Greetings friends, and apologies for the lack of a newsletter last week (and the week before). I had a huge funding deadline to deal with – so cross your fingers – and then was off to Ireland for a wedding. So … priorities 🙂. I am also away on leave this week, so the newsletter is very likely to experience a bit of down time. But we will be back – at some point – hopefully rested and fresher than ever!
The big news in the UK in the last couple of weeks – tech wise, at least – is the development of a ‘murder prediction’ too. The title is evidently very sensational, but unfortunately there isn’t a huge amount of detail on the tool itself. There are definitely concerning elements, most evidently vis-a-vis the risk of discrimination by including age, gender and ethnicity as input categories, as well as the more AI-specific problems linked to stereotyping people based on their behaviours, networks and so on. A big unanswered question – on what i’ve seen – is also what the tool is to be used for. Is it to provide support to people, or to punish. Given the problems with tools as we know them there are concerns with both, but most pressingly with the latter. Am actually co-developing a piece on ‘appropriate AI’ that looks at these types of actuarial models, from a human rights law perspective (shockingly).
In long awaited facial recognition news, that may not be long awaited, and may have been trailed extensively (excessively?) here, myself and the Professor Pete Fussey have a book coming out in July, with more details at the OUP website. Very exciting. Expect news of book launches to follow. And an absolute huge thank you to everyone who wrote an advance review. In a very neat segue, that almost justifies the propaganda, the Times has a piece reporting on how the police should use facial recognition ‘for every crime’. This obviously raises (a) issues around the legal basis for this use of facial recognition (how many police forces have publicly available policy documentation specifying how they use retrospective facial rec, the minimum requirement arising from Brdiges?) And (b) massive ‘necessity’ test issues. And thats before we get into the use of tech in the anti-immigrant disaster currently unfolding in the US. Tech Policy also has an interesting piece analysing the US Dept of Homeland Security’s AI Inventory.
This week has been particularly brutal for our trans siblings here in the UK. So I’d like to leave you with a double header, ‘Rebel Rebel’ by David Bowie and ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ by Lou Reed.
Be well.
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The Guardian, UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill
The Telegraph, Can AI spot a killer? Inside the Government’s murder prediction tool
The Times, Police encouraged to use facial recognition on any investigation
The Guardian, UK Home Office loses attempt to keep legal battle with Apple secret
The Times, I tried the VR headset that puts domestic abusers in victims’ shoes
The New York Times, Man Employs A.I. Avatar in Legal Appeal, and Judge Isn’t Amused
Financial Times, China gains dexterous upper hand in humanoid robot tussle with US
The Hill, Democrats demand information from Microsoft, Google on AI deals
The Hill, Entire Pentagon defense tech unit to leave by May
Defense One, Navy expands use of AI for target spotting, tracking – Defense One
The Times, Use facial recognition for all crimes, police told
Rest of World, What we learned from tracking AI use in global elections
Business & Human Rights, Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology designed for surveillance of marginalized groups, report reveals
The New York Times, How Geo Group’s Surveillance Tech Is Aiding Trump’s Immigration Agenda
The Guardian, Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas
The Conversation, Fill-in-the-blank training primes AI to interpret health data from smartwatches and fitness trackers
BBC, A machine using ultrasound and AI can gauge the fattiness of a tuna fish
The Conversation, AI-generated images can exploit how your mind works − here’s why they fool you and how to spot them
WIRED, Palantir Is Helping DOGE With a Massive IRS Data Project
Financial Times, AI praise-giving tool promises ‘authentic’ insights
WIRED, OpenAI’s New GPT 4.1 Models Excel at Coding | WIRED
RUSI, AI Technologies and National Security
Future of Privacy Forum, South Korea’s New AI Framework Act: A Balancing Act Between Innovation and Regulation
Amnesty International, Global: Google’s shameful decision to reverse its ban on AI for weapons and surveillance is a blow for human rights
WIRED, Meet The AI Agent With Multiple Personalities
The Conversation, Price discrimination is getting smarter — and low-income consumers are paying the price
The Conversation, AI-controlled fighter jets may be closer than we think — and would change the face of warfare
Financial Times, The race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech
The Guardian, Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China
Financial Times, Future weapons: The defence tech bros
Harvard Berkman Klein Centre, Artificial Intelligence, Totalitarianism, and the Future of Cognitive Liberty
MIT Tech Review, Phase two of military AI has arrived | MIT Technology Review
CBC News, Why is everyone suddenly a doll? Newest AI trend is more than harmless fun |
ACN Newswire, NEC Face Recognition Ranks First in NIST Accuracy Testing
Tech Bullion, Navigating the Risks of AI: Georgios Karantonis on Secure Surveillance – TechBullion
Video:
WIRED, Watch How Governments Spy On Protestors—And How To Avoid It
BlogsRAILS, Right to explanation – What does the GDPR leave for Art. 86 AI Act?