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 surveillance state


Senate urged to punish US companies that help China build its AI-driven 'surveillance state'

FOX News

AGI, while powerful, could have negative consequences, warned Diveplane CEO Mike Capps and Liberty Blockchain CCO Christopher Alexander. U.S. companies that give China artificial intelligence-driven technology to violate the human rights of its citizens need to be punished by Congress with prison terms for U.S. executives, a witness told senators in a hearing Tuesday. Geoffrey Cain, senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, warned at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing that AI is helping to power China's growing "surveillance state" and said U.S. companies have contributed to this human rights problem. "China built its AI surveillance apparatus with the connivance and complacency of major American technology firms," Cain said in his prepared remarks. "The science corporation ThermoFisher, for example, was caught selling DNA collection equipment directly to Xinjiang police authorities, who used them for mass gathering of genetic data on the minority Uyghur population. "Since the late 1990s, Microsoft has established itself as the training ground for China's AI elites through its Beijing-based laboratory, Microsoft Research Asia," he added. "The laboratory has trained many of the AI leaders and developers who went on to found or join the executive leadership of rights-abusing firms, such as Sensetime, Megvii and iFlyTek." Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing an AI-driven surveillance state, according to a witness at a Senate hearing Tuesday who said U.S. companies that help China should be punished. Cain's group, the Foundation for American Innovation, said it was founded to ensure technology is "aligned to serve human ends: promoting individual freedom, supporting strong institutions, advancing national security, and unleashing economic prosperity.


Saying No to Surveillance State

#artificialintelligence

Recently, an RTI filed by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) revealed that the Delhi Police is using Facial recognition technology (FRT) to nab rioters in the capital city. This has caused an uproar as many members of the civil society raised concerns and called the Delhi Police's use of FRT'unethical' in the absence of a Data Protection Act in the country. The argument being made by them is national security should not come at the cost of privacy. Technology such as FRT has been controversial, and authorities leveraging such tech is definitely a concern. The RTI filed by IFF revealed that the procurement of the FRT by the Delhi Police was authorised as per a 2018 direction of the Delhi High Court in Sadhan Haldar v NCT of Delhi.


The Download: robotic bees, and China's surveillance state

MIT Technology Review

Something was wrong, but Thomas Schmickl couldn't put his finger on it. It was 2007, and the Austrian biologist was spending part of the year at East Tennessee State University. During his daily walks, he realized that insects seemed conspicuously absent. Schmickl, who now leads the Artificial Life Lab at the University of Graz in Austria, wasn't wrong. Insect populations are indeed declining or changing around the world.

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Pros and Cons of Facial Recognition – Is It A Blessing or a Curse in Disguise?

#artificialintelligence

While improvements in the facial recognition technology are on the rise, privacy concerns around the technology are also surfacing. This has led us into asking - Is facial recognition really as useful as the experts claim, or is it just another tool that can lead us to a dystopian future? Imagine a world where you can pay for your cereal without cash, cards, or a phone, by just smiling at the cashier. Now, imagine being monitored by the authorities for being an ethnic minority. From smiling to pay to being monitored as an ethnic minority, countries worldwide are displaying both, the bright as well as the dark sides, of using the facial recognition technology.


Singapore patrol robots stoke fears of surveillance state

The Japan Times

Singapore – Singapore has tested patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behavior," adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fueling privacy concerns. From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants. Officials have long pushed a vision of a hyper-efficient, tech-driven "smart nation," but activists say privacy is being sacrificed and people have little control over what happens to their data. Singapore is frequently criticized for curbing civil liberties and people are accustomed to tight controls, but there is still growing unease over intrusive tech. The government's latest surveillance devices are robots on wheels, with seven cameras, that issue warnings to the public and detect "undesirable social behavior."


'Dystopian world': Singapore patrol robots stoke fears of surveillance state

The Guardian

Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behaviour", adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fuelling privacy concerns. From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants. That includes a three-week trial in September, in which two robots were deployed to patrol a housing estate and a shopping centre. Officials have long pushed a vision of a hyper-efficient, tech-driven "smart nation", but activists say privacy is being sacrificed and people have little control over what happens to their data. Singapore is frequently criticised for curbing civil liberties and people are accustomed to tight controls, but there is still growing unease at intrusive tech.


The Threat of Artificial Intelligence

#artificialintelligence

The technologies referred to as "artificial intelligence" or "AI" are more momentous than most people realize. Their impact will be at least equal to, and may well exceed, that of electricity, the computer, and the internet. What's more, their impact will be massive and rapid, faster than what the internet has wrought in the past thirty years. Much of it will be wondrous, giving sight to the blind and enabling self-driving vehicles, for example, but AI-engendered technology may also devastate job rolls, enable an all- encompassing surveillance state, and provoke social upheavals yet unforeseen. The time we have to understand this fast-moving technology and establish principles for its governance is very short. The term "AI" was coined by a computer scientist in 1956.


AI warning: Life will be like Orwell's 1984 'without curbs on AI'

#artificialintelligence

Life could become like George Orwell's 1984 within three years if laws aren't introduced to protect the public from artificial intelligence, Microsoft president Brad Smith has warned. Smith predicts that the kind of controlled, mass surveillance society portrayed by Orwell in his 1949 dystopian novel'could come to pass in 2024' if more isn't done to curb the spread of AI. It is going to be difficult for lawmakers to catch up with rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and surveillance technology, he told BBC Panorama during a special exploring China's increasing use of AI to monitor its citizens. The Microsoft president said: 'If we don't enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead.' Life for humans will'become like Orwell's 1984' by 2024 if laws aren't introduced to protect the public from artificial intelligence, warns Microsoft president Brad Smith Facial recognition software works by matching real time images to a previous photograph of a person.


Microsoft president Brad Smith warns 'life will be like Orwell's 1984' by 2024

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Life could become like George Orwell's 1984 within three years if laws aren't introduced to protect the public from artificial intelligence, Microsoft president Brad Smith has warned. Smith predicts that the kind of controlled, mass surveillance society portrayed by Orwell in his 1949 dystopian novel'could come to pass in 2024' if more isn't done to curb the spread of AI. It is going to be difficult for lawmakers to catch up with rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and surveillance technology, he told BBC Panorama during a special exploring China's increasing use of AI to monitor its citizens. The Microsoft president said: 'If we don't enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead.' Life for humans will'become like Orwell's 1984' by 2024 if laws aren't introduced to protect the public from artificial intelligence, warns Microsoft president Brad Smith Facial recognition software works by matching real time images to a previous photograph of a person.


Facial Recognition And Beyond: Journalist Ventures Inside China's 'Surveillance State'

NPR Technology

Security cameras and facial recognition technology are on the rise in China. In 2018, People's Daily, the media mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, claimed on English-language Twitter that the country's facial recognition system was capable of scanning the faces of China's 1.4 billion citizens in just one second. German journalist Kai Strittmatter speaks fluent Mandarin and has studied China for more than 30 years. He says it's not clear whether or not the Chinese government is capable of using facial recognition software in the way it claims. But he adds, on a certain level, the veracity of the claim isn't important.