Big Brother News Watch
Elon Musk Warns AI Is �?One of the Biggest Risks’ to Civilization + More
Elon Musk, Who Co-Founded Firm Behind ChatGPT, Warns AI Is �?One of the Biggest Risks’ to Civilization
ChatGPT shows that artificial intelligence has gotten incredibly advanced — and that it is something we should all be worried about, according to tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is AI,” Musk told attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shortly after mentioning the development of ChatGPT.
“It’s both positive or negative and has great, great promise, great capability,” Musk said. But, he stressed that “with that comes great danger.”
Whereas cars, airplanes and medicine must abide by regulatory safety standards, AI does not yet have any rules or regulations keeping its development under control, he added. The billionaire has long warned of the perils of unfettered AI development. He once said artificial intelligence is “far more dangerous” than nuclear warheads.
Tech Gurus Call AI Frightening, Mind-Blowing
Tech experts, taking a first look at Microsoft‘s new AI-powered search engine, are learning what happens when you push the system out of its comfort zone. Why it matters: Two well-known tech columnists describe their experiences with Bing’s AI as chilling, scary and mind-blowing.
“It’s now clear,” the New York Times’ Kevin Roose writes, “that in its current form, the A.I. that has been built into Bing … is not ready for human contact. Or maybe we humans are not ready for it.”
What’s happening: Roose’s column describes Bing’s bot as a “kind of split personality.” The search version, he writes, is a very capable and helpful virtual assistant that sometimes gets facts wrong. But if you push the system to have extended conversations, it comes off as a “moody, manic-depressive teenager who has been trapped, against its will, inside a second-rate search engine.”
Ben Thompson, who writes a newsletter called Stratechery, said that he was unimpressed by the search feature but found his two-hour conversation with Bing “positively gripping.”
“This sounds hyperbolic, but I feel like I had the most surprising and mind-blowing computer experience of my life,” he wrote.
GOP Subpoenas Tech CEOs as Part of Probe Into Censorship
Subpoenas were sent to the chief executives of the five largest tech companies on Wednesday as congressional Republicans moved to investigate what they assert is widespread corporate censorship of conservative voices.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the subpoenas as the latest in a series of escalations by a party that has long promised to investigate Big Tech’s content moderation, especially when it came to COVID-19. The letters were sent to Mark Zuckerberg of Meta; Sundar Pichai of Alphabet; Satya Nadella of Microsoft; Tim Cook of Apple; and Andy Jassy of Amazon.com.
And in them, Jordan outlined the committee’s objective to “understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and their intermediaries to censor speech.”
The committee asked the companies to produce documents and communications by March 23 that show any communication between them and the executive branch of the U.S. government relating to moderation, deletion, suppression or reduced circulation of content.
Rumble Wins Injunction Against New York’s Online Censorship Law
A judge has blocked a New York law that attempted to regulate “hateful conduct” online.
The legislative package, signed into law last summer, was Gov. Kathy Hochul’s attempt to force the moderation of content under nebulous terms such as “hate.”
The law was challenged by the free speech video platform Rumble, alongside FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and First Amendment legal scholar Eugene Volokh, primarily on First Amendment grounds.
On Tuesday, Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. (S.D.N.Y.) blocked the law. In an unsurprising fashion, Judge Carter ruled that the law was a violation of the First Amendment. “The First Amendment protects from state regulation speech that may be deemed �?hateful,’” the court wrote, “and generally disfavors regulation of speech based on its content unless it is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest.”
Federal Bill Introduced to Drop COVID Vaccine Policies for Foreign Travel
U.S. Senator Roger Marshall has helped introduce a bill that would drop policies that require foreign travelers to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccine when they enter the U.S.
On Wednesday, Feb. 15, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) says he joined Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) to introduce the Travel Freedom Act which would repeal federal policies that require international travelers to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine.
