AI Model Transparency, Google, Twitter, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 22, 2023

AI Model Transparency, Google, Twitter, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, October 22, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

The Verge: The world’s biggest AI models aren’t very transparent, Stanford study says. “Today, Stanford HAI released its Foundation Model Transparency Index, which tracked whether creators of the 10 most popular AI models disclose information about their work and how people use their systems. Among the models it tested, Meta’s Llama 2 scored the highest, followed by BloomZ and then OpenAI’s GPT-4. But none of them, it turned out, got particularly high marks.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Google takes aim at Duolingo with new English tutoring tool. “Rolling out over the next few days for Search on Android devices in Argentina, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Venezuela, with more countries and languages to come in the future, the new feature will provide interactive speaking practice for language learners translating to or from English, Google writes in a blog post.”

CNBC: X, formerly Twitter, will launch two new subscription tiers, Elon Musk says. “X, the social media service formerly known as Twitter, will launch two new tiers of subscriptions for users, its owner Elon Musk said on Friday. One tier will be ‘lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads,’ while the other is “more expensive, but has no ads,’ Musk said.”

Search Engine Journal: Google’s October 2023 Core Update Now Complete. “First announced on October 5, the October 2023 Core Update is expected to significantly shift search rankings, as previous core updates have done. Core updates target the primary ranking systems in Google’s search engine algorithms. They aim to promote authoritative, trustworthy, and helpful content while downgrading low-quality sites.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Washington Post: Elon Musk’s X removes the New York Times’ verification badge. “The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the gold ‘verified’ badge from the New York Times’ account amid ongoing complaints about the news organization from X owner Elon Musk.”

Refinery29: Archivo Cubanecuir is Preserving the History of Trans & Queer Cuba. “In 2019, while living in Brooklyn, [Librada González Fernández] began to fulfill her childhood dream by creating the Archivo Cubanecuir, an archive documenting the lives of Cubans who have lived outside of the gender norm. She has been connecting with cuir (queer) Cuban elders across the Caribbean island and the United States to collect their photos, letters, and artifacts, piecing together the folklore she wished she had access to when she was younger.”

Know Your Meme: What Is ‘Thirst Trap Propaganda’? The Bizarre Phenomenon Of Militaries Posting Hot Soldiers On Social Media. “Often when people talk about social media being used for military purposes, they’re discussing things like disinformation, misinformation, election interference or recruiting. But there’s also another kind of reported psyop underway on TikTok and other social media platforms: ‘thirst trap propaganda,’ which features attractive soldiers of armies around the world partaking in internet trends and dances.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

US Department of Justice: Social Media Influencer Sentenced for Election Interference in 2016 Presidential Race . “According to court documents, by 2016, Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, had established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as one of the most significant influencers of the then-upcoming presidential election. Between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to ‘vote’ via text message or social media, which was legally invalid. ”

Bloomberg: Google, Meta and Apple Win US Approval for Mobile VR Devices. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. won approval from US regulators to deploy a new set of mobile virtual- and augmented-reality devices, including goggles and in-car connections. The gadgets would be allowed to tap airwaves used by Wi-Fi-enabled devices, the Federal Communications Commission decided in a 5-0 vote Thursday.”

Decrypt: SBF Asked Former FTX Lawyer to Find ‘Legal Justifications’ for Missing Customer Funds. “FTX former general counsel, Can Sun, testified on Thursday that Sam Bankman-Fried asked him to craft ‘legal justifications’ to explain why billions of dollars of customer funds were missing, as the exchange struggled to process customer withdrawals last November.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNN: Musk’s X cashes in on ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas misinformation, new report finds. “Some of the biggest peddlers of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on Elon Musk’s X platform are premium, so-called ‘verified’ accounts that pay the social media company formerly known as Twitter to promote their posts to boost visibility, a report released Thursday found.”

University of Michigan: Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station. “Of course, what’s simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another assistance profile that it believes might be better. This approach enables users to set the exoskeleton assistance based on their preferences using a very simple interface, conducive to implementing on a smartwatch or phone.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 22, 2023 at 05:31PM
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National and University Library of Iceland, IRS, Google, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 21, 2023

National and University Library of Iceland, IRS, Google, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 21, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National and University Library of Iceland: Foreign manuscripts from Willard Fiske’s Library. “The books arrived at the library soon after his death, but were not unpacked from boxes until after the library’s move to a new building in 1908. Recently, it was discovered that among the books the library received from Fiske’s collection were four foreign manuscripts, all of which are unique.” All four manuscripts have been digitized and are available online.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: IRS will start piloting its free TurboTax alternative in 2024. “It looks like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) truly was working on a free TurboTax alternative like earlier reports had claimed. The US tax authority has announced that it will start pilot testing its new Direct File program for the 2024 filing season, though it will initially be available for select taxpayers in 13 states only.”

