Tech-News
How Europe is building artificial intelligence guardrails
Authorities around the world are racing to draw up rules for artificial intelligence, including in the European Union, where draft legislation faces a pivotal moment on Thursday.
A European Parliament committee is set to vote on the proposed rules, part of a yearslong effort to draw up guardrails for artificial intelligence. Those efforts have taken on more urgency as the rapid advance of ChatGPT highlights benefits the emerging technology can bring — and the new perils it poses.
Here's a look at the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act:
HOW DO THE RULES WORK?
The AI Act, first proposed in 2021, will govern any product or service that uses an artificial intelligence system. The act will classify AI systems according to four levels of risk, from minimal to unacceptable. Riskier applications will face tougher requirements, including being more transparent and using accurate data. Think about it as a "risk management system for AI,” said Johann Laux, an expert at the Oxford Internet Institute.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
One of the EU's main goals is to guard against any AI threats to health and safety and protect fundamental rights and values.
That means some AI uses are an absolute no-no, such as “social scoring” systems that judge people based on their behavior or interactive talking toys that encourage dangerous behavior.
Predictive policing tools, which crunch data to forecast where crimes will happen and who will commit them, are expected to be banned. So is remote facial recognition, except for some narrow exceptions like preventing a specific terrorist threat. The technology scans passers-by and uses AI to match their faces to a database. Thursday's vote is set to decide how extensive the prohibition will be.
The aim is “to avoid a controlled society based on AI,” Brando Benifei, the Italian lawmaker helping lead the European Parliament's AI efforts, told reporters Wednesday. “We think that these technologies could be used instead of the good also for the bad, and we consider the risks to be too high.”
AI systems used in high risk categories like employment and education, which would affect the course of a person's life, face tough requirements such as being transparent with users and putting in place risk assessment and mitigation measures.
The EU's executive arm says most AI systems, such as video games or spam filters, fall into the low- or no-risk category.
WHAT ABOUT CHATGPT?
The original 108-page proposal barely mentioned chatbots, merely requiring them to be labeled so users know they’re interacting with a machine. Negotiators later added provisions to cover general purpose AI like ChatGPT, subjecting them to some of the same requirements as high-risk systems.
One key addition is a requirement to thoroughly document any copyright material used to teach AI systems how to generate text, images, video or music that resembles human work. That would let content creators know if their blog posts, digital books, scientific articles or pop songs have been used to train algorithms that power systems like ChatGPT. Then they could decide whether their work has been copied and seek redress.
WHY ARE THE EU RULES SO IMPORTANT?
The European Union isn't a big player in cutting-edge AI development. That role is taken by the U.S. and China. But Brussels often plays a trendsetting role with regulations that tend to become de facto global standards.
"Europeans are, globally speaking, fairly wealthy and there’s a lot of them," so companies and organizations often decide that the sheer size of the bloc’s single market with 450 million consumers makes it easier to comply than develop different products for different regions, Laux said.
But it's not just a matter of cracking down. By laying down common rules for AI, Brussels is also trying to develop the market by instilling confidence among users, Laux said.
“The thinking behind it is if you can induce people to to place trust in AI and in applications, they will also use it more,” Laux said. “And when they use it more, they will unlock the economic and social potential of AI.”
WHAT IF YOU BREAK THE RULES?
Violations will draw fines of up to 30 million euros ($33 million) or 6% of a company's annual global revenue, which in the case of tech companies like Google and Microsoft could amount to billions.
WHAT’S NEXT?
It could be years before the rules fully take effect. The flagship legislative proposal faces a joint European Parliament committee vote on Thursday. The draft legislation then moves into three-way negotiations involving the bloc’s 27 member states, the Parliament and the executive Commission, where faces further wrangling over the details. Final approval is expected by the end of the year, or early 2024 at the latest, followed by a grace period for companies and organizations to adapt, often around two years.
New Twitter rules expose election offices to spoof accounts
Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia's elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the city commissioners who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a blue check mark, a sign of authenticity.
But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check mark has disappeared. That’s made it harder to distinguish @phillyvotes from a list of random accounts not run by the elections office but with very similar names.
The election commission applied weeks ago for a gray check mark — Twitter’s new symbol to help users identify official government accounts – but has yet to hear back from the Twitter, commission spokesman Nick Custodio said. It’s unclear whether @phillyvotes is an eligible government account under Twitter’s new rules.
