-law/recent-texas-case-highlights-increasing-relevance-of-privacy-and-security-laws-to-e-discovery-process

Recent Texas Case Highlights Increasing Relevance of Privacy and Security Laws to E-Discovery Process

On November 6, 2024, a Texas state district court jury found that a large e-discovery vendor violated Title 7, Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code, which provides that accessing a computer without its owner’s permission is a Class B misdemeanor. This case highlights the importance for e-discovery vendors of considering data privacy and security requirements in the course of discovery proceedings.

The court awarded $50,000 in damages against the vendor, finding that the vendor ignored e-discovery protocol when accessing an individual’s personal email account to search for emails containing 12 search terms dating back to 2012. As a result, the vendor downloaded more than 34,000 emails from the individual’s email account that included sensitive information such as medical data, Social Security numbers and attorney-client privileged information. According to reports, if the vendor had not deviated from the e-discovery protocol, only 600 relevant emails would have been in scope of discovery.

Data minimization is a key feature of many privacy laws, including the recently enacted Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and companies are generally required to limit the collection of personal data to what is adequate, relevant and reasonably necessary to the disclosed purpose for which the personal information will be processed.

Law for geeks?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-this-long-awaited-os-merger-muddles-dojs-case-against-google/

Why this long-awaited OS merger muddles DOJ's case against Google

Google's merger of ChromeOS and Android could transform ecosystems and complicate antitrust remedies while challenging regulators to balance innovation, competition, and consumer impact.

Can anyone be ‘smart’ under this formula?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-digital-self/202411/what-does-it-mean-to-be-intelligent-today

What Does It Mean to Be Intelligent Today?

In 2017, I explored the concept of Technology Quotient (TQ) as a measure of our ability to navigate the evolving digital world. The conversation was centered on a dichotomy: technology’s battle between IQ and EQ. Back then—a technological lifetime ago—TQ was framed as a way to capture our capacity to understand, interact with, and thrive in an increasingly technical society—a society still dominated by hardware, software, and user engagement.

Fast forward to today, and the world has shifted significantly. Large Language Models have reshaped the technological and human landscape, pushing us beyond my former perspective on TQ. These tools blur the lines between intellect, emotion, and creativity. They are not just technical systems we operate; they are collaborators that amplify human potential and even thought.

In light of these changes, it’s time to revisit and redefine my earlier thinking about TQ—not as a battle between IQ and EQ, but as a multidimensional framework that captures the symbiosis between humans and AI. This new TQ reflects the skills and literacies required to thrive in a world where technology is not just a tool, but an extension of our cognitive and even our emotional capabilities.

Could Hollywood create a ‘star’ from whole cloth?

https://variety.com/vip-special-reports/generative-ai-celebrity-deepfakes-digital-replicas-special-report-1236218083/

Generative AI, Celebrity Deepfakes & Digital Replicas: A Special Report

Generative AI represents a double-edged sword for talent in the entertainment industry, bringing creative and monetization opportunities but also challenging risks.

This special report from Variety Intelligence Platform offers a deep dive into how name, image, likeness and voice (NILV) of actors and artists will be protected from misuse, as talent agencies and employers aim to combat the online spread of nonconsensual celebrity deepfakes and synthetic content.

Meanwhile, AI digital replicas are also becoming available to exploit for celebrities’ creative and commercial use. As authorized AI versions of talent likeness increasingly appear in content, celebs will need assurances that technical systems are in place for them to engage safely and benefit from their digital replicas to create new content experiences.