The Verge: Google is tweaking Chrome’s search bar to make it easier to navigate the web. “Google is making a few changes to the way its search and address bar — known as the omnibox — works in the Chrome browser. The changes are individually pretty small, but there’s an important and somewhat unexpected trend in them all: Google is making it easier for you to move around the web without having to do so many Google searches.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: Elon Musk’s Main Tool for Fighting Disinformation on X Is Making the Problem Worse, Insiders Claim. “… a WIRED investigation found that Community Notes appears to be not functioning as designed, may be vulnerable to coordinated manipulation by outside groups, and lacks transparency about how notes are approved. Sources also claim that it is filled with in-fighting and disinformation, and there appears to be no real oversight from the company itself.”

CNBC: Google cuts dozens of jobs in news division. “Google cut dozens of jobs in its news division this week, CNBC has learned, downsizing at a particularly sensitive time for online platforms and publishers. An estimated 40 to 45 workers in Google News have lost their jobs, according to an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson, who didn’t know the exact number.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

FTC: Influence peddling? Bogus “brand ambassador managers” scam prospective influencers. “We’ve warned professionals about online job scams involving phony ‘recruiters’ who falsely claim to represent big-name businesses. Employment impersonators are still at it, but this time they’re approaching people with bogus offers to be ‘brand ambassadors’ for well-known consumer products companies. The only ‘brand’ these fraudsters represent is their own sleazy financial interest.”

MENAFN: Court Declares Google’s Russian Subsidiary Bankrupt. “The Moscow Arbitration Court on Wednesday declared Google LLC, Google’s Russian subsidiary, bankrupt, Azernews reports, citing Interfax.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Cornell University: Online learning widens gap for minority students. “After the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as institutions had adapted to online learning, students belonging to underrepresented ethnic minority groups struggled to bounce back academically as compared with their non-minority classmates.”

New York Times: A New Report Documents How Easily Children Can Access Graphic Images of the War. “The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a research group that studies online platforms, created accounts on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat under the guise of British 13-year-olds. Within a 48-hour period from Oct. 14 through 16, the researchers said, they found more than 300 problematic posts.”

Washington University in St. Louis: AI for Health launches to promote growing intersection of artificial intelligence, health. “To further integrate the power of AI and Internet of Things (IoT) into health care, the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has launched the AI for Health Institute to design data-driven tools to characterize complex diseases, support clinical decisions and drive precision health.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 22, 2023 at 12:27AM
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London Runoff Pollution, Australia Heavy Minerals, Project FeederWatch, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 21, 2023

London Runoff Pollution, Australia Heavy Minerals, Project FeederWatch, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, October 21, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BBC: London pollution: Maps shows worst areas for road run-off pollution. “A new online map has been created to show where contaminated rain water from roads is polluting rivers in London. Environmental charity Thames21 has launched the site to help local authorities, as well as local communities, identify problem areas.”

Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia: Mapping Australia’s heavy minerals in world-first. “The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia, developed by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with Curtin University, has been created using heavy mineral samples found in floodplain sediments from across the country.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Cornell Chronicle: Add new types of data for the 37th season of Project FeederWatch. “The prime directive for Project FeederWatch has been and continues to be gathering data about how bird populations and distributions are changing across the United States and Canada—vital information for conservation. For the 37th season of this project, participants can enter some brand-new kinds of data—and finally get a chance to tell tales about squirrels, deer, raccoons, bears, or other mammals they see at their count sites in winter—in addition to the birds.”

Search Engine Journal: YouTube Unveils Major Update Including Dozens Of New Features. “YouTube has launched over three dozen new features and design updates to enhance the user experience. Now rolling out globally, the changes are designed to give viewers more control and help them easily find content while modernizing the look and feel.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

ARTnews: British Museum Will Digitize Entire Collection at a Cost of $12.1 M. in Response to Thefts. “British Museum has announced plans to digitize its entire collection in order to increase security and public access, as well as ward off calls for the repatriation of items. The project will require 2.4 million records to upload or upgrade and is estimated to take five years to complete.”