That’s troubling, Custodio said, because Pennsylvania has a primary election May 16 and the commission uses its account to share important information with voters in real time. If the account remains unverified, it will be easier to impersonate – and harder for voters to trust – heading into Election Day.
Impostor accounts on social media are among many concerns election security experts have heading into next year's presidential election. Experts have warned that foreign adversaries or others may try to influence the election, either through online disinformation campaigns or by hacking into election infrastructure.
Election administrators across the country have struggled to figure out the best way to respond after Twitter owner Elon Musk threw the platform’s verification service into disarray, given that Twitter has been among their most effective tools for communicating with the public.
Some are taking other steps allowed by Twitter, such as buying check marks for their profiles or applying for a special label reserved for government entities, but success has been mixed. Election and security experts say the inconsistency of Twitter’s new verification system is a misinformation disaster waiting to happen.
“The lack of clear, at-a-glance verification on Twitter is a ticking time bomb for disinformation,” said Rachel Tobac, CEO of the cybersecurity company SocialProof Security. “That will confuse users – especially on important days like election days.”
The blue check marks that Twitter once doled out to notable celebrities, public figures, government entities and journalists began disappearing from the platform in April. To replace them, Musk told users that anyone could pay $8 a month for an individual blue check mark or $1,000 a month for a gold check mark as a “verified organization.”
The policy change quickly opened the door for pranksters to pose convincingly as celebrities, politicians and government entities, which could no longer be identified as authentic. While some impostor accounts were clear jokes, others created confusion.
Fake accounts posing as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city’s Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation falsely claimed the city was closing one of its main thoroughfares to private traffic. The fake accounts used the same photos, biographical text and home page links as the real ones. Their posts amassed hundreds of thousands of views before being taken down.
Twitter’s new policy invites government agencies and certain affiliated organizations to apply to be labeled as official with a gray check. But at the state and local level, qualifying agencies are limited to “main executive office accounts and main agency accounts overseeing crisis response, public safety, law enforcement, and regulatory issues," the policy says.
The rules do not mention agencies that run elections. So while the main Philadelphia city government account quickly received its gray check mark last month, the local election commission has not heard back.
Election offices in four of the country's five most populous counties — Cook County in Illinois, Harris County in Texas, Maricopa County in Arizona and San Diego County — remain unverified, a Twitter search shows. Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, has been targeted repeatedly by election conspiracy theorists as the most populous and consequential county in one of the most closely divided political battleground states.
Some counties contacted by The Associated Press said they have minimal concerns about impersonation or plan to apply for a gray check later, but others said they already have applied and have not heard back from Twitter.
Even some state election offices are waiting for government labels. Among them is the office of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
In an April 24 email to Bellows’ communications director reviewed by The Associated Press, a Twitter representative wrote that there was “nothing to do as we continue to manually process applications from around the world.” The representative added in a later email that Twitter stands “ready to swiftly enforce any impersonation, so please don’t hesitate to flag any problematic accounts.”
An email sent to Twitter's press office and a company safety officer requesting comment was answered only with an auto-reply of a poop emoji.
“Our job is to reinforce public confidence,” Bellows told the AP. “Even a minor setback, like no longer being able to ensure that our information on Twitter is verified, contributes to an environment that is less predictable and less safe.”
Some government accounts, including the one representing Pennsylvania’s second-largest county, have purchased blue checks because they were told it was required to continue advertising on the platform.
Allegheny County posts ads for elections and jobs on Twitter, so the blue check mark “was necessary,” said Amie Downs, the county's communications director.
When anyone can buy verification and when government accounts are not consistently labeled, the check mark loses its meaning, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said.
Griswold’s office received a gray check mark to maintain trust with voters, but she told the AP she would not buy verification for her personal Twitter account because “it doesn’t carry the same weight” it once did.
Custodio, at the Philadelphia elections commission, said his office would not buy verification either, even if it gets denied a gray check.
“The blue or gold check mark just verifies you as a paid subscriber and does not verify identity,” he said.
Experts and advocates tracking election discourse on social media say Twitter's changes do not just incentivize bad actors to run disinformation campaigns — they also make it harder for well-meaning users to know what’s safe to share.
IT Competition for Youths with Disabilities ends
The seventh National IT Competition for Youths with Disabilities has ended successfully.
The day-long contest was organised by the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) of the ICT Division on Saturday at the BUBT University campus in the capital's Mirpur in collaboration with the Center for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) and the Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT).