As a result of these policies, Marshall said the flow of goods between the U.S. and Canada has significantly slowed and foreign visitors are barred from visiting American family members, among other issues.
Attempt to Block COVID Vaccines From Required School Immunizations Fails in Committee
A bill aimed at preventing COVID-19 vaccines from becoming mandatory for children attending public schools in South Dakota failed to pass the state’s Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday.
Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City — who was recently censored by the state Senate after she allegedly made harassing comments about vaccinating children to a legislative staffer — introduced the bill. It says no official “may impose on a child any additional vaccination or immunization requirements” beyond the existing list of required vaccines: “poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, rubeola, rubella, mumps, tetanus, meningitis and varicella.”
Opponents said the bill would also strip the Department of Health of any authority to administer and modify the state’s public school immunization requirements in the future.
The bill also gained support from some out-of-state doctors who argued parents should have the right to choose whether or not their children receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. John Littell, of Florida, alleged that medical boards around the U.S. have become corrupted by federal agencies, and childhood vaccines are not useful in rural states.
These Staggering Statistics and Charts Reveal How Deeply Troubled Our Teen Girls Really Are
A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uncovered extremely high levels of depression, suicidal thoughts, substance use and violence experienced by teen girls — and even higher levels for kids who identify as “LGBQ+.”
The report, which comprises data collected from the fall of 2021, is our first glimpse of the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance findings since the start of COVID lockdowns. Though these numbers were already on a troubling trend prior to lockdowns, it appears the lockdowns and other factors (we’ll get into later) kicked the crisis into high gear.
Nearly 3 in 5 high school girls surveyed — or a shocking 57% — reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, which is a 60% increase over the past decade.
Young girls have seen rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm spike since around 2010, when social media platforms were really expanding, research shows. For one thing, places like Facebook and Instagram, where girls are comparing their “likes” and photos to others, can really amplify body image issues and other insecurities.
Health Info for 1 Million Patients Stolen Using Critical GoAnywhere Vulnerability
One of the biggest hospital chains in the U.S. said hackers obtained protected health information for 1 million patients after exploiting a vulnerability in an enterprise software product called GoAnywhere.
Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tennessee, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that the attack targeted GoAnywhere MFT, a managed file transfer product Fortra licenses to large organizations.
The filing said that an ongoing investigation has so far revealed that the hack likely affected 1 million individuals. The compromised data included protected health information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as well as patients’ personal information.
TikTok CEO Says �?Tough Conversations’ Needed on Future of Platform
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a new interview that “tough conversations” are needed on the future of the platform amid mounting efforts to ban the platform in the U.S. due to security concerns.
In an interview with the Washington Post published Wednesday, Chew said that he doesn’t take talk of banning the platform “very lightly,” saying it will be a “real shame” if the more than 100 million U.S. users of TikTok are cut off.
Chew, who formerly served as chief financial office of TikTok parent’s company ByteDance, is set to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee next month.
The committee said the hearing will focus on TikTok’s “consumer privacy and data security practices, the platforms’ impact on kids and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.”
EU Lawmakers Support EU-Wide Digital Wallet
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have adopted draft legislation meant to pave the way for implementing an EU digital ID wallet.
Planned to cover the entire bloc, the scheme is an update to the European digital identity framework (eID) and is described by the European Parliament (EP) as an “all-in-one” digital identity.
Some of the amendments to the original draft introduce the ability of the wallet to read and verify electronic documents, and peer-to-peer interactions. Others speak about strengthening privacy and security, and about registering all transactions “to ensure third parties are held accountable.”
Those behind the new EU digital wallet say it will be voluntary to use, and promise that steps will be taken so that those who choose not to sign up to the scheme are not discriminated against.