Tools & Techniques. Because you never know when these might be handy.

https://www.bespacific.com/bookmark-calculator-soup/

Bookmark ‘Calculator Soup’

Lifehacker – For the Next Time You Need to Convert Just About Anything – “We all have a few go-to calculations that we find ourselves doing often, like converting ounces to cups or miles to kilometers—that sort of thing. When I need to do a quick conversion, I use Calculator Soup, a simple website offering hundreds of purpose-built calculators for things like inflation, unit conversion, gas mileage, algebra, and so much more. The site can be overwhelming at first glance, with its old-school aesthetic and list of categories, but it’s full with the kinds of tools you’d otherwise search for and find ad-ridden versions of. For example: if you’re trying to get the best possible car loan there’s a car loan calculator …”

Seems backward to me. Is this the slipperiest of slopes?

https://www.bespacific.com/feds-can-film-your-front-porch-for-68-days-without-a-warrant-says-court/

Feds Can Film Your Front Porch for 68 Days Without a Warrant, Says Court

Gizmodo: A federal court says your privacy is diminished due to the proliferation of video cameras throughout society. “…The federal court’s decision says that video cameras have become “ubiquitous,”  and have therefore diminished our expectations of privacy. Police officers wear body cameras now, cellphones have cameras, and many doorbells record your porch. The court isn’t wrong that cameras are everywhere. However, law enforcement has a long history of blurring the lines of privacy with modern recording technology.  Politico detailed how Ring handed over a full day’s worth of camera footage against a man’s will, in order to convict his neighbor of a crime. The network of Ring cameras also was used by law enforcement for years to obtain footage of criminals without search warrants …”

See also Hartzog, Woodrow and Selinger, Evan and Gunawan, Johanna, Privacy Nicks: How the Law Normalizes Surveillance (March 10, 2023). 101 Washington University Law Review 717 (2024), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4384541 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4384541

Is AI ever a better choice?

https://www.infodocket.com/2024/12/01/research-article-preprint-suspected-undeclared-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-the-academic-literature-an-analysis-of-the-academ-ai-dataset/

Research Paper (Preprint): “Suspected Undeclared Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Literature: An Analysis of the Academ-AI Dataset”

Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT became widely available, researchers have used them in the writing process. The consensus of the academic publishing community is that such usage must be declared in the published article. Academ-AI documents examples of suspected undeclared AI usage in the academic literature, discernible primarily due to the appearance in research papers of idiosyncratic verbiage characteristic of large language model (LLM)-based chatbots. This analysis of the first 500 examples collected reveals that the problem is widespread, penetrating the journals and conference proceedings of highly respected publishers. Undeclared AI seems to appear in journals with higher citation metrics and higher article processing charges (APCs), precisely those outlets that should theoretically have the resources and expertise to avoid such oversights. An extremely small minority of cases are corrected post publication, and the corrections are often insufficient to rectify the problem. The 500 examples analyzed here likely represent a small fraction of the undeclared AI present in the academic literature, much of which may be undetectable. Publishers must enforce their policies against undeclared AI usage in cases that are detectable; this is the best defense currently available to the academic publishing community against the proliferation of undisclosed AI.

Direct to Full Text Article

No good way?

https://www.ft.com/content/e2fa34b2-6987-494d-a81a-1bdb6693671f

The legal battle against explicit AI deepfakes

It is easier than ever to forge graphic videos and images. But campaigners hope that new laws could offer a template for controlling artificial intelligence

Deliberate dishonesty? How disturbing…

https://jasondeegan.com/uk-man-uses-chatgpt-to-eat-free-at-mcdonalds-for-months-with-a-simple-yet-effective-trick/#google_vignette

UK Man Uses ChatGPT to Eat Free at McDonald’s for Months with a Simple Yet Effective Trick

… The man, a creative young Brit, managed to exploit a system designed to gather customer feedback at McDonald’s. Most people likely toss their receipt surveys aside without a second thought, but he saw an opportunity where others didn’t. Every McDonald’s receipt includes a unique code that can be used to access a customer satisfaction survey. The more complaints, the more likely you are to receive compensation, usually in the form of vouchers for free food.

Here’s where the magic happened: instead of simply completing the survey himself, this enterprising customer turned to ChatGPT for help. He would ask the AI to draft a complaint about his experience—specifically about receiving a subpar sandwich. The request was simple: “Write a complaint about a bad experience with a sandwich, under 12,000 characters.”