AFP: US congresswoman shares post misrepresenting photo of dead Syrian children. “Hundreds of children are among those killed as Israeli pounds the Gaza Strip with air strikes and prepares a ground offensive against Hamas, which plunged the region into war with a bloody attack. But a photo spreading online of dead boys and girls swaddled in cloth — amplified by a US lawmaker — does not show slain Palestinian youth; the picture was taken in Syria in 2013.”

New York Times: What Happens When an Artist’s Technology Becomes Obsolete?. “A museum’s task of protecting art in perpetuity has remained fixed, even as artists’ materials have changed. Art institutions are likely the only places in the world that are currently planning how they might be able to fix an Oculus Rift 50 years from now. Rather than keep stockpiles of expensive and obsolete technology in storage, museums have to find clever ways around software updates, from video game emulators to server farms to niche businesses like CTL.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Musk considers removing X platform from Europe over EU law. “Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, is considering removing the service formerly called Twitter from Europe in response to a new internet platform regulation in the region, news site Insider reported on Wednesday (18 October)” This is the Digital Services Act.

Times of Israel: Hamas launched unique terror tactic: Livestreaming horrors on victims’ social media. “Hamas seems to have intentionally adopted a new terror tactic during its devastating attack on Israeli communities on October 7 — that of using the social media accounts of their victims to spread fear and confusion among their families and friends as the killings and abductions unfolded.”

Ars Technica: The most insane “robocall mitigation plans” that telcos filed with the FCC. “The 20 carriers include a mix of US-based and foreign voice service providers that submitted required ‘robocall mitigation’ plans to the Federal Communications Commission about two years ago. The problem is that some of the carriers’ submissions were blank pages and others were bizarre images or documents that had no relation to robocalls.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stanford Medicine: Virtual reality helps people with hoarding disorder practice decluttering. “…a pilot study by Stanford Medicine researchers suggests that a virtual reality therapy that allows those with hoarding disorder to rehearse relinquishing possessions in a simulation of their own home could help them declutter in real life. The simulations can help patients practice organizational and decision-making skills learned in cognitive behavioral therapy — currently the standard treatment — and desensitize them to the distress they feel when discarding.”

Newswise: Using AI to develop hydrogen fuel cell catalysts more efficiently and economically. “The team developed Slab Graph Convolutional Neural Network (SGCNN) artificial intelligence model to accurately predict the binding energy of adsorbates on the catalyst surface. This is not the first application of AI to materials discovery. The SGCNN model was developed by evolving the CGCNN model, which is specialized in predicting bulk properties of solid materials, to predict surface properties of catalytic materials.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 21, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Masterpiece Studio, Content Moderation Sim Games, Vivek Murthy, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 20, 2023

Masterpiece Studio, Content Moderation Sim Games, Vivek Murthy, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 20, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Animation World Network: Masterpiece Studio Releases New Text-to-3D Generative AI Tool. “Masterpiece Studio has announced the release of Masterpiece X – Generate, a generative AI tools for creating textured and animated 3D models from simple text prompts.”

Washington Post: Think you could make a safer social media site? This game lets you try. “Policymakers in Washington often accuse social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok of putting profits over people when making decisions about how to run their businesses. An educational game released Tuesday is looking to flip the script by putting users in charge of safety efforts at a fictional digital platform, an initiative aimed at teaching people about the thorny trade-offs tech companies face daily.”

EVENTS

Harvard Gazette: Murthy says social media hurting kids, time for government, tech firms to help. “It’s time for government and private industry to step up and reduce the mental health risks of social media for young people, according to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy called the impact of digital platforms on teen well-being a ‘pivotal issue in public health’ during an event last Friday afternoon marking the launch of the Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: 5 Best Alternatives to Google Sheets . “If you’re looking for other spreadsheet options, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to some of the top alternatives to Google Sheets. Each tool has its own special features, advantages, and disadvantages. Let’s dive in to learn more about them.” Not mentioned and heartily endorsed by me: Gnumeric.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The City: Tongue Twisted: Adams Taps AI to Make City Robocalls in Languages He Doesn’t Speak . “Mayor Eric Adams is using artificial intelligence to turn himself into a polyglot: sending out robocalls with his voice to New Yorkers in a slew of languages he does not speak — and spooking out ethics and privacy advocates.”

MariTalk: NARA Wants Agencies to Automate Social Media Records Retention. “The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is calling on Federal agencies to consider dedicating more resources to IT solutions that can automate the records retention of their social media records.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Wall Street Journal: The Crypto Exchange Moving Money for Criminal Gangs, Rich Russians and a Hamas-Linked Terror Group. “Despite its place on the U.S. blacklist, which restricts transactions with sanctioned entities, Garantex has become a major channel through which Russians move funds into and out of the country, according to trading data and people familiar with the firm. It has also been a vehicle for Russian cybercriminals to launder their earnings, U.S. authorities say.”