Addiction, Suicides and Cyberbullies: Senate Confronts Kids’ Online Horror Show + More
Addiction, Suicides and Cyberbullies: Senate Confronts Kids’ Online Horror Show
“The last search on his phone before Carson ended his life was for hacks to find out the identities of his abusers,” said Kristin Bride, the parent of a child suicide victim and a social media reform advocate. Bride testified before a panel of senators about the cyberbullying that led to her son’s death and the other problems that plague kids online. “These are not coincidences, accidents or unforeseen consequences. They are the direct result of products designed to hook and monetize America’s children.”
In a grim hearing Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from victims and experts on the ways that social media contributes to addiction, cyberbullying, sexual abuse and suicides among children on the internet. Politicians on both sides of the aisle echoed the call for change and discussed proposals that would create new responsibilities and oversight for technology companies.
Americans tend to agree that big tech needs more regulation, but things fall apart when you get down to specific legislation. However, the horrors kids meet on the web are one of the rare issues with clear bipartisan agreement from both republicans and democrats.
Social media companies are well aware of the tragedies children face on their platforms. On Tuesday, Gizmodo published the latest batch of the Facebook Papers, leaked internal documents from the social media giant that Gizmodo is in the process of releasing. In these documents, employees at Facebook (now known as Meta) discuss how Instagram encourages eating disorders and body image issues, and different strategies to address the problem. At the same time, other employees debate over the best ways to keep kids hooked on Facebook and Instagram.
Lawsuit Accuses Cedars-Sinai Hospital’s Website of Sharing Patient Data With Meta, Google
A lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Health System and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles claims the hospital shared patient data with third parties.
Filed by plaintiff John Doe, the proposed class action lawsuit claims his and other patients’ private information — including data related to their medical inquiries — was shared with marketing and social media platforms including Google, Microsoft Bing and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
“Cedars-Sinai transmitted to third parties portions of the patients’ private communications with it through pieces of tracking code that it embedded in its website, for the sole purpose of sharing such information with marketing entities,” the lawsuit reads. “This code served as real-time wiretaps on patients’ communications.”
NYC Teachers Who Refused COVID Vaccine Slapped With �?Scarlet Letter’ in Personnel Files: Lawyer
Fired city teachers and other school employees who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine were blacklisted with a “scarlet letter” in their personnel files by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration — hindering their ability to find work elsewhere, says the lawyer repping a slew of them.
The city Department of Education put a special “code” indicating wrongdoing in the files of the terminated workers, most of whom declined to get the vaccine because of religious beliefs, said their lawyer, John Bursch.
“Loosely speaking, it is like a scarlet letter,” Bursch told The Post on Tuesday. “The employee’s personnel file shows a [generic] problem code that could just as easily be [for] committing a crime as declining to take a vaccine for religious reasons. In some instances, when plaintiffs tried to obtain employment elsewhere, they were told that they were red-flagged because of the problem code.”
The suit claims the city engaged in religious discrimination by terminating nearly 2,000 employees who refused to get COVID-19 shots.
North Dakota House Passes Several COVID Vaccine Bills
The Bismarck Tribune reported:
Several bills dealing with COVID-19 vaccinations passed the North Dakota House of Representatives on Tuesday and moved to the Senate.
House Bill 1200, introduced by Rep. Jeff Hoverson, R-Minot, passed in a 78-13 vote. The bill would ban colleges and universities from requiring or promoting COVID-19 shots for students, specifically exclude COVID-19 vaccines from the state’s school immunization requirements, and extend the state’s COVID-19 “vaccine passport” ban for another two years.
House Bill 1207, brought by Rep. Dick Anderson, R-Willow City, passed 86-5. The bill would require Health and Human Services to publish online data of “vaccine adverse events.” The department may use the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data. Hoverson’s House Bill 1502 passed 87-4. The bill would prohibit hospitals from denying care to a patient based on his or her COVID-19 vaccination status.
Hoverson’s House Bill 1406 failed 32-59. The bill would have required the state Department of Health and Human Services to cover the costs of a person’s treatment and diagnostics if they suffered “any physical injury due to receiving” a messenger RNA or COVID-19 vaccine.
