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Category Archives: Internet

AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face

Gizmodo: “A study recently published in the peer-reviewed American Psychologist journal claims that a combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology can accurately assess a person’s political orientation by simply looking at that person’s blank, expressionless face. The study was authored by researchers at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Researchers write that, prior to the experiment, they had 591 participants answer a political questionnaire that provided insights into their political beliefs. Those same participants were then scanned by researchers’ AI algorithm, which attempted to assess where they fell on the political spectrum. The algorithm could generally tell what a person’s political orientation was with a high degree of accuracy, even when that person’s identity was “decorrelated with age, gender, and ethnicity,” researchers write. The “algorithm’s predictive accuracy was even higher” when it had access to “participants’ age, gender, and ethnicity,” researchers write. The levels of accuracy were broken down in different situations and expressed in formulas, but the researchers summarized it as being “on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness.”

AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam

Nieman Lab: “…Our team of researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology investigated over 100 Facebook pages that posted high volumes of AI-generated content. We published the results in March 2024 as a preprint paper, meaning the findings have not yet gone through peer review. We explored patterns of images,… Continue Reading

Mozilla AI Intersections Database

“This searchable AI database maps intersections between the key social justice and human rights areas of our time and documented AI impacts and their manifestations in society. Further, the database catalogs civil society organizations, social movement actors, researchers, and other entities that are either actively doing work at these intersections, or are well suited for… Continue Reading

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Where’s Your Ed Act via Metafilter – “Edward Zitron has been reading all of google’s internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ’s antitrust case against google.  Zitron concludes that Google Search died on February 5th, 2019. It was on that date at Google’s HQ evil lair an emergency meeting, aka a… Continue Reading

The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession

Biresaw, Samuel Maireg, The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession (December 15, 2023). Upcoming in International Journal of Law and Society, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4727017 – “Legal research is an indispensable skill for lawyers. It is always necessary for lawyers to engage in legal research in due course to solve various legal… Continue Reading

404 page: the error sites of federal agencies

FedScoop: “Infusing a hint of humor or a dash of “whimsy” in government websites, including error messages, could humanize a federal agency to visitors. At least that’s how the National Park Service approaches its digital offerings, including its 404 page. “Even a utilitarian feature, such as a 404 page, can be fun — and potentially… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 20, 2024

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 20, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading

A National Security Insider Does the Math on the Dangers of AI

Wired [unpaywalled]: “Jason Matheny is a delight to speak with, provided you’re up for a lengthy conversation about potential technological and biomedical catastrophe. Now CEO and president of Rand Corporation, Matheny has built a career out of thinking about such gloomy scenarios. An economist by training with a focus on public health, he dived into… Continue Reading

It’s the End of the Web as We Know It

The Atlantic [unpaywalled] – A great public resource is at risk of being destroyed. By Judith Donath and Bruce Schneier: “The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written… Continue Reading