The Executive Director (Grade-1) of BCC Ranajit Kumar was present as the chief guest while Md. Shamsul Huda FCA, chairman of the Board of Trustee of BUBT and Khandaker Jahurul Alam, executive director of CSID, were present as special guests at the closing and award ceremony of the event.
Chaired by Pro-Vice Chancellor of BUBT Professor Dr. Md. Ali Noor, BCC Director (Training & Development) Engr. Md. Golam Sarwar gave a welcome address on the programme.
Ranajit Kumar said that the national IT competition is crucial for youth with disabilities in our country. It provides a remarkable platform to showcase their skills, and talents in the field of information technology, thereby creating an opportunity for massive expansion of ICT practice.
"Such arrangements contribute to encouraging youth with disabilities as well as reducing barriers and challenges faced by persons with disabilities in accessing education and employment opportunities in the ICT field", he added.
Future of AI and humanity: 4 dangers that most worry the 'Godfather of AI'
Geoffrey Hinton, an award-winning computer scientist known as the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” is having some serious second thoughts about the fruits of his labors.
Hinton helped pioneer AI technologies critical to a new generation of highly capable chatbotssuch as ChatGPT. But in recent interviews, he says that he recently resigned a high-profile job at Google specifically to share his concerns that unchecked AI development could pose danger to humanity.
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us,” he said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. “I think they’re very close to it now and they will be much more intelligent than us in the future.... How do we survive that?”
Hinton is not alone in his concerns. Shortly after the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI released its latest AI model called GPT-4 in March, more than 1,000 researchers and technologists signed a letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development because, they said, it poses “profound risks to society and humanity.”
Also read: AI 'godfather' Geoffrey quits Google, warns of dangers
Here’s a look at Hinton’s biggest concerns about the future of AI ... and humanity.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE NEURAL NETWORKS
Our human brains can solve calculus equations, drive cars and keep track of the characters in “Succession” thanks to their native talent for organizing and storing information and reasoning out solutions to thorny problems. The roughly 86 billion neurons packed into our skulls — and, more important, the 100 trillion connections those neurons forge among themselves — make that possible.
By contrast, the technology underlying ChatGPT features between 500 billion and a trillion connections, Hinton said in the interview. While that would seem to put it at a major disadvantage relative to us, Hinton notes that GPT-4, the latest AI model from OpenAI, knows “hundreds of times more” than any single human. Maybe, he suggests, it has a “much better learning algorithm” than we do, making it more efficient at cognitive tasks.
AI MAY ALREADY BE SMARTER THAN US
Researchers have long noted that artificial neural networks take much more time to absorb and apply new knowledge than people do, since training them requires tremendous amounts of both energy and data. That’s no longer the case, Hinton argues, noting that systems like GPT-4 can learn new things very quickly once properly trained by researchers. That’s not unlike the way a trained professional physicist can wrap her brain around new experimental findings much more quickly than a typical high school science student could.
That leads Hinton to the conclusion that AI systems might already be outsmarting us. Not only can AI systems learn things faster, he notes, they can also share copies of their knowledge with each other almost instantly.
“It’s a completely different form of intelligence,” he told the publication. “A new and better form of intelligence.”
New AI model can accurately diagnose cancer: Study
Researchers, doctors, and scientists have created an artificial intelligence model that can accurately diagnose cancer, a development that might accelerate patient access to treatment.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in the world. According to the World Health Organization, it causes around 10 million deaths every year, or roughly one in every six deaths. However, in many cases, the disease can be cured if detected early and treated promptly, reports The Guardian.
The artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by experts at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Imperial College London can determine if abnormal growths seen on CT scans are cancerous.
According to a study, the algorithm outperforms current approaches in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The findings were reported in the Lancet's eBioMedicine journal, it said.
“In the future, we hope it will improve early detection and potentially make cancer treatment more successful by highlighting high-risk patients and fast-tracking them to earlier intervention,” said Dr Benjamin Hunter, a clinical oncology registrar at the Royal Marsden and a clinical research fellow at Imperial.
The researchers used CT images from 500 patients with big lung nodules to create an AI system based on radiomics. The technology can extract critical information from medical photos that the human eye cannot see.The AI model was then put to the test to see if it could correctly detect malignant nodules.
The area under the curve (AUC) was used in the study to determine how good the model was in predicting cancer. An AUC of 1 suggests a flawless model, whereas an AUC of 0.5 would be predicted if the model was guessing at random, The Guardian report said.
The results showed that the AI model could predict the probability of cancer in each nodule with an AUC of 0.87. The Brock score, a test now used in clinic, scored 0.67. The model also performed similarly to another test, the Herder score, which had an AUC of 0.83.