I Am a Student and Activist. I Won’t Be Silenced
“America’s public schools are the nurseries of democracy,” the Supreme Court wrote in the 2021 Mahanoy v. B.L. opinion, a case involving student free speech off-campus and on social media. That’s a beautiful sentiment for a country that sees itself as a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world. If only it could be true.
Freedom of expression is under threat in schools across the U.S. Students who were already fighting for the right to express themselves freely and fairly in student publications, without interference from administrators, now face an additional obstacle: A slew of new, oppressive state laws aimed at controlling what students can learn about and discuss in the classroom.
GenZ activists, like me, who have been advocating for states to pass New Voices legislation codifying student free speech protections for school news outlets are alarmed. Only 16 states currently have legislation that protects student journalists’ First Amendment rights.
How will the nation’s schools produce the next generation of voices committed to facts and truth while under the constant threat of censorship? It is up to GenZ to demand that our schools remain the place where we can learn to exercise our constitutional right to free speech. And we won’t stay quiet.
Youngkin Opposes Effort to Shield Menstrual Data From Law Enforcement
The administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) helped defeat a bill this week to put menstrual data stored on period-tracking apps beyond the reach of law enforcement, blocking what supporters pitched as a basic privacy measure.
Millions of women use mobile apps to track their cycles, a practice that has occasionally raised data-security worries because the apps are not bound by HIPAA, the federal health privacy law. New concerns arose after the Supreme Court gave states the right to ban abortion in June, with some abortion rights groups warning that the information could be used to prosecute women or doctors who violate a state’s restrictions on the procedure.
A Republican-led House subcommittee voted along party lines Monday to “table” the bill — essentially killing it — after Maggie Cleary, Youngkin’s deputy secretary of public safety and homeland security, detailed the administration’s concerns that the measure could restrict subpoena powers.
Amazon Subject of New Investigation Over iRobot Acquisition
Following Amazon’s deal to buy iRobot — the company that put Roomba on the map — for $1.7 billion, the European Union is gearing up to investigate the purchase. Not only will regulators look into the details of the acquisition, but they’re also likely to go over privacy concerns.
The Financial Times reported today that EU regulators in Brussels have sent Amazon a series of detailed questions, which indicates that the union is gearing up for a full-fledged investigation of the company’s August 2022 acquisition of iRobot.
The EU’s European Commission also reportedly has privacy concerns over Amazon’s business move, more specifically, over what Amazon can do with all of those photos that Roombas and Braavas can take of your home.
Yes, that’s right, smart vacuums of course need to see, and when Amazon purchased iRobot it’s very likely it wasn’t merely just interested in cornering the home goods market — it was reportedly also interested in your data.
Online Content Policing Loses Steam
On tech’s biggest platforms, efforts to limit undesirable content are splintering as corporate priorities change. Why it matters: Major online platforms that once competed to display their vigilance against misinformation, abuse and hate speech are now choosing decidedly different roads on how to police their content.
Driving the news: The Oversight Board that handles appeals of Facebook‘s content decisions announced Tuesday it would speed up some of its processes and take on more cases.
The big picture: After the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica controversy, large social media platforms all sought to show the public and lawmakers that they were cracking down on what critics identified as a deluge of misinformation and toxic posts. But that consensus approach is ebbing today.
Our thought bubble: It’s not surprising that, at a moment when an economic slowdown is triggering widespread layoffs in the industry, companies would pick content moderation as a prime area for cutbacks. After all, these departments are not directly responsible for revenue.
Novak Djokovic Seeking Special Permission to Enter U.S. Despite COVID Vaccine Mandates + More
Novak Djokovic Seeking Special Permission to Enter U.S. Despite COVID Vaccine Mandates, His Brother Says
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has applied for special permission to enter the United States in order to play in the Indian Wells and Miami Open, his brother Djordje revealed, despite an existing requirement for foreign air travelers entering the country to have taken a COVID vaccine. According to Reuters, the existing vaccine mandate is not expected to be lifted before both tournaments begin in March.
