"As coronavirus threatens to become a global pandemic, everyone's keeping a close eye on how it's spreading across the world. Several organizations have made dashboards to keep track of COVID-19. But now, hackers have found a way to use these dashboards to inject malware into computers."
"Investors and clients of the facial recognition start-up with ties to the extreme right used an early version of the Clearview AI app on dates and at parties - "and to spy on the public.""
"At its core, the researchers' "Planning with Uncertain Specifications" (PUnS) system gives robots the human-like planning ability to simultaneously weigh many ambiguous - and potentially contradictory - requirements to reach an end goal. In doing so, the system always chooses the most likely action to take, based on a "belief" about some probable specifications for the task it is supposed to perform."
""Somehow the little brats worked out that if enough users gave the app a one-star review it would get booted off the App Store. Tens of thousands of reviews flooded in, and DingTalk's rating plummeted overnight from 4.9 to 1.4. The app has had to beg for mercy on social media: 'I'm only five years old myself, please don't kill me.'""
"Others are more emphatic about the future. Wang Aizhong, an activist based in Guangzhou, said: "This epidemic undoubtedly provides more reason for the government to surveil the public. I don't think authorities will rule out keeping this up after the outbreak.""
"An AI system developed by Chinese tech company Baidu that uses an infrared sensor and AI to predict people's temperatures is now in use in Beijing's Qinghe Railway Station, according to an email sent to Baidu employees that was shared with VentureBeat."
"A school in Poland has been fined €4,600 ($5,200) for breaching Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) after it was found to be processing students' fingerprint data to verify whether they had paid for school lunch. The news comes as biometric data harnessing programs around the world spark significant privacy concerns."
"But an analysis of the app's code found that it does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk; it also shares information with the police, setting "a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides"."
"Eric Leuthardt believes that in the near future we will allow doctors to insert electrodes into our brains so we can communicate directly with computers and each other."
"Specifically, the question is whether that algorithm is sorting suggestions based on the race of the creator - something TikTok denies it's doing intentionally. But it's another example of the need for more scrutiny into how the app and other social media platforms promote particular creators or content."
""The combination of the coronavirus, facial recognition on our phones, fear of surveillance, and late-stage capitalism really struck a chord with the internet," said Baskin."
"Clearview, the shady facial-recognition firm with links to law-enforcement and alt-right internet trolls, reports that its entire client list has been stolen."
"The study by US-based thinktank the Technology Policy Institute (TPI) is the first that attempts to quantify the value of online privacy and data. It assessed how much privacy is worth in six countries by looking at the habits of people in the United States, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia and Argentina."
"To date, the presence of Babylon's GP surgery in London has forced the NHS to reallocate millions of pounds in funding to mitigate for the disruption it has caused. Its expansion plans have been blocked before being allowed to proceed. But concerns linger with clinicians questioning the GP surgery's impact and the effectiveness of its much-hyped artificial intelligence platform."
""Every generation is having fun with it," said Jon Alexis, partner in the fast-casual Malibu Poke in Dallas, which opened Nov. 28 with three kiosks that allow guests to save their order history and access them again through facial recognition. "It has exceeded my expectations.""
"The disinformation campaign promotes unfounded conspiracy theories that the US is behind the new coronavirus outbreak, in an apparent bid to damage America's image around the world."
"In the first six weeks of 2020, more than 1.6bn of the 2.4bn presidential campaign ads shown to US Facebook users were from the Bloomberg campaign. Since launching his campaign in mid-November, the former mayor of New York City has spent nearly $45m on Facebook ads - more than all his opponents combined."
"A picture may say a thousand words, but what if the photograph has been fabricated? There are ways to spot a fake - you just have to look closely enough."