“According to these initial results, our model appears to identify cancerous large lung nodules accurately,” Hunter said. “Next, we plan to test the technology on patients with large lung nodules in the clinic to see if it can accurately predict their risk of lung cancer.”
The AI model may also assist doctors in making more timely choices regarding patients with abnormal growths that are now classified as medium-risk, the report added.
The AI model, when combined with Herder, was able to detect high-risk patients in this group. According to the study, it would have indicated early care for 18 of 22 (82%) of the nodules that were later proved to be cancerous, it said.The Libra project, which is supported by the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, RM Partners, and Cancer Research UK, is still in its early stages, according to the team. More testing is needed before the model can be implemented in healthcare systems.
However, the potential benefits were obvious, they said. Researchers anticipate that the AI technology may someday be able to speed up cancer identification by assisting patients in receiving treatment and simplifying CT scan processing.
Drone taxis will be up and running between South Korea’s Incheon airport and Seoul in 2025: Mayor
Mayor of South Korea’s Incheon metropolitan city, Yoo Jeong-bok, has said drone taxis will be up and running between Incheon International Airport and the capital city Seoul in 2025.
“Incheon is considered one of the best places to do business and a great place to invest in (South) Korea by leading companies at home and abroad,” he said.
The mayor was addressing a farewell reception marking the conclusion of the World Journalists Conference 2023 in Incheon on April 28.
Read More: Known for laughs, DC dinner spotlights risks of journalism.
Understanding VPN: The Comprehensive Guide
From online frauds, and scams to even hacking sensitive personal information, the Internet these days seems to be a haven for fraudsters. There’s a growing concern about internet security and how it might jeopardize the security of information and finance of people and organizations. VPN or Virtual Private Network can be a solution to such problems. Millions of people around the world are adopting VPNs for their data security and safe online browsing. So here’s a beginner's guide on VPN. Let’s find out how a VPN works, the benefits, and the types of VPNs.
What is a VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Generally, the internet is provided through an ISP which processes all of their user’s traffic simultaneously. This makes them susceptible to malicious attacks which might intercept the net traffic to access personal data.
A VPN works as an intermediary between the computer and the destination to make it untraceable. There are a few complicated steps involved in the process. Let’s have a look.
Read more: How to Protect Your YouTube Channel from Getting Hacked
How Does VPN Work?
VPN creates a secure channel between the computer and the intended destination by developing a private network just for the user. The data gets encrypted and sent directly to the VPN server. There it gets decoded and sent to the intended location. This middle encryption allows the data to be completely untraceable by anyone.
Every device has a unique IP address that can be used to trace all of its activity. VPN essentially masks the IP address and assigns a new IP address from their server. As a result, the data becomes completely untraceable even by the ISP. VPN works not only to maintain anonymity online and protect privacy but also to allow users to access region-specific content.
Benefits of Using a VPN
There are a lot of benefits to using VPN. Here are a mentionable few.
Enhanced Privacy
VPN brings enhanced privacy thanks to the end-to-end encryption between you and the VPN server, making it impossible to be tracked by a third party.
Read More: Bank Account Hacking Protection: How to save financial accounts from hackers?
Secured Data Transmission
The end-to-end computer-to-server extension also allows for secured data transmission. This is especially helpful if a user is in a public network zone like using free wifi. It's impossible to tell who else is signed into the network and what kind of monitoring they might be running. Secured encryption allows for safe data transmission.
Bypassing Geographical Restrictions
VPN helps to bypass geographical restrictions so that a user can access services that might not be available in their location or to evade censorship. For example, Netflix has a host of shows that are available in the UK but not in India. With VPN, a user from India can reroute their IP through the UK and access all the contents regardless of the restrictions.
OPPO wins 2 international awards for innovation
OPPO has recently been honoured with two international awards in recognition of its innovation and industry influence.
OPPO Air Glass won silver in the AR category at the 2023 Edison Best New Product AwardsTM. OPPO was also named one of the 10 Most Innovative Asia-Pacific Companies of 2023 by business media Fast Company, according to a press release.
The awards were announced in Florida on 20 April.
Established in 1987 in honour of inventor Thomas Edison, the Edison Awards are among the most prestigious accolades in the world recognizing products, designs, and technologies that have made outstanding contributions to global innovation, said the release.
The Edison Awards are selected by a panel of over 3,000 business executives and academics on the four criteria of concept, value, delivery, and impact.
