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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici

Which countries are leading in AI?

Which countries  are leading in AI? Global AI Vibrancy Tool – The Global AI Vibrancy Tool is an interactive visualization that facilitates cross-country comparisons of AI vibrancy across 36 countries, using 42 indicators organized into 8 pillars. It provides a transparent evaluation of each country’s AI standing based on user preferences, identifies key national indicators… Continue Reading

Act fast to snuff out employee curiosity over ‘free’ AI apps

CSO – “The word “free” has always tempted employees who are looking for an app or template to make their work easier. These days, combine “free” with “AI” and the lure is almost irresistible. Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, free AI-themed apps have exploded. Unfortunately, some are created by threat actors. One… Continue Reading

Put your usernames and passwords in your will, advises Japan’s government

The Register: “Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Center on Wednesday suggested citizens start “digital end of life planning” and offered tips on how to do it. The Center’s somewhat maudlin advice is motivated by recent incidents in which citizens struggled to cancel subscriptions their loved ones signed up for before their demise, because they didn’t know… Continue Reading

A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity”

Open Culture – Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944): “…Now declassified and freely available on the CIA website, the manual that the agency describes as “surprisingly relevant” was once distributed to OSS officers abroad to assist them in training “citizen-saboteurs” in occupied countries… Continue Reading

The stunning success of vaccines in America, in one chart

Vox – “Measles, mumps, and polio are supposed to be diseases of the past. In the early to mid-20th century, scientists developed vaccines that effectively eliminated the risk of anyone getting sick or dying from illnesses that had killed millions over millennia of human history. Vaccines, alongside sanitized water and antibiotics, have marked the epoch… Continue Reading

Brave Search adds AI chat for follow-up questions after your initial query

TechCrunch: “Brave announced on Thursday that it’s introducing an AI chat mode for follow-up questions based on initial queries on Brave Search. Earlier this year, the company launched “Answer with AI” summaries that appear above search results after you submit a query to give you an easy-to-read answer in response to a question. Now the… Continue Reading

Flush Toilet Finder

Flush Toilet Finder is the quickest, simplest way of finding a public bathroom or restroom. Simply open the app and it will display the nearest toilets to you. You can even search for restrooms without an internet connection! Search through over 200,000 public loos all around the world! Find which WC’s have disabled access, a… Continue Reading

Considerations for Effective Search Competition

Follow-up to previous posting – Judicial Remedies To Restore Competition in the Market for General Search – KGI Working Report, November 4, 2024. Considerations for Effective Search Competition. Alissa Cooper, Knight-Georgetown Institute; Jasper van den Boom, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; Zander Arnao, Knight-Georgetown Institute – “…This report emphasizes several foundational principles for crafting effective remedies in… Continue Reading

The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone

The New Yorker [unpaywalled] – “Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here? In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging… Continue Reading

Study suggests X turned right just in time for election season

The Register – “Significant uptick in visibility for Musk, Republican account posts from July 13 – A pair of researchers say they’ve determined that July 13 was likely the day that X, formerly known as Twitter, made platform-level algorithm changes that increased the visibility of posts made by Elon Musk and Republican-leaning accounts in the… Continue Reading