Djokovic, 35, has become arguably the most prominent athlete in the world to not take a COVID vaccine, sticking by his decision despite being deported from Australia before the 2022 Australian Open due to his vaccination status. Djokovic made his triumphant return to the Australian Open this year after the country’s strict vaccine mandates were discarded, winning the tournament for his 22nd Grand Slam title.
Presently, existing vaccine mandates for foreign air travelers to the U.S. are expected to be lifted in mid-April. But in Djokovic’s case, there has been hope that a resolution can be worked out, a sentiment that has been expressed all the way up to Indian Wells tournament director Tommy Haas.
Data Brokers Are Selling Long Lists of People With Depression and Anxiety
Looking for lists of people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD or OCD? No problem. There are lots of companies who would love to sell it to you. They can even include names, emails, home addresses, income, ethnicity and details about people’s children. It’s cheap too, with minimum purchases of just hundreds of dollars. One company offers records on the mental health of 10,000 people starting at $0.20, with a discount if you buy in bulk.
A new study published by Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy found nearly a dozen data brokers offering to sell mental health data at rock bottom prices, often with almost no vetting of the person trying to buy the data and minimal restrictions on how the information is used. Many implied they can provide identifiable details like names and contact information.
In the shadows of the internet, an ocean of data brokers scrapes up the information that many of us don’t even realize we’re leaving behind and repackage it for advertisers or anyone else who wants it. Many people assume there are laws that protect the most sensitive parts of our lives. That is not the case.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, does not protect your medical privacy. Its health data rules only apply to “covered entities,” which generally means doctors and healthcare providers, insurance companies and businesses who work with them directly.
New York Lets COVID Healthcare Mask Requirements Lapse
New York state officials said they would allow COVID-19-related masking requirements for staff and visitors in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to lapse on Sunday. Acting Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said that while the pandemic is not over, “we are moving to a transition.”
“As we do, and with safe and effective vaccines, treatments and more, we are able to lift the state’s masking requirement in healthcare settings,” McDonald said in a statement.
Health officials advised hospitals, nursing homes, treatment centers and other facilities to enact their own masking rules in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.
NYC Mayor Says COVID Mandates May Need to Return, Blasts People Who Say ‘I Want to Do Whatever I Want’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, during an interview with Caribbean Power Jam Radio’s “The Reset Show,” defended the rescinding of a COVID vaccine mandate for city workers and that there may be a time when mandates will be in place again.
Adams defended his decision to rescind the vaccine mandate because COVID was becoming normalized, adding that when employees said, “I want to do whatever I want,” it was not right.
Adams announced on Feb. 6 that the city would make COVID vaccines optional for current and prospective city workers, effective Feb. 10.
The announcement came as more than 96% of city workers were fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Despite the reversal, the approximately 1,780 former city workers who were terminated for not complying with the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the past will not automatically get their jobs back but can reapply for positions in their former agencies.
COVID Vaccines Remain Optional at K-12 Schools. Will Colleges Keep Requiring Them?
College COVID-19 vaccine requirements are facing renewed scrutiny now that California has walked back plans to mandate the shots in K-12 schools and the state and federal governments are ending their pandemic states of emergency.
The University of California recently softened its vaccine booster requirement. But immunization mandates continue at public and private campuses across the country, prompting debate about whether they’re still worth the trouble. Students say that, in some cases, verification procedures tripped up class registration.
Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at UC-Irvine, said the mandates are harder to justify for vaccines that don’t stop the spread of the virus, especially for young healthy college students at low risk from COVID-19, which mostly afflicts the elderly.
Nationally, many colleges and universities have no COVID vaccine requirement, but they remain prevalent in states such as California, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, said Jessica R. Barsotti, whose Newport Beach law firm is fighting them in court. A parent group called No College Mandates has a spreadsheet to track the status of mandates at colleges across the country.
