1 May 2025

Well, its very warm, isn’t it?

My holiday plans have been frustrated by a very sick cat – who puked on my laptop killing the screen, urgh – and so there is a newsletter this week, albeit a very short one. Its very warm, and this is my last work act of the week. Sorry.


I’d like to flag some of the battlefield and facial recognition stories below. In fact, i’d like to do a lot of things, but what I am going to do is go for a haircut and a sit in the sun. Maybe with a beer.


Happy workers days all, and a lovely long weekend to everyone.


This week, i’ll leave you with soemthing to lie in the sun, or fire up your BBQs, to, ‘Got to Give it Up’ by the one and only Marvin Gaye. Ah sure while we’re at it, and because the Caribbean bbq outside is smelling amazing, here’s ‘Cool Jerk‘ by the Capitols.

Hopefully the cat recovers, and i won’t be here next week, so consider this a formal hiatus notice. To return soon.


Be well

WIRED, DOGE Put a College Student in Charge of Using AI to Rewrite Regulations

Policing Insight, ​​The current and future use of AI in law enforcement 

ICRC, Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain: ICRC submits recommendations to UN Secretary-Genera

Tech Policy Press, Five Findings from an Analysis of the US Department of Homeland Security’s AI Inventory

ASPI, AI is changing Indo-Pacific naval operations

Technology News, Amazon launches first internet satellites in SpaceX Starlink challenge

Daily Mail, New Digitial ID sparks fear of ‘Big Brother’ ID Threat 

Human Rights Watch, A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making 

New York Times, Israel’s A.I. Experiments in Gaza War Raise Ethical Concerns (understatement)

BBC, Online drug dealer caught posting cocaine across UK (using retrospective facial recognition)

BBC, Richard Burrows: How AI found abuser who fled to Thailand – BBC News (with facial recognition again)

New York Times, Saying ‘Thank You’ to Chat GPT Is Costly. Should You Do It Anyway? (tl;dr – yes)

Financial Times, China isn’t trying to win the AI race 

The Conversation, AI policies in Africa: lessons from Ghana and Rwanda

Financial Times, DeepMind UK staff seek to unionise and challenge defence deals and Israel links

The Conversation, People trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer – new study

Financial Times, Future weapons: Battlefield AI

New York Times, Elon Musk’s Legacy: DOGE’s Construction of a Surveillance State

MIT Tech Review, The AI Hype Index: AI agent cyberattacks, racing robots, and musical models

Irish Times, Facial recognition: Work on law to introduce technology ‘well advanced’, says Minister 

El Pais, Juli Ponce, lawyer: ’100% of AI machines are psychopaths. Humans make mistakes, but only 1% are psychopathic’

SCMP, China’s military rapidly expands use of low-cost AI-powered drones in ‘phased leap’

Blogs

Just Security, #War #Sponsored: Using Targeted Ads to Promote Compliance with International Humanitarian Law

Just Security, Truth and Consequences: The Post-Election Regulatory Landscape for Big Tech

Just Security, Regulated Democracy and Regulated Speech

Academic Literature

*Disclaimer: The following have not been evaluated for their methodology and do not necessarily reflect the views of the AI & Human Rights Blog 

Brian Kot, Jack Nebe & Mariarosaria Taddeo, ‘Ethical Challenges of Data Economy in Defence: The Case of Battlefield Data’ (forthcoming) 

Center for Emerging Technology and Security, UK Public Attitudes to National Security Data Processing: Assessing Human and Machine Intrusion (Report)

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