THIS MONTH’S BEST READS
Human rights groups raise hate speech concerns after Musk's takeover of Twitter, 25 April 2022
Twitter is not just another company, human rights advocates noted. "Regardless of who owns Twitter, the company has human rights responsibilities to respect the rights of people around the world who rely on the platform. Changes to its policies, features, and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts, including offline violence," Deborah Brown, a digital rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an email.
Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout must not come at the expense of human rights, 25 April 2022
Musk has declared himself a “free speech absolutist” and indicated his intentions to minimize content moderation on the platform — a position that puts millions of people at risk and increases the likelihood of Twitter being used as a tool for inciting violence, hate, and harassment – what’s been dubbed Toxic Twitter.
Adversarial AI and the dystopian future of tech, VB, 3 April 2022
In an adversarial AI attack, AI is used to manipulate or deceive another AI system maliciously. Most AI programs learn, adapt and evolve through behavioral learning. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation because it creates space for anyone to teach an AI algorithm malicious actions, ultimately leading to adversarial results. Cybercriminals and threat actors can exploit this vulnerability for malicious purposes and intent.
Artificial intelligence is already upending geopolitics, 6 April 2022
These problems are especially acute with AI, as the means by which learning algorithms arrive at their conclusions are often inscrutable. When undesirable effects come to light, it can be difficult or impossible to determine why. Systems that constantly learn and change their behavior cannot be constantly tested and certified for safety.
Satellite companies join the hunt for Russian war crimes, 6 April 2022
They are cueing their satellites to pinpoint mass graves, bombed-out hospitals and shattered schools. They are helping to identify military units that have targeted civilians. And their real-time data is being used to deploy investigators, such as those from the International Criminal Court and United Nations, to collect more physical evidence or personal testimony from witnesses on the ground in Ukraine.
Developing countries are being left behind in the AI race – and that's a problem for all of us, 13 April 2022
The developed world has an inevitable edge in making rapid progress in the AI revolution. With greater economic capacity, these wealthier countries are naturally best positioned to make large investments in the research and development needed for creating modern AI models. In contrast, developing countries often have more urgent priorities, such as education, sanitation, healthcare and feeding the population, which override any significant investment in digital transformation. In this climate, AI could widen the digital divide that already exists between developed and developing countries.
‘Regulation has to be part of the answer’ to combating online disinformation, Barack Obama said at Stanford event, 25 April 2022
Obama told a packed audience of more than 600 people in CEMEX auditorium – as well as more than 250,000 viewers tuning in online – that everyone is part of the solution to make democracy stronger in the digital age and that all of us – from technology companies and their employees to students and ordinary citizens – must work together to adapt old institutions and values to a new era of information. “If we do nothing, I’m convinced the trends that we’re seeing will get worse,” he said.
Can Cyber Nukes Usher-In Peace in The Global Digital Space? 22 April 2022
However, the complexity of the circumstances should not deter the regulators from scaling back offensive cybersecurity technology, like what happened with nuclear technologies. Cyber dominant countries like China and Russia have been developing cyber-offensive technologies for years just to use when the time arrives. Nevertheless, the recent Russian deterrence for cyber warfare is a different story; Ukraine has been working on defending cyber-attacks for the last ten years.
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens, 18 April 2022
Establishing strict rules about who can use commercial spyware is complicated by the fact that such technology is offered as a tool of diplomacy. The results can be chaotic. The Times has reported that the C.I.A. paid for Djibouti to acquire Pegasus, as a way to fight terrorism. According to a previously unreported investigation by WhatsApp, the technology was also used against members of Djibouti’s own government, including its Prime Minister, Abdoulkadar Kamil Mohamed, and its Minister of the Interior, Hassan Omar.
The Future of War in the Age of Disruptive Technologies, 26 April 2022
From the battlefields of Yemen and Ukraine to Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan, war has reinforced its centrality in the 21st century. These modern conflicts have spread across the land, air, maritime, and cyber domains, fuelled by ethnic antagonisms, territorial claims and geopolitical competition. But, more significantly, they have demonstrated the critical role of disruptive technologies in shaping military doctrines and influencing future battlefield tactic
Bringing facial recognition to war is a bad idea, 29 April 2022
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has not said how it will use the technology, according to Reuters, which first reported on the news citing Clearview Chief Executive Officer Hoan Ton-That as its main source. Ukraine’s government has also not confirmed that it was using Clearview, but Reuters reported that its soldiers could potentially use the technology to weed out Russian operatives at checkpoints. Out of Clearview’s database of 10 billion faces, more than 2 billion come from Russia’s most popular social-media network, Vkontakte, allowing the company to theoretically match many Russian faces to their social profile.