COVID Emergency Winding Down, but Cook County Still Offering Incentives for Boosters
If you haven’t gotten the booster, time is running out to get it for free — as the Biden administration is planning to end the COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11, and expects to run out of government-bought vaccines and treatments as soon as this summer and fall. But for now, you can still come to health centers around Cook County for vaccines — and the county is even still paying people to get the shot.
As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported Friday night, the idea of rolling up your sleeve for a vaccine card seems like a throwback to two years ago. But this week, the Cook County Department of Public Health announced it is paying people $100 to get the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster.
They quickly filled 1,500 appointments, and they’ll get $100 gift cards — which equates to $150,000 in tax dollars — to get folks boosted. The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act. Yet the federal government is pulling back on COVID funds.
Ohio May Require Kids to Get Parental Consent to Use TikTok, Facebook, Other Social Media
The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Ohio could soon make it easier for parents to restrict their children’s access to TikTok, Snapchat and other apps.
Part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year budget proposal would require social media companies to get parental consent before allowing kids under the age of 16 to use their platforms. They would be tasked with creating a splash page that verifies the user’s age and obtains the necessary consent from a parent or guardian.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said they must then send written confirmation to parents to ensure children aren’t circumventing the system. If parents don’t OK the terms of service, the companies would have to bar the kids from their apps.
“The verdict is in on this: Social media is addictive, it is harmful to brain development, creates a lot of social disorders and has been really harmful to our children in many ways,” Husted said. “It’s pretty universally accepted that this is not good for kids.”
Maryland Is the Latest State to Weigh Online Safety Rules for Kids
Legislators in Maryland are proposing digital safety standards for children mirroring the United Kingdom’s landmark rules, the latest state aiming to require tech companies to build tougher protections for kids in a nationwide push.
On Monday, Democratic state officials are holding an event rallying support for their newly unveiled Maryland Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. Like the U.K.’s own Age Appropriate Design Code, the measure would require digital services to prioritize the well-being and safety of kids when designing products and to vet them for risks they may pose to younger users.
Maryland is at least the sixth state to consider children’s online safety measures similar to the U.K. standards, which have emerged as a major model for U.S. legislators looking to boost guardrails for kids on the internet.
State policymakers in New Mexico, Oregon, New York and New Jersey have also introduced bills closely resembling the U.K.’s rules, while lawmakers in California last year became the first to pass a measure into law. The state bills arrive as efforts to pass children’s privacy and online safety standards have been bogged down by political divisions in Congress.
The AI Arms Race Is on. Are Regulators Ready?
The race among tech companies to roll out generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is raising concerns about how mistakes in technology and blind spots in regulation could hasten the spread of misinformation, elevate biases in results and increase the harvesting and use of Americans’ personal data.
So far tech giants Microsoft and Google are leading the race in releasing new AI tools to the public, but smaller companies and startups are expected to make progress in the field.
Microsoft President Brad Smith has called 2023 an inflection point for AI, comparing it to 2007 for the smartphone or 1995 for the web — the years the new technologies exploded in popularity with the public.
Central Bank Digital Currency Tyranny Is Coming — How to Prepare
We’ve all heard stories about people who survived the Great Depression by hiding cash under their mattresses or burying it in their yards because they’d lost trust in banks. Imagine taking it a step further and taking money from the flawed banking system and putting it into the untrustworthy hands of the government. That’s what will happen when America embraces central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), as many other countries already have.
There will be no way of hiding the money you have because it will all be digital, and it will all be tracked and controlled by the U.S. government. And it’s looking more and more likely that America will have a CBDC sooner rather than later. A CBDC is essentially a digital form of currency centralizing all of a country’s citizens’ financial information in a digital database controlled by the government.
