Greetings all! I hope ye are keeping well and warm.
I’m going to start this week’s newsletter with some propaganda. Shocked I’m sure you are.
Myself and a friend and colleague, Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, are putting together a Special Issue of the State Crime Journal, focused on AI and State Crime. We are interpreting this very broadly, and the call itself is here. I hope you will consider it, and if you have questions, do get in touch (details included in call). The submission deadline for articles is 1 September.
In terms of other news. Where. Do. You. Start?
I’m afraid i’m in too much of rush to even begin to start this week, so i’ll just leave ye to peruse. The NY Times piece on the Paris AI summit is worth a read though, the key takeaway i’ve picked up from the news is general EU regret regarding regulation. Will be interesting to see how that plays out. Oh, and this just might be a way to solve UK Universties’ recruitment crisis?
Huge thanks to Ameneh Dehshiri for helping to pull this newsletter together.
I’ll leave ye this week with a song i listened to this morning for the first time in ages, ‘California Stars’. Its from a collaboration album between Billy Bragg and Wilco, where they developed a load of old unreleased Woody Guthrie songs – if i remember correctly just from lyrics left about his house. Its a great album. Got a lovely tone to it.
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The New York Times, 5 Notes from the Big Paris A.I. Summit – The New York Times
The New York Times, How Did DeepSeek Build Its A.I. With Less Money? – The New York Times (this is quite interesting if you read in a bit)
BBC, UK government demands access to Apple users’ encrypted data – BBC News
The Irish Times, EU urged to cut regulation to catch up in artificial intelligence race
Financial Times, Now more than ever, AI needs a governance framework
Financial Times, Ex-Google chief warns west to focus on open-source AI in competition with China
WIRED, Google Lifts a Ban on Using Its AI for Weapons and Surveillance
El Pais, US admits data centers are harmful to health
Amnesty, AI Action Summit must meaningfully center binding and enforceable regulation to curb AI-driven harms
The Guardian, AI is developing fast, but regulators must be faster
The Guardian, ‘Engine of inequality’: delegates discuss AI’s global impact at Paris summit
The Guardian, US and UK refuse to sign Paris summit declaration on ‘inclusive’ AI
The Washington Post, U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts
BBC, AI chatbots unable to accurately summarise news, BBC finds
Reuters, South Korea spy agency says DeepSeek ‘excessively’ collects personal data
Reuters, French authorities scrutinise X’s algorithms for potential bias
Wired, Elon Musk’s xAI Is Exploring a Way to Make AI More Like Donald Trump
Euro News, Don’t drop AI liability mechanism, lead lawmaker warns Commission
SMEX, Lebanon’s telecom feud disrupts SMS verification system – SMEX
Privacy International, PI response to Home Office consultation on codes of practice under the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024
Future of Privacy Forum, Why Data Protection Legislation Offers A Powerful Tool for Regulating AI (call me skeptical)
The Register, After Copilot trial, workers’ attitude to AI soured
The Irish Times, Your car knows where you go. Here’s why you should be concerned
The Conversation, Teenagers turning to AI companions are redefining love as easy, unconditional and always there
Harvard International Review, Envisioning an AI Paris Agreement
AI and Human Rights Policy News
European Commission, Commission publishes the Guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence (AI) practices, as defined by the AI Act
European Commision, The Commission publishes guidelines on AI system definition to facilitate the first AI Act’s rules application
UK Government, Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government
CNIL (France’s independent data protection authority), AI: Respect and facilitate the exercise of the rights of the persons concerned
Blogs
Business Wire, Adjust: Mobile App Industry Set For Transformative Year, Riding Wave of AI And Privacy-First Technologies
DEV, Accountable Privacy in Web3 (1/4)
PR Newswire, A roadmap for protecting our democracies in the age of AI
Just Security, Q&A with Mariejte Schaake on the Tech Coup and Trump
Podcast:
Just Security, The Just Security Podcast: Diving Deeper into DeepSeek
Video:
Al Jazeera English, France artificial intelligence summit: Europe working to lead race for AI dominance
The Guardian, Macron posts montage of deep fakes of himself to promote Paris AI summit
Euro News, US VP Vance challenges Europe’s ‘excessive regulation’ of AI
Reports
UNESCO, Artificial intelligence and the evolution of AI (model) capabilities: a conceptual primer (Alternative Link)
AGILE Index, Global Index for AI Safety
National Engineering Policy Centre, Engineering Responsible AI: foundations for environmentally sustainable AI
Open Rights Group, Briefing: The Data Use and Access Bill