Deep fakes, mouse movements & a growing threat to bloggers | The Web This Week
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Why good fakes are bad news — A Bloomberg editorial warned about the dangers of ‘deep fakes’ for politics and public discourse. ‘Deep fakes’ are videos, audio and images forged using AI technology. The tools used to make them are improving quickly (Gizmodo).
Bots in the Gulf — Marc Jones and Alexei Abrahams wrote about a regional battle of bots among Gulf countries, with states using social media to spread propaganda and misinformation to weaken their rival neighbours (Washington Post).
Mischief in Minsk — The Committee to Protect Journalists criticised Belarus as it prepares to change its media laws to give the state power to prosecute those who spread ‘fake news’ online. Belarus joins a growing club of countries using the spectre of misinformation to justify an information power grab.
#No-filter — 70+ internet experts, including our founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee, spoke out against a measure in proposed EU copyright rules that would require internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. The letter warns that the proposal would be a step towards automated surveillance and censorship (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
What Facebook tracks — Facebook got back to US Congress with over 200 pages responding to unanswered questions from Zuckerberg’s grilling. These included a comprehensive list of user data it captures, which Buzzfeed handily condensed into a list of 18 surprising things Facebook tracks. Meanwhile, Facebook announced changes to provide more transparency around the use of third-party data used for advertising (Reuters).
Good Apple — Apple quietly closed a long-standing loophole that allowed app makers to store and share the information of iPhone users’ friends without their explicit consent (Bloomberg). The company also announced a software update that will make it harder for authorities to hack into iPhones (MIT Technology Review).
Dr Frankenstein — We spend a lot of time worrying about the risks of AI. Yet, as Google’s recent u-turn on AI weapons shows, the people building AI technologies are the ones who determine what it’s used for. And so, argues a Guardian editorial, it is Dr Frankenstein, not his monster, we should worry most about.
Automating the corner office — While Amazon has long used AI in its warehouse operations, automation is now being employed at HQ, replacing previously high-paid roles that handled tasks like inventory forecasting and price negotiation (Bloomberg).
I spy, with my little AI — Researchers have found a way to use AI technology to track people moving behind walls. The researchers say this will help monitor people with diseases like multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy. Creeps and spies around the world surely have other ideas (The Register).
Google in Ghana — Google announced the set-up of a new center in Ghanadedicated to AI research.
A licence to operate — The Tanzanian government ordered owners of unregistered blogs and forums to shut down or face criminal prosecution. With a license to operate costing over USD $900 (more than the average wage), this is being called a clear crackdown on dissent and free speech (Reuters).
Register or risk arrest — Meanwhile, Nairobi News reported that in Zambia, WhatsApp group administrators are now required to register their groups and set up codes of ethics or risk being arrested.
India’s WiFi stations — A Google project providing limited free WiFi access at 400 train stations in India is now being used by 8 million people, the company said (Quartz).
Rules repealed — Net neutrality rules were officially repealed in the US. Brian Fung wrote about what this means, how it could affect consumers, and where we are in the fight to restore net neutrality protections (Washington Post).
Internet.inc — New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo said that if net neutrality is meant to stop big companies from dictating what happens online, we lost it long ago. Yet, removing the last barriers to unfair competition, he argues, will make things even worse.
Mega-mergers — As the repeal of net neutrality rules sparked worries about the increasing dominance of US internet and media companies, a judge ruled that AT&T is free to buy Time Warner with no conditions. Comcast also offered $65 billion for Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (Axios).
Open mapping data — The UK Government announced that key parts of the Ordnance Survey (OS) MasterMap is being made freely available. The OS MasterMap is the UK’s definitive source of geographic data.
An article in IT Web Africa quoted Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) calls for Uganda to drop plans for a social media tax.
Nanjira Sambuli, Digital Equality Advocacy Manager, was quoted in a piece in Deutsche Welle discussing the online gender gap. She was speaking on a panel about digital inequalities (German). The piece was also published in Polish and Croatian.
A piece in Quartz looking at Ethiopia’s emerging AI sector cited WebFoundation research on artificial intelligence.
The Open Data Barometer was cited in an Op-Ed in The Hindu that calls for more open data in India to support the development of AI technologies. The Barometer was also cited in an article about the launch of Saint Lucia’s Open Data Portal (St. Lucia News Online).
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