Bloomberg: South Africa goes after Google, Facebook, and ChatGPT. “South Africa has started a probe to gauge if artificial intelligence models, digital and social media platforms managed by companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook are limiting the nation’s news and media companies’ ability to generate revenue.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Pete Warden: Why We’re Building an Open-Source Universal Translator. “One of the most common answers is a wearable earpiece. This is in line with Hitchhikers’ Babel Fish, but there are still massive technical obstacles to fitting the processing required into such a small device, even offloading compute to a phone would require a lot of radio and battery usage…. Instead, we’re building a small, unconnected box with a built-in display that can automatically translate between dozens of different languages.”

MarketWatch: Some teens are spending a quarter of their lives on social media. These are the sites sucking up their time.. “A Gallup poll finds that that 17-year-old girls spend about 6 hours a day across social media apps, and teens overall scroll for almost 5 hours a day on average.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 21, 2023 at 12:18AM
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1950s Aerial Photography, Mathematics Education, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 20, 2023

1950s Aerial Photography, Mathematics Education, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, October 20, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Montana: UM-Led Project Creates Mapping Tool Using Satellites, 1950s Photo Archive. “When the Cold War grew chillier around 1950, the U.S. military worried about a communist land invasion of the United States. So pilots were employed – many of them veterans of World War II – to photograph the entire country using aircraft…. Now the University of Montana and its partners have created a new tool, Landscape Explorer, which combines those 1950s photos with modern satellite imagery…. At present the tool covers the American West, from the Pacific Ocean to North Dakota and down to Texas.”

Education Week: Are Schools Choosing High-Quality Math Curricula? A New Database Offers Clues . “The Center for Education Market Dynamics, a nonprofit market-intelligence organization, has created a database of math curricula used in 934 districts, representing more than 52 percent of all students in the country. The database demonstrates which publishers hold the most control over the market—but it also tracks the spread of high-quality materials.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Rolling Stone: Elon Musk’s X Tests $1 Annual Fee in Desperate Attempt to Fight Bots, Spam. “The program, called ‘Not a Bot,’ will cost new users in both countries one dollar a year to post and interact with other posts. New users who select the subscription plan on X will be able to ‘post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts.'”

Engadget: Google rolls out more accessibility features for Maps, Search and Assistant. “Google has revealed a string of accessibility updates it’s rolling out for Maps, Search and Assistant, as well as greater availability of some camera-based Pixel features. One of the main focus areas this time around is wheelchair accessibility. A new option that’s gradually becoming available on iOS and Android will allow Maps users to request stair-free walking routes.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: After ChatGPT disruption, Stack Overflow lays off 28 percent of staff. “While no chatbot is 100 percent reliable, code has the unique ability to be instantly verified by just testing it in your IDE (integrated development environment), which makes it an ideal use case for chatbots. Where exactly does that leave sites like Stack Overflow? Apparently, not in a great situation. Today, CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar announced Stack Overflow is laying off 28 percent of its staff.”

TechCrunch: One year post-acquisition, X traffic and monthly active users are in decline, report claims . “According to data from market intelligence firm Similarweb, X’s global website traffic was down 14% year-over-year in September, and U.S. traffic was down by 19%. On mobile devices in the U.S., performance had also declined 17.8% year-over-year, based on monthly active users on iOS and Android.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Malicious Notepad++ Google ads evade detection for months. “Threat actors have been increasingly abusing Google Ads in malvertising campaigns to promote fake software websites that distribute malware. According to Malwarebytes, which spotted the Notepad++ malvertising campaign, it has been live for several months but managed to fly under the radar all this time.”

BBC: Twitter glitch allows CIA informant channel to be hijacked. “A cyber-security researcher has exploited a glitch on the CIA’s official Twitter account, to hijack a channel used for recruiting spies. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) account on X, formerly known as Twitter, displays a link to a Telegram channel for informants. But Kevin McSheehan was able to redirect potential CIA contacts to his own Telegram channel.”

