When Mass Surveillance is Just Good Business

Week in review: Nov 19th — 26th

Welcome back! A little-known surveillance program has been data mining more than a trillion US phone records every year, and the OpenAI leadership struggle ends.

And as always, many other developments across technology, the shifting web, and digital privacy.

Handle with care.

Technology

The GPT to rule them all: Training for one trillion parameter model backed by Intel and the US government has just begun — Tech Radar; Keumars Afifi-Sabet

• A new AI research project, backed by Intel and the US government, called ScienceGPT is underway, aiming to train a one-trillion-parameter generative AI model.
• The model will be trained on a massive dataset of scientific data with the goal of creating an AI that can make groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

Note: I assume ChatGPT was also trained on many of the same scientific journals, although the US gov may have some proprietary datasets holed up in the national labs. I look forward to seeing models come out that have been trained more exclusively on data from a particular field and comparing those models to custom GPTs based on ChatGPT 4. There are probably compute efficiencies to a smaller model, but I think there might be accuracy gains there too.

China lobs tech demo into orbit for People’s Republic version of Starlink — The Register; Richard Speed

• China has launched a satellite constellation of 12 satellites that could be used for a Starlink-like internet service.
• The satellites are in a polar orbit, which means they could provide coverage to remote areas.

Note: The amount of investment into space-based internet connectivity seems to ensure it will be viable for much of the world within the next decade. How will these satellites keep up with technological advances? Will these companies be able to launch entirely new constellations along with generational technical achievements?

Search algorithm reveals nearly 200 new kinds of CRISPR systems — MIT News; Allessandra DiCorato

• Researchers have developed a new algorithm that has identified nearly 200 new kinds of CRISPR systems.
• CRISPR is a gene-editing tool that is revolutionizing biology and medicine.
• The new systems have different properties than the well-known CRISPR-Cas9 system.
• This could lead to the development of new CRISPR-based tools for research and therapy.

Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI — The Verge; Nilay Patel and Alex Heath

• Sam is back, and the board has been reshuffled at the demand of investors — Microsoft chief among them- and employees.

Note: The discourse has been focused on how inept the board was, and how sophomoric their move to ouster Sam without specific cause was. The board was out of their depth as to how to fire a popular founder-CEO, but I think it warrants taking seriously they believe OpenAI was going down the wrong path, and over-prioritizing profitability compared to safety.

OpenAI’s crisis will sow the seeds of the next generation of AI startups — Tech Crunch; Tim De Chant

• OpenAI’s recent turmoil could lead to the creation of a new generation of AI startups that are more open about their work and more committed to ethical AI development.

Note: Chaos may convince some venture capital that there is an opportunity to chip away at OpenAI’s dominance, but their alignment towards profit-seeking over safety probably makes it less likely that any new players can make it big.

The Shifting Web

Windows-as-an-app is coming — COMPUTERWORLD; Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

• The app-based approach could also make it easier to run Windows on different devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Note: Microsoft has a lot of work to do to make Windows an experience I would use on either a tablet or smartphone. I’m sure Microsoft shareholders favor stricter account / subscription authentication. If they make this the core windows experience, Linux might finally have its heyday.

Internet out: India deploys shutdowns in name of security — TechXplore; Aishwarya Jumar and Parvaiz Bukhari

• The reasons cited for internet shutdowns include protests, exams, and national security concerns.
• Critics say that the shutdowns are a violation of free speech and are often used to suppress dissents.

Note: Sad to see these tools of totalitarianism make their way into a democracy. It will be interesting to see how governments employing heavy-handed censorship methods react to the widespread availability of satellite communications.

Hallmark Channel Won the Streaming Wars — Wired; Angela Watercutter

• The Hallmark Channel has been a dominant force in the streaming wars, thanks to its loyal fanbase and its consistent release of holiday-themed content.
• The channel’s streaming service, Hallmark Movies Now, has over 2 million subscribers.

Note: Credit to Hallmark for showcasing a transition from TV that is both profitable and not anti-consumer. $6 a month seems pretty reasonable, and I can’t help wish for the alternative timeline where TV channels all were available for a few bucks a month.

