Greetings all, and happy Thursday. I hope ye are keeping well.
Will kick things off this week with a series from Lighthouse Reports, investigating the Home Office’s decision to use age verification tools on asylum seekers, to determine whether they are children or minors. There’s the Lighthouse page, a feature in WIRED, and another in the Independent. All worth a read. I can’t remember if I read it here, or elsewhere (age verification obviously a hot topic at the moment) but one feature of the tech is that it performs at its worst… on teenagers.
TechPolicy Press also has a really interesting piece on how AI can rebuild blurred faces. This links with stories we’ve featured previously on the threats to anonymity (in public or elsewhere) posed by AI.
Amnesty also have an interesting report on the government use of AI risk assessments in Europe.
We’ve two contenders for the naughty step this week. First up is the police officer facing criminal investigation, because they used AI to ‘create evidential material in a number of cases.’ Very naughty. There is also the story of the judge who cancelled a case in the US, because lawyers – on both sides – used AI. Maybe we need a dumbass step, to sit beside the naughty step? Either way, there’ll always be room on there for a wrongful arrest based on facial recognition.
On a total tangent, but still privacy related. I’ve been thinking for a while. Why isn’t there privacy-secure debit card app? I’m thinking something that you upload money too, and then you can use on the tube, to pay for dinner, or whatever it is you spend money on. Like a Signal Wallet, or digital cash. Does that exist? Obviously you’ll still have to trust whoever designs it, but Signal?… Would love to know anything about this, if anyone knows anything.
I’ll leave you this week with Tom Rasmussen and ‘There’s a lot to be happy about’ (live from Union Chapel). Its just so gorgeous. As he says himself, ‘there’s a lot to be happy about, even on the sad days’.
Stay well, be lovely.
WIRED, The UK Will Scan Asylum-Seekers’ Faces for Age Checks—Despite Knowing the Tech Is Flawed
Lighthouse Reports, Asylum by Algorithm
Independent, Home Office knew AI age checks for migrant children were flawed — but rolled it out anyway
WIRED, Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses
Amnesty International, Global: Automating Suspicion
Tech Policy Press, AI Can Rebuild Blurred Faces, So How Do We Protect People Now?
Financial Times, UK police officer under criminal investigation over alleged use of AI
404 Media, Judge Learns Lawyers on Both Sides of Case Used AI, Cancels Trial, Kicks Everyone Off the Case
ICRC, FAQ: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the military domain
The HIll, UK lawmaker says she is suing Elon Musk’s company over fake Grok bikini images
The Hill, Schiff unveils bill restricting Pentagon AI use without human involvement
The HIll, Meta accuses Israeli spyware firm of again targeting WhatsApp users (permanent naughty step?)
ASPI, To maintain access to frontier AI, decide where independence matters most
ASPI, Australia’s intelligence community can’t meet the AI age with an analogue product
ASPI, Australia just learned an old lesson from the AI age
Big Brother Watch, Big Brother Watch response to PM’s announcement on introducing mandatory ID checks to use mobile phones (such creeping authoritarianism in the UK)
EFF, VICTORY: Meta Strips Facial Recognition Code From Smart Glasses App After Public Outcry (building on our previous story.. Hard not to add a cynical, ‘for now’)
Parents Africa, The Invisible Workforce Behind Your Daily Clicks: Kenyan Platform Workers Demand Fair Treatment
Privacy International, Bad Vibes: AI coding tools and privacy issues (kudos for the headline)
Rest of World News, China builds a rival satellite constellation as SpaceX goes public
Open Rights Group, Starmer’s social media ban fails to address root causes of online harms
Information Labs, Panic First Evidence Later (related to social media age ban)
The Guardian, Impact of social media ban for under-16s in UK hinges on how firm it is
WIRED, Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US
BBC, Police to deploy facial recognition cameras again in Peterborough
New YOrk Times, How Ukraine Uses A.I. to Knock Deadly Russian Drones Out of the Skies
The Conversation, AI schools like Alpha promise efficiency, but can’t replicate the messy process that helps kids learn
Washington Post, How AI is changing political advertising
The Guardian, AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists
WIRED, My Father Wants to Age in Place. AI Will Be Watching
Financial Times, How AI is ‘senior-ising’ junior roles