Sydney Morning Herald: Lachlan Murdoch pleaded with Google boss to save Aussie start-up. “Media billionaire Lachlan Murdoch made a personal plea to Google’s boss, Sundar Pichai, in an attempt to stop the tech giant from banning Aussie start-up Unlockd from its platform in 2018. The revelations surfaced in court documents filed this week to a California District Court as bankruptcy trustees for Unlockd’s US operations continue a long-running antitrust battle with Google over its decision to ban the start-up from its platforms.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Bleeding Cool: Physical Media Is Not Dead For Film Fans, It Is Just Fine Actually. “While nowhere near the highs of 2000-2010’s, physical media sales of films still topped $1.5 billion in 2022. A far cry from the peak of 2005 when sales were around $16 billion. Disney has stopped selling physical media in many foreign countries, with the US expected to be next soon. And sure, more and more people are building their streaming profiles, using services like Vudu to create a digital collection. But, just like with music, a huge group of collectors keeps film on media alive.”

Tulane University: No FOMO here – study finds social media photos may drive new customers away. “Across a diverse range of destination venues, the authors consistently found that the presence of others in the photo of a place for special or once-in-a-lifetime events lowered viewers’ liking and preference for the venue. ‘When it’s an experience closely tied to self-identity, like vacations or weddings, people want to feel personal ownership over the venue,’ the authors explained.”

CNN: Baidu says its AI is in the same league as GPT-4. “Chinese tech giant Baidu is officially taking on GPT-4. On Tuesday, the company unveiled ERNIE 4.0, the newest version of its artificial intelligence chatbot that it directly compared to the latest iteration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 20, 2023 at 12:54PM
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Radio Broadcasting History, Adobe, AI, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2023

Radio Broadcasting History, Adobe, AI, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from TVNewsCheck: David Gleason Builds A Digital Archive Worth Honoring. “Fully searchable and well organized, the database not only contains publications about broadcasting, but also of the related fields of advertising, media buying, media research and cable. Visitors to the site will also find music magazines, network and station publications, FCC regulations and decisions, fan magazines, radio enthusiast magazines, technical manuals, programming guides and ‘oddities.'”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNN: Adobe previews new AI editing tools. “Photo-editing software maker Adobe unveiled a slew of new AI-powered tools and features last week at its annual Max event, including a dress that transforms into a wearable screen and streamlined ways to delete elements from photos.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Public AI vs. Private AI vs. Personal AI: What’s the Difference?. “AIs can be categorized as public, private, or personal AIs. Training and designing an AI system based on these categories can help solve issues on regulatory limitations, data privacy, and security…. To understand the difference between public, private, and personal AI, let’s compare them based on their purpose, performance, data handling, and privacy.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Government Technology: NYC Releases AI Action Plan, Business-Focused AI Chatbot. “New York City has launched the MyCity Business Services chatbot in a beta form to help residents get information about starting or operating their businesses. The city also released an AI Action Plan to guide responsible city government use of the tech.”

Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk’s X Courts Political Advertisers Ahead of a Contentious Election Year . “Social-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has begun aggressively pitching political advertisers after owner Elon Musk reversed a previous ban on political ads this year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google’s Deals Lock Up 50% of US Searches, DOJ Expert Says. “Google’s exclusive deals to be the default search engine on mobile devices and PC browsers block rivals from as much as half of all queries conducted in the US, the Justice Department’s economic expert said at the company’s antitrust trial Monday.”

The Verge: Google asks Congress to not ban teens from social media. “Google responded to congressional child online safety proposals with its own counteroffer for the first time Monday, urging lawmakers to drop problematic protections like age-verification tech.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MIT News: A method to interpret AI might not be so interpretable after all. “As autonomous systems and artificial intelligence become increasingly common in daily life, new methods are emerging to help humans check that these systems are behaving as expected. One method, called formal specifications, uses mathematical formulas that can be translated into natural-language expressions. Some researchers claim that this method can be used to spell out decisions an AI will make in a way that is interpretable to humans. MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers wanted to check such claims of interpretability. Their findings point to the opposite: Formal specifications do not seem to be interpretable by humans. ”

Brookings Institution: Big Tech won. Now what?. “We have been here before. Many of the abuses of today’s internet barons echo behavior by the industrial barons in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In that instance, the federal government finally stepped up to constrain industrial abuses with new antitrust and consumer protection laws. Whether 21st century policymakers will similarly step up—especially as artificial intelligence becomes pervasive—is the challenge of the internet era.”

