Greetings all, and a belated happy wednesday. Apologies for the slight delay – and for everyone i owe an email too – this week has been busy. But. (you will be relieved to know). I’m off away for a long weekend in a few hours, commencing with cocktails tonight. So there is that.
With that in mind, I will be brief.
Did you know about this programme in Scotland? It covers 80% of the Scottish population (not a typo!) and predicts their risk of needing emergency treatment. How did this come into being without a splash?
There is also this remarkable story about how supermarkets in the US might use facial recognition to monitor people in store, to facilitate dynamic pricing. This was genuinely mindblowing. Not good.
In an equally not good move, there is this story on how a (legal) cell phone tracking tool was used to track people who accessed legal abortion sites, but came from States where abortion is illegal. Insert your own superlative, or other word of choice.
We also have a cheeky facial recognition story section (its back!) but you will have to discover it yourself.
Hope you all have a lovely week, and that if you’re in London you’re enjoying this unseasonal sun.
I’m going to leave you with this by Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso. Because it is fun. And did I say cocktails in a few hours?
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Public Health Scotland, Scottish Patients at Risk of Readmission and Admission (SPARRA) – Social and community care – Our areas of work –
New York Times, Kroger and Walmart Deny ‘Surge Pricing’ After Adopting Digital Price Tags
Notus, It’s Possible to Track Someone’s Personal Phone to an Abortion Clinic. And It’s Legal Too.
Bloomberg, Anthropic’s New AI Tool Analyzes Your Screen and Acts on Your Behalf
DroneXL, Drones Take Flight In US Election Security: A New Era Of Aerial Surveillance
New York Times, Nevada Asked A.I. Which Students Need Help. The Answer Caused an Outcry.
Smithsonian, See the Wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ in Astonishing Detail With This New 3D Scan
DefenseOne, Researchers sound alarm on dual-use AI for defense
Privacy International, Our new tech explainer on election technologies in Kenya
Privacy International, Automating the hostile environment: uncovering a secretive Home Office algorithm at the heart of immigration decision-making
Algorithm Watch, The Automation of Fortress Europe: Behind the Black Curtain
BBC, I lie awake at night worrying about shoplifters
The Guardian, Meta to use facial recognition tech in fight against celebrity investment scams
WIRED, Apple Engineers Show How Flimsy AI ‘Reasoning’ Can Be
The Register, Asian tech ministers fear effective AI regulation will prove elusive
The Washington Post, His daughter was murdered. Then she reappeared as an AI chatbot.
The Conversation, 4 ways AI can be used and abused in the 2024 election, from deepfakes to foreign interference
WIRED, Algorithms Policed Welfare Systems For Years. Now They’re Under Fire for Bias | WIRED
WIRED, Inside the Mind of an AI Girlfriend (or Boyfriend) (or partner)
The Guardian, Job hunting is demoralising enough without having my personality eviscerated by an AI interviewer
WIRED, This Prompt Can Make an AI Chatbot Identify and Extract Personal Details From Your Chats
The Guardian, AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery reaching ‘tipping point’, says watchdog | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
The Register, Open source LLM tool primed to sniff out Python zero-days
The Register, Lab-grown human brain cells drive virtual butterfly in simulation
New York Times, Character.ai Faces Lawsuit After Teen’s Suicide
The Conversation, The Terminator at 40: this sci-fi ‘B-movie’ still shapes how we view the threat of AI (B Movie?!?)
Blogs
Just Security, Shattering Illusions: How Cyber Threat Intelligence Augments Legal Action against Russia’s Influence Operations
Podcast:
The Washington Post, The feds have turned driver’s license photos into a gold mine for facial recognition searches – The Washington Post
Video:
The Washington Post, Here’s how Instagram suppresses your political posts