Alongside awards earned for product innovation, OPPO has also been named by Fast Company as one of the 10 Most Innovative Asia-Pacific Companies of 2023 in recognition of the technological innovation and sustainable impact of its Battery Health Engine, the release also said.
“Through its mission of ‘Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World’, OPPO is dedicated to developing user-centric innovation that improves lives, communities, and the world,” it said.
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in March, OPPO showcased its latest breakthroughs including the SUPERVOOC S power management chip, environment-friendly Zero-power Tags and OPPO’s self-developed MariSilicon Y flagship Bluetooth audio SoC.
“OPPO will continue to aim for even greater heights with its technology and products, providing high-quality services and excellent user experiences for people around the world,” the release added.
Huawei Announces Switch to MetaERP, Redefining Enterprises' Core Business Systems
Huawei announced it has replaced the legacy ERP system with its MetaERP system over which it has full control.
The Huawei hosted the MetaERP Award Ceremony titled "Heroes Fighting to Cross the Dadu River" with the aim to recognize the individuals and teams who made critical contributions to this project at the company's Xi Liu Bei Po Village Campus in Dongguan of China recently.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is the most critical enterprise management IT system. Huawei introduced the MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) II system in 1996 and later expanded to the ERP system with several iterative upgrades.
The old ERP system was the core system underpinning Huawei's enterprise operations and rapid development for more than 20 years. It supported Huawei's efficient business operations which generate hundreds of billions of dollars every year in more than 170 countries and regions across the world.
In 2019, the Huawei began facing increased external pressure and business challenges. The company decided to develop a completely self-controlled MetaERP system to replace the old ERP system. This has been the most extensive and complex transformation project Huawei has ever undertaken. Over the past three years, Huawei has invested significant resources and assigned several thousand people to this project while also working with industry and ecosystem partners to overcome related challenges.
This new, future-oriented, ultra-large-scale and cloud-native MetaERP system has already gone live by replacing the old ERP system.
MetaERP currently handles 100 percent of Huawei's business scenarios and 80 percent of its business volume.
MetaERP has already passed the tests of monthly, quarterly and yearly settlements while ensuring zero faults, zero delays and zero accounting adjustments.
Sabrina Meng, Huawei's Rotating Chairwoman and CFO, said, "Leaps in technology take a spirit of craftsmanship and years of experience. More importantly, it takes an open mind to drive leaps in the way we think. We wouldn't have been able to build MetaERP without the support of our partners. Innovation is only possible with an open mind, and thriving is only possible when we work together."
Huawei has complete and full-stack control over MetaERP which has been built with other Huawei systems like EulerOS and GaussDB.
Huawei has also worked with partners to incorporate advanced technologies such as cloud-native architecture, metadata-driven multi-tenant architecture and real-time intelligence into the MetaERP system, significantly improving service efficiency and operational quality.
Huawei's guiding principles are to build the simplest possible architecture with the best possible quality, delivering the best possible experience at the lowest possible costs. In a range of fields, including both ERP and PLM, Huawei will keep working with partners to build more efficient and secure core enterprise business systems that are not subject to any restrictions.
Microsoft reports boost in profits, revenue, as it pushes AI
Microsoft on Tuesday reported a 9% increase in profit for the January-March quarter, as growth in cloud computing sales helped bolster its plans to expand its use of artificial intelligence.
The company reported quarterly profit of $18.3 billion, or $2.45 per share, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings of $2.24 a share.
The software maker posted revenue of $52.9 billion in the period, its third fiscal quarter, up 7% from the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Microsoft to post revenue of $51.02 billion for the quarter.
The quarter marked an ambitious push by Microsoft to capitalize on its investments in artificial intelligence and close partnership with San Francisco-based startup OpenAI with the February release of a new AI chatbot feature on its search engine Bing.
Also Read: Is Bing too belligerent? Microsoft looks to tame AI chatbot
Microsoft is also integrating similar AI tools into the cloud computing and software products it sells to big businesses and organizations, though it's not immediately apparent to what extent the AI features are playing a role in overall sales.
Microsoft’s personal computing business, centered on its Windows software, was widely expected to continue a deterioration that began last year due to economic uncertainties and crimped demand. Quarterly sales from that segment dropped 9% to $13.3 billion, the company said Tuesday.
Also Read: Google hopes ‘Bard’ will outsmart ChatGPT, Microsoft in AI
Making up for that decline was a 16% increase in revenue from Microsoft's cloud-