Tech Xplore: Using a large-scale dataset holding a million real-world conversations to study how people interact with LLMs. “A team of computer scientists at the University of California Berkeley, working with one colleague from the University of California San Diego and another from Carnegie Mellon University, has created a large-scale dataset of 1 million real-world conversations to study how people interact with large language models (LLMs). They have published a paper describing their work and findings on the arXiv preprint server.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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October 20, 2023 at 01:00AM
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Iowa Banned Books, Global Plastics Laws, AI, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2023

Iowa Banned Books, Global Plastics Laws, AI, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, October 19, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Des Moines Register: Which banned books have been removed from Iowa schools? Our updated database lists them. “Senate File 496, signed into law by Reynolds in May, bans books with descriptions or depictions of sex acts from school libraries and prohibits instruction on gender and sexual identity until seventh grade, among other effects…. The Register sent open records requests to every school district in Iowa — 326 in all — asking for a list of the books they have removed from their libraries to comply with SF496. Two-dozen have responded so far.”

Waste Advantage Magazine: The Global Plastic Laws Database: A Resource to Track Policies Around the World. “The Global Plastic Laws Database is the most comprehensive tool to date to research, track, and visualize plastic legislation that has been passed around the world. The Database tracks legislation across the full life cycle of plastics and organizes these policies according to life cycle categories and key topics.”

WKRN: Vanderbilt scholars analyze role of AI in hate speech. “As artificial intelligence (AI) expands its impact on the world and online, scholars at Vanderbilt University are discussing ways to use the system to combat hate speech. Scholars within the Vanderbilt community along with researchers, free speech, and human rights activists and lawyers are taking part in a two-day symposium on AI and its role in hate speech.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google, DOJ still blocking public access to monopoly trial docs, NYT says. “Dozens of exhibits from the Google antitrust trial are still being hidden from the public, The New York Times Company alleged in a court filing today. According to The Times, there are several issues with access to public trial exhibits on both sides. The Department of Justice has failed to post at least 68 exhibits on its website that were shared in the trial, The Times alleged, and states have not provided access to 18 records despite reporters’ requests.”

Engadget: Twitch adds stories to keep followers tuned in. “Twitch announced today that stories are now available in the platform’s mobile app. Similar to the feature of the same name on Snapchat, Instagram and other social platforms, Twitch’s stories let streamers post photos, text or clips that expire after 48 hours.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Asahi Shimbun: Railway firms turn to AI to shake up lost property search. “Gone are the days when a laborious search by hand is required to locate a missing item at the lost and found office. In May, Tokyo-based private railroad operator Keio Corp. introduced a service that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to sort things out quickly. Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu), based in Fukuoka, followed suit by starting to provide a similar service in August. Claimants simply need a smartphone to make an inquiry.”

Romania Insider: European Commission in Romania launches anti-disinformation platform. “The platform, named ‘trUE – The Naked Truth’ (trUE – Adevărul gol-goluț), aims to support the general public with useful tools for identifying fake news and information distributed online with the intent to misinform. It brings together articles, case studies, and video materials produced in collaboration with influencers, as well as educational materials that can be used in classroom settings.”

The Markup: Twitter Is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood. “Twitter is now slowing down traffic on links to the crowdfunding site Patreon, WhatsApp, and at times, Meta’s Messenger app, a Markup analysis confirms. Using a tool launched by The Markup last month, readers discovered that links to these sites were delayed by an average of 2.5 seconds—findings we confirmed.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: CISA, U.S. and International Partners Announce Updated Secure by Design Principles Joint Guide. “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with 17 U.S. and international partners, published an update to ‘Shifting the Balance of Cybersecurity Risk: Principles and Approaches for Secure by Design Software’ that includes further detail on key principles, guidance, and is co-sealed by eight additional international cybersecurity agencies…. Initially published in April 2023, this joint guidance urges software manufacturers to take urgent steps necessary to design, develop, and deliver products that are secure by design.”

New York Times: Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny. “When a company with Chinese origins broke ground last year on a crypto-mining operation in Cheyenne, Wyo., a team at Microsoft that assesses national security threats sounded the alarm. Not only was the site next door to a Microsoft data center that supported the Pentagon — it was about a mile away from an Air Force base that controlled nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

Bloomberg: Colorado Court OKs Use of Google Search Data in Murder Case. “The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that evidence gleaned from a warrant for Google’s search data could be used in a murder case, sparking concerns the decision may encourage more police to embrace the controversial technique.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Indian Express: Scientists working on Polymathic AI, a new tool that will help make scientific discoveries. “A group of scientists are working on a new tool called Polymathic AI that will use the same technology that powers ChatGPT. Unlike the OpenAI’s chatbot, which mostly deals with words and sentences, the new model will work with numerical data and physics simulations.” Good morning, Internet…

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October 19, 2023 at 05:31PM
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