Elon Musk’s X could lose $75 million in ad revenue following antisemitic content backlash — Engadget; Mariella Moon

• Several major advertisers have pulled their ads from X, including General Motors, Ford, and Audi.

OpenAI’s mess exposes the dangers of vendor lock-in for startups — Tech Crunch; Ron Miller

• The recent turmoil at OpenAI has highlighted the dangers of vendor lock-in for startups.
• OpenAI’s problems have stemmed in part from its reliance on Microsoft Azure for its cloud computing needs.

Note: The day Open AI’s Azure credits run out, does OpenAI have enough revenue to diversify to AWS or another provider? Or are they trading for Azure credits in perpetuity?

Inside the Operation to Bring Down Trump’s Truth Social — Wired; David Gilbert

• The North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO) have set about manipulating trending topics on Truth Social and have had success exceeding their original objectives.
• Now they are looking to take the platform down entirely ahead of the 2024 election.

Note: It’s very funny to show so concisely why these platforms require moderation and firm guardrails — which Truth Social was made to dispute. However, Truth Social users will do a lot more damage if their platform dies, and they migrate back to mainstream platforms. NFAO’s goals don’t align with their stated intent. Besides, right wing fascist assholes have X now. What is Truth Social even for anymore?

Google admits Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal — Tech Crunch; Ivan Mehta

• Google has admitted that Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal.
• The deal was reportedly struck in 2019 and allows Spotify to avoid paying the 30% fee that Google typically charges developers.
• The deal has been criticized by some as being anticompetitive.

Surveillance & Digital Privacy

Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records — Wired; Dell Cameron, Dhruv Mehrotra

• The Data Analytical Services (DAS) program, run by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), has come under fire for its lack of transparency and accountability.
• The program grants law enforcement access to the phone records of any individual in the United States, regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.
• Critics argue that the program is a blatant violation of privacy rights and should be immediately discontinued.

Note: AT&T’s decades worth of call logs are kept not because the government requires them to, but because they know they can be turned for a profit. Government use of data brokers — both small-scale and mega corps like AT&T- will continue to offer a legal loophole until peddling personal digital information is outlawed and privacy regulation enacted.

Net privacy wars will be with us always. Let’s set some rules — The Register; Ruper Goodwins

• eIDAS is an EU regulation passed in 2014 with the stated purpose of governing “electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions.”
• The EU now wants to revise eIDAS to transfer the authority to generate digital certificates that control the security of protocols like HTTPS.
• This would give states, state-approved organizations, or anyone corruptly part of that particular chain of trust, the ability to make fake sites that monitor and decrypt Web traffic silently and at scale.

Note: This would be a privacy hellscape for the EU.

DPRK Hackers Masquerade as Tech Recruiters, Job Seekers — Dark Reading; Nate Nelson

• North Korean hackers have been posing as tech recruiters or applicants and are employing two distinct campaigns: Contagious Interview and Wagemole.
• The Contagious Interview campaign tricks unsuspecting applicants into installing malware during the interview process.
• In Wagemole, they disguise themselves as jobseekers to gain access to internal networks and steal valuable data.

GenAI Requires New, Intelligent Defenses — Dark Reading; Banghua Zhu, Jiantao Jiao, David Wagner

• GenAI models, capable of generating realistic text, code, and images, can be manipulated to produce malicious or misleading content.
• Techniques like jail breaking and prompt injection can be used to exploit AI models. Traditional security measures are often ineffective against these new threats.
• The authors propose two novel defense approaches: black-box defense, which utilizes an intelligent monitoring system to detect anomalies, and white-box defense, which involves modifying the AI model itself.

The FCC says new rules will curb SIM swapping. I’m pessimistic — Ars Technica; Dan Goodin

• SIM swapping and port-out scams involve tricking wireless carriers into transferring a victim’s phone number to a malicious actor’s device, allowing the attacker to intercept calls, messages, and even two-factor authentication codes.
• The new FCC rules require carriers to implement additional safeguards, such as two-factor authentication and PIN verification.
• Goodin argues that these measures are too vague — failing to identify specific authentication methods. He also believes that the culture and history of apathy from the big telecoms suggest they are unlikely to take the initiative to develop sound practices.

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Handle with care.