A library of snippets
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The video was produced in 2002 and it can be easy to forget that a world existed before the introduction of smartphones.
“At Accenture, our researchers developed a prototype called Real World Showroom. Using a wireless PDA equipped with an RFID reader, I can query everyday objects around me, such as a tie my friend is wearing,” Accenture’s Joe Tobolski says in the video.
From Video From 2002: RFID Chips Were Supposed to Turn Everyone Into a Salesperson — Paleofuture.
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ast March, a group of researchers made headlines by revealing that they had developed an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool that could invent potential new chemical weapons. What’s more, it could do so at an incredible speed: It took only 6 hours for the AI tool to suggest 40,000 of them.
The most worrying part of the story, however, was how easy it was to develop that AI tool. The researchers simply adapted a machine-learning model normally used to check for toxicity in new medical drugs. Rather than predicting whether the components of a new drug could be dangerous, they made it design new toxic molecules using a generative model and a toxicity data set.
The paper was not promoting an illegal use of AI (chemical weapons were banned in 1997). Instead, the authors wanted to show just how easily peaceful applications of AI can be misused by malicious actors—be they rogue states, nonstate armed groups, criminal organizations, or lone wolves. Exploitation of AI by malicious actors presents serious and insufficiently understood risks to international peace and security.
From Civilian AI Is Already Being Misused by the Bad Guys – IEEE Spectrum.
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How should companies think about IoT consent? Transparency is important—any company selling a connected device should be up-front about its capabilities and about what happens to the device data. Informing the user is the first step.
But the company should encourage the user to inform others as well. It could be as simple as a sticker alerting visitors that a house is under video surveillance.
From The Internet of Things Has a Consent Problem – IEEE Spectrum.
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The chief executive of the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation has doubled down on using facial recognition at its venues to bar lawyers suing the group from attending events.
Speaking to Fox 5 on Thursday, MSG Executive Chairman and CEO James Dolan said Madison Square Garden is a private company and therefore entitled to determine who is allowed to enter its venues for events.
“At Madison Square Garden, if you’re suing us, we’re just asking of you – please don’t come until you’re done with your argument with us,” he said. “And yes, we’re using facial recognition to enforce that.”
From Madison Square Garden CEO doubles down on use of facial recognition tech | CNN Business.
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the quality of management in British companies is the worst in the G7
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OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT, has ramped up its hiring around the world, bringing on roughly 1,000 remote contractors over the past six months in regions like Latin America and Eastern Europe, according to people familiar with the matter… 40% are computer programmers who are creating data for OpenAI’s models to learn software engineering tasks. OpenAI’s existing Codex product, launched in Aug. 2021, is designed to translate natural language into code.
From OpenAI has hired an army of contractors to make basic coding obsolete | Semafor.
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The addition of Egypt will also relieve the state budget of the pressure to find dollars to meet imports because members of that bank can use their national currencies in bilateral trade, he said. Legislator Mervat Mattar, stated that “the BRICS group is an important forum that can divert the course of the international economy from US and dollar dominance.” He also welcomed the Russian central bank’s decision a week ago to add the Egyptian pound to its list of foreign currencies exchangeable for rubles.
From Egyptian parliament approves agreement to join the BRICS bank – Prensa Latina.
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Digital identity is a public good which requires government support and regulation while tech and service providers are going to have to take responsibility for security and fraud, rather than individuals as attacks become more sophisticated. The UK needs to make decisions quickly on areas such as verifiable credentials otherwise it will be isolated from international interoperability and decreasingly attractive as a place for investment.
From UK govt urged to step up role in digital ID as public good at Westminster eForum | Biometric Update:
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Between the first quarter of 2021 and third quarter of 2022 (the most recent quarter for which data is available), the percentage of Americans that said that they used a mobile wallet at some point in the previous three months increased to 49% from 38%.
That increase reflects a significant erosion of some historical barriers to adoption.
Chief among them: trial. The percentage of people who said they have heard of mobile wallets, but have never set one up, declined to 24% from 37%, and those that said that are concerned about security declined to 21% from 25%.
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TSB says that Meta platforms, including Facebook, accoutn for four fifths of the frauds that they have to reimburse. It’s reasonable to ask why bans are being saddled with the bill
Snippings