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"My latest Locus Magazine column is DRM Broke Its Promise, which recalls the days when digital rights management was pitched to us as a way to enable exciting new markets where we'd all save big by only buying the rights we needed (like the low-cost right to read a book for an hour-long plane ride), but instead (unsurprisingly) everything got more expensive and less capable. "

"A group of current and former contractors who worked for years at the social network's Berlin-based moderation centres has reported witnessing colleagues become "addicted" to graphic content and hoarding ever more extreme examples for a personal collection. They also said others were pushed towards the far right by the amount of hate speech and fake news they read every day."

"Instead, the new work shows our brains rely on the kind of maths that an algorithm might use to perform the task. In fact, Tsao and her colleague, Steven Le Chang, stumbled on their discovery while working on computer vision. The pair had initially set themselves the challenge of coming up with a way of reliably converting facial images into a numerical representation."

"Lexplore claims its technology is new-particularly the algorithm that separates typical from atypical readers. But the concepts it's based on aren't. Its tech draws from a deep well of previously-conducted research stretching back decades, which is generally supportive of using a combination of eye tracking and machine learning to screen for dyslexia. "Eye movements is one of the best ways to index reading ability at an incredibly in-depth level," says Julie Kirkby, a psychology professor at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom, who has studied eye tracking and dyslexia for years."

"He never got the chance to find out. A week later, he opened up his digital "wallet," where the artwork would supposedly be available, and was faced with an ominous banner reading, "This page has gone off grid. We've got a 404 error and explored deep and wide, but we can't find the page you're looking for."  The artwork, which he expected to be on the page, had disappeared entirely. "There was no history of my ever purchasing it, or ever owning it," he said. "Now there's nothing. My money's gone.""

"West Midlands Trains emailed about 2,500 employees with a message saying its managing director, Julian Edwards, wanted to thank them for their hard work over the past year under Covid-19. The email said they would get a one-off payment as a thank you after "huge strain was placed upon a large number of our workforce". However, those who clicked through on the link to read Edwards' thank you were instead emailed back with a message telling them it was a company-designed "phishing simulation test" and there was to be no bonus. It warned: "This was a test designed by our IT team to entice you to click the link and used both the promise of thanks and financial reward.""

"THE DIGITAL DIVIDE The fear of losing control aside, many hawkers also have to deal with another major challenge: Digital technology, which entails some basic competence in logic and literacy - much to the horror of those who only received some primary school education, typical of the older generation of hawkers."

""I think, without question, having access to quantitative data about our conversations, about facial expressions and intonations, would provide another dimension to the clinical interaction that's not detected right now," said Barron, a psychiatrist based in Seattle and author of the new book Reading Our Minds: The Rise of Big Data Psychiatry."

"But that was not before the falsely accused man had his name and image widely shared. The alert sent by Citizen contained a photo and was seen by more than 861,000 people. It read: "Citizen is offering a $30,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of the arson suspect." Citizen told the Guardian in a statement it offered the cash reward "without formal coordination with the appropriate agencies". "Once we realized this error, we immediately retracted the photo and reward offer," it said. "We are actively working to improve our internal processes to ensure this does not occur again. This was a mistake we are taking very seriously.""

" The children's charity NSPCC has called on Facebook to resume a programme that scanned private messages for indications of child abuse, with new data suggesting that almost half of referrals for child sexual abuse material are now falling below the radar. Recent changes to the European commission's e-privacy directive, which are being finalised, require messaging services to follow strict new restrictions on the privacy of message data. Facebook blamed that directive for shutting down the child protection operation, but the children's charity says Facebook has gone too far in reading the law as banning it entirely."

""The code reasonably attempts to address the bargaining power imbalance between digital platforms and Australian news businesses," he said. Google's search engine not as good as its competitors for news, research finds Read more "It also recognises the important role search plays, not only to consumers but to the thousands of Australian small businesses that rely on search and advertising technology to fund and support their organisations." The code, which is currently before the parliament, would facilitate negotiations between media companies and digital platforms - currently just Facebook and Google - for payment for content. If an agreement cannot be reached, then it goes to an arbiter for resolution."

YES IAN YOU SHOULD BE READING THIS! "The authors raise three arguments: first, that "notice and choice" has been a failure ("to opt out simply stay indoors!"); second, that facial recognition fears are technophobic overreactions, and finally, that facial recognition is uniquely powerful and dangerous and needs a regulatory framework separate from other privacy rules ("to opt out, just don't have a face")."

AI and machine learning, combined with the science of turning data into insightful information (aka data science), have become more important than ever in the "new normal" to guide innovation based on new market trends and consumer preferences This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title "How artificial intelligence helps firms stay relevant amid pandemic - Opinion - The Jakarta Post". Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/09/21/how-artificial-intelligence-helps-firms-stay-relevant-amid-pandemic.html. Download The Jakarta Post app for easier and faster news access: Android: http://bit.ly/tjp-android iOS: http://bit.ly/tjp-ios

"DO YOU WANT YOUR PALM STORED IN THE CLOUD?"

"Some time in the next few months, iPhone users will be greeted by a message - not from Facebook, but from Apple - asking them if they will allow the Facebook app to collect their data. If users refuse, Apple will prevent Facebook from doing so. Facebook's attempt to vilify Apple looks like sour grapes Read more A similar message from Apple will pop up, related to any app that collects data on users for advertising purposes. Facebook says it will preempt the change by rolling out a pop-up screen over the coming weeks and months, making a plea to users to stay opted in. "Agreeing to these prompts doesn't result in Facebook collecting new types of data; it just means that Facebook can continue to give people better experiences," a Facebook spokeswoman said."

"This might be a bit disappointing for you. But if you think about it, what would be a satisfying answer to the meaning of life, in the simulation or out of it? It seems difficult to think of a fully satisfying answer to a question that has been put on the most ornate pedestal of all questions. 'To love or to live' sound like something you'd read in a cheap self-help book. The Epicureans thought that the meaning of life was to seek modest pleasures. To me at least, that does not sound very satisfying."

"The business, political and geopolitical mischief possible with manipulated data, audio or video is almost limitless; think manufactured video of Jeff Bezos-whose personal life has already apparently been the target of sophisticated adversaries and extortion plots-using a racial slur; grainy fake video or audio of Joe Biden admitting to assaulting Tara Reade; grainy video of Trump saying he plans to nuke Iran in one hour; or even Anthony Fauci saying that he's doctoring the Covid death tolls. "

"Algorithms and the data that drive them are designed and created by people, which means those systems can carry biases based on who builds them and how they're ultimately deployed. Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, offers a curated reading list exploring how technology can replicate and reinforce racist and sexist beliefs, how that bias can affect everything from health outcomes to financial credit to criminal justice, and why data discrimination is a major 21st century challenge."

"Researchers call these design and wording decisions "dark patterns," a term applied to UX that tries to manipulate your choices. When Instagram repeatedly nags you to "please turn on notifications," and doesn't present an option to decline? That's a dark pattern. When LinkedIn shows you part of an InMail message in your email, but forces you to visit the platform to read more? Also a dark pattern. When Facebook redirects you to "log out" when you try to deactivate or delete your account? That's a dark pattern too."

"But while CSV files can be any size, Microsoft Excel files can only be 1,048,576 rows long - or, in older versions which PHE may have still been using, a mere 65,536. When a CSV file longer than that is opened, the bottom rows get cut off and are no longer displayed. That means that, once the lab had performed more than a million tests, it was only a matter of time before its reports failed to be read by PHE."