With a few clicks, he had a complaint letter that sounded genuine enough to warrant a response. He would then copy and paste this text into the survey, submitting it under the unique code on his receipt. McDonald‘s, eager to resolve any negative feedback, would contact him with vouchers for free meals as compensation.

If the complaint wasn’t detailed or convincing enough, he could always ask ChatGPT for a little rewrite to spice it up. A few small tweaks and the complaint was ready to go again. Over time, this clever strategy allowed him to rack up dozens of free meals.

Ready, fire, aim?

https://www.bespacific.com/senators-say-tsas-facial-recognition-program-is-out-of-control/

Senators Say TSA’s Facial Recognition Program Is Out of Control

Gizmodo: “A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the Transportation Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s use of facial recognition, saying it poses a significant threat to privacy and civil liberties. Their letter comes just before one of the busiest travel periods of the year when millions of Americans are expected to pass through the nation’s airports. “This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy,” the senators wrote. The letter was signed by Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR), John Kennedy (R-LA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Ron Wyden (D-OR),Steve Daines (R-MT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Peter Welch (D-VT). While the TSA’s facial recognition program is currently optional and only in a few dozen airports, the agency announced in June that it plans to expand the technology to more than 430 airports. And the senators’ letter quotes a talk given by TSA Administrator David Pekoske in 2023 in which he said “we will get to the point where we require biometrics across the board.”

Perspective.

https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/press-room/deloitte-globals-2025-predictions-report.html

Deloitte Global’s 2025 Predictions Report: Generative AI: Paving the Way for a transformative future in Technology, Media, and Telecommunications

Deloitte Global today released its “Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) 2025 Predictions” report, forecasting a pivotal gap year for Generative AI (GenAI) and the TMT sector—spanning from technical challenges for the industry to societal imperatives. By addressing challenges in infrastructure, gender equity, energy consumption, trust, and capabilities, the industry could be poised for a significant leap forward and is well positioned to determine the future of Al’s legacy. Key takeaways: 

(Related)

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4740920-artificial-intelligence-5-trends-to-watch-in-2025

Artificial Intelligence: 5 Trends To Watch In 2025

Insured property surveillance…

https://www.reinsurancene.ws/insurers-in-the-us-to-benefit-from-near-space-labs-enhanced-aerial-imagery/

Insurers in the US to benefit from Near Space Labs’ enhanced aerial imagery

Near Space Labs, an aerial imagery provider for insurance applications among others, has announced the deployment of stratospheric robots across the United States, which will contribute to delivering improved aerial imagery throughout the country.

With enhanced 7cm resolution capabilities that match or exceed conventional aerial survey quality, this achievement marks the establishment of the first network of stratospheric robots in the continental US, delivering ultra-high-resolution aerial imagery across the country, the firm stated.

Do they understand how this happened? Is TikTok that powerful?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/27/romanian-regulator-tiktok-suspended-cyber-interference-election-georgescu

Romania regulator calls for TikTok suspension amid vote interference fears

Far-right, pro-Moscow candidate Călin Georgescu came from 5% in polls to win presidential election’s first round

Romania’s telecoms regulator is asking for TikTok to be suspended as the country’s defence council prepares to discuss cyber risks to its elections, after a little-known ultranationalist came from nowhere  to win the first round of the presidential vote.

The country’s constitutional court will also examine two allegations of electoral fraud after Călin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly, EU-sceptic and anti-Nato independent, topped the ballot in a result that upended Romanian politics.

Georgescu was polling at barely 5% days before Sunday’s vote but surged to a shock victory with a campaign heavily based on viral TikTok videos that were reportedly boosted by bot-like activity, raising fears of possible external interference.

Why?

https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-children-ban-safeguarding-harm-accounts-d0cde2603bdbc7167801da1d00ecd056

A social media ban for under-16s passes the Australian Senate and will soon be a world-first law

A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Senate Thursday and will soon become a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

… The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

The amendments bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver’s licenses, nor could they demand digital identification through a government system.