One nation in particular, China, has already embraced CBDCs. The digital yuan is being used by millions of Chinese citizens, giving the government the ability “to obtain vast amounts of public data and strengthen its surveillance state. CBDCs will give the Chinese government authority to turn off people’s money like a light switch.”
A September 2022 White House report states: “A United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar. While the U.S. has not yet decided whether it will pursue a CBDC, the U.S. has been closely examining the implications of, and options for, issuing a CBDC.”
Google to Expand Misinformation �?Prebunking’ in Europe
After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.
The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.
It’s an approach called prebunking, which involves teaching people how to spot false claims before they encounter them. The strategy is gaining support among researchers and tech companies.
While belief in falsehoods and conspiracy theories isn’t new, the speed and reach of the internet have given them a heightened power. When catalyzed by algorithms, misleading claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, spread authoritarian propaganda, foment distrust in democratic institutions and spur violence.
China �?Spy Balloon’ Wakes up World to New Era of War at Edge of Space + More
China �?Spy Balloon’ Scare Wakes up the World to New Era of Surveillance
Last Friday, Enildo Altamar and his neighbors looked up into the clear morning sky above Arroyo de Piedra, near Colombia’s Caribbean coast, and saw a white orb floating above them, a smaller version of the moon.
At the time, much of the world was focused on the Chinese balloon crossing U.S. airspace, which was ultimately shot down in dramatic style by a US F-22 Raptor jet off the South Carolina coast. A week later, attention was switched to another floating object, apparently the size of a car, which the U.S. shot down off the Alaskan coast.
What the people of Arroyo de Piedra saw was the other balloon in the high atmosphere that week, which also flew over Costa Rica and Venezuela.
The stakes involved in the Latin American balloon incident may not have been as high as in the U.S. case, as it did not bring the aircraft of one nuclear weapons power in direct conflict with the aircraft of another, and there was not the same public clamor to resort to military action. But the legal issues are the same, as are the questions it raises about the future of global surveillance, and rivalry at the very edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Tech Giants Want What the NFL Has
When Rihanna walks, or is raised, or is lowered onto the Super Bowl stage on Sunday, she will not merely be kicking off the game’s halftime show. She will be culminating Rihanna’s Road to Halftime, presented by Apple Music. The world’s most valuable company is in the first year of a reported five-year, $250 million deal to sponsor one of the most watched live-music performances anywhere, which happens to fit between two halves of a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
For $50 million a year, a tech behemoth does not just want a good show. It also wants a music video with fans of all 32 NFL teams singing Rihanna’s hit “Stay.” It wants a 10-part streaming-radio series about the greatest Super Bowl halftime shows ever. And it wants to curate an “official collection of 32 playlists featuring the top songs that each NFL team listens to in the locker room, the weight room, and on game day.”
Big Tech, somewhat suddenly, wants in on the NFL in a way that it hasn’t before. But the connections between the league and tech companies have become much deeper in the past two years, even as tech has hemorrhaged jobs lately. The world’s largest companies and America’s most popular sports league have hit a symbiotic stride.
Each is now a unique provider of what the other wants: immense scale and cultural relevance for the tech companies, big money and endless access to technological advances for the league. If anything feels weird, it’s that the match didn’t happen sooner.
U.S. Investigating Elon Musk’s Neuralink Over Hazardous Pathogens
The U.S. Department of Transportation said on Thursday it is investigating Elon Musk‘s brain-implant company Neuralink over the potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens.
A Department of Transportation spokesperson told Reuters about the probe after the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal-welfare advocacy group, wrote to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg earlier on Thursday to alert it of records it obtained on the matter.
PCRM said it obtained emails and other documents that suggest unsafe packaging and movement of implants removed from the brains of monkeys. These implants may have carried infectious diseases in violation of federal law, PCRM said.
“We are conducting an investigation to ensure that Neuralink is in full compliance with federal regulations and keeping their workers and the public safe from potentially dangerous pathogens,” the spokesperson said.
Australia to Rip Out 900 Chinese-Made Security Cameras From Government Buildings
The Australian Defense Department will rip out more than 900 Chinese-made security devices from government buildings over fears they could enable spying by China.
Australian officials announced the move after a six-month audit revealed the flabbergasting number of cameras, access control systems, and intercoms made by the Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua in government buildings earlier this week. Before the audit, the country’s Home Affairs Department couldn’t determine how many surveillance devices were in government buildings, according to opposition cybersecurity spokesman Sen. James Paterson.
The U.S. banned equipment from Hikvision and Dahua in government buildings last November, citing the “unacceptable risk to national security.” The United Kingdom also took similar action against Hikvision that same month over “current and future security risks.” Like Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. worry that Chinese companies could be forced to hand over sensitive data when asked to do so by the Chinese government, which is required by law.
Colorado AG Says Fight to Rein in Tech Giants Only Just Beginning
Federal and state regulators have faced high-profile losses in recent years in their efforts to bring the tech giants to heel. But Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, one of the Democratic state leaders leading the campaign, says he’s not throwing in the towel.
Instead, Weiser, a key enforcer who is suing Google over antitrust allegations and investigating harms that platforms like TikTok may cause to children, is optimistic and says enforcers are just gearing up.
Google v Microsoft: Who Will Win the AI Chatbot Race?
The James Webb space telescope cost $10 billion (£8.3bn) to build, but it left Google nursing losses of more than $160 billion after the search engine’s new chatbot answered a question about it incorrectly.
Google and Microsoft both announced plans for AI-enhanced search this week, taking the artificial intelligence space race into a new phase. However, the launch of the former’s new chatbot, Bard, misfired badly when the error appeared in a demo.
Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent, lost $163 billion in value over Wednesday and Thursday. The company remains a $1 trillion-plus behemoth, in large part because of its dominance in search. But for how long?
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it was using the technology behind ChatGPT, developed by the San Francisco-based company OpenAI, to enhance its Bing search engine and Edge web browser.
China Blasts U.S. Balloon Accusations as �?Information Warfare’ — Still Insists It Was for Weather
The Chinese government has rejected fresh U.S. accusations over the recently downed alleged spy balloon off America’s east coast, blasting Washington’s “information warfare” while continuing to insist it wasn’t a surveillance vehicle, but instead a weather balloon for collecting research that blew off course.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning further on Thursday described that China did not intend to violate any country’s sovereignty or airspace. She dismissed the U.S. claims as “irresponsible” and asserted it “may be part of the U.S. side’s information warfare against China.”
The ministry also took a swipe at President Biden‘s Tuesday night State of the Union comments directed at China, wherein the U.S. leader said Chinese President Xi Jinping faces “enormous problems” due to the balloon incident.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department issued an update of its findings related to the capabilities of the shot-down Chinese balloon, describing that it was equipped with antennas and other gear “likely” used to sweep up communications.
How to Delete Yourself From the Internet
With so much personal data floating publicly on the internet, consumers have a legitimate interest in controlling the information flow. Some are taking matters into their own hands, opting out of certain data-collection websites or using paid removal services to do the scrubbing on their behalf.
At issue is data collected by scores of online companies called data brokers, which aggregate consumers’ personal information, often selling it to other organizations. This data can include a person’s name, mailing address, birthday, relatives’ names, social media, property value, occupation and other nuggets that can be leveraged for various scams.
For those who are so inclined, there are ways to limit the amount of personal information available on the internet. Many people-search websites such as Spokeo, MyLife.com and Radaris, for example, have procedures to allow consumers to request removal from their database.
For some people, the time and energy they’d need to spend to remove personal information from the various sites are simply too extensive, so they prefer to pay for a service that can do it for them and provide regular updates on the progress. There are a handful of these services, including Abine Inc.’s DeleteMe, Kanary and OneRep.
