After 25 years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cindy Cohn is stepping down as executive director. In a WIRED interview, she reflects on encryption, AI, and why she's not ready to quit the battle. After a quarter century defending digital rights, Cindy Cohn announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cohn, who has led the San Francisco-based nonprofit since 2015, says she will leave the role later this year, concluding a chapter that helped define the modern fight over online freedom. Cohn first rose to prominence as lead counsel in, the 1990s case that overturned federal restrictions on publishing encryption code. As EFF's legal director and later executive director, she guided the group through legal challenges to government surveillance, reforms to computer crime laws, and efforts to hold corporations accountable for data collection. Over the past decade, EFF has expanded its influence, becoming a central force in shaping the debate over privacy, security, and digital freedom. In an interview with WIRED, Cohn reflected on EFF's foundational encryption victories, its unfinished battles against National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, and the organization's work protecting independent security researchers.

It was launched by the Global Observatory for Urban AI, which is an initiative of the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights and led by CIDOB – the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, and the cities of Barcelona, London and Amsterdam. The programmes aim to help cities deploy AI effectively and ethically through frameworks and real-world examples of projects, policies and strategies. The Atlas of Urban AI so far includes 106 initiatives in 36 cities, with municipalities invited to submit their own. Cities using AI include Los Angeles to better understand air quality, London in Canada to predict the likelihood of individuals becoming chronically homeless, and a chatbot from Buenos Aires. As well as providing information on individual projects, the mapping aims to track how cities' use of AI evolves over time.

Donald Trump has won the United States presidency and Brexit has promised to take the UK out of the European Union. Both campaigns employ Cambridge Analytica, which harvested the data of millions of Facebook users to personalise electoral messaging to them and sway their voting intentions. Millions of people begin to ask themselves whether, in the digital era, they have lost something deeply valuable: their privacy. Two years later, countless European email inboxes would be filling up with messages from companies, asking people for permission to continue processing their data – the aim was compliance with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Despite its imperfections, this law has served as a point of reference for laws in Brazil and Japan, and inaugurated the modern era of data protection.

Donald Trump has won the United States presidency and Brexit has promised to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Both campaigns employ Cambridge Analytica, who harvest the data of millions of Facebook users to personalise electoral messaging and sway their voting intentions. Millions of people begin to ask themselves whether, in the digital era, they have lost something that they valued dearly: their privacy. Two years later, millions of email inboxes in Europe would be filling up with messages from companies, asking them for permission to continue processing their data, complying with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Despite its imperfections, this law has served as a point of reference for laws in Brazil and Japan and began the era of data protection in earnest. Nevertheless, what was once seen as a triumph for privacy is now seen as a roadblock in Europe's quest to develop digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence.

Could NFTs become a fixture in video games? At least one publisher, Mythical Games, is betting on it. The Los Angeles-based game maker already has some big names including luxury clothier Burberry and DJ deadmau5 ready to create special high-tech playable collectibles in its new online multiplayer game "Blankos Block Party" this summer. "Blankos Block Party" is an colorful art-filled open-world game where you can explore an ever-growing variety of racing, tag, collection and shooting levels, build your own levels and create competitive mini-parties with friends. Mythical announced early access for the free PC game Monday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) – go to blankos.com

New York – Critical digital rights battles over privacy, free speech and anonymity are increasingly being fought in video games, a growing market that is becoming a "new political arena," experts and insiders said on Thursday. With the industry set to more than double annual revenues to $300 billion by 2025, questions about how video game operators, designers and governments handle sensitive issues take on added urgency, said participants at RightsCon, a virtual digital rights conference. In recent months, a Hong Kong activist staged a protest against Beijing's rule inside a popular social simulator game called Animal Crossing, and a member of the U.S. Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, campaigned in the game as well. The game Minecraft, meanwhile, has been used to circumvent censorship, with groups using it to create digital libraries and smuggle banned texts into repressive countries. "Video games have become this new political arena," said Micaela Mantegna, founder of GeekyLegal, an Argentinian group that focuses on tech policy.

"We are already becoming tiny chips inside a giant system that nobody really understands." So wrote Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari about our current experience of urban living, which, increasingly, is mediated by AI. AI is now an important component of sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, public administration and transportation, and is helping to address major challenges such as ageing and climate change. However, there is currently a lack of transparency in algorithmic governance systems, and this is worsened when these algorithms are integrated into already opaque governance structures in our cities. Moreover, over the past decade, the propagation of sensors and data collection machines in so-called'smart cities' by both the public and the private sectors has created democratic challenges around AI, surveillance capitalism, and protecting citizens' digital rights to privacy and ownership.

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies accelerate business transformation, with more decisions shaped by machine-learning (ML) algorithms, responsible use of these powerful tools is paramount. Moreover, appropriate governance must be in place to achieve desired outcomes. To help organizations manage and evolve AI responsibly, KPMG has introduced AI In Control, a framework supported by a set of methods, tools, and assessments to help organizations realize value from AI technologies, while achieving imperative objectives like algorithm integrity, explainability, fairness and agility. Increasingly, algorithms are making vital decisions that impact our lives. Their ubiquity is pushing society to demand that AI technologies be reliable and ethically sound, according to Professor Sander Klous, PhD, global lead of KPMG's AI In Control offering, and a partner with KPMG in the Netherlands.

You may have a basic understanding of what Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is. But are you familiar with the range of issues it raises for your fundamental rights? Here, we provide a brief overview of the issues at stake, as well as a look at how Access Now is working to help ensure that when companies develop AI technology -- and governments adopt or regulate it -- your rights are protected. AI refers to the theory and development of computer systems that can act without explicit human instruction and can self-modify as necessary. "AI" is used broadly to refer to a wide range of technological approaches that encompass everything from so-called machine learning to the development of autonomous, connected objects to the futuristic concept of "the Singularity", as our colleagues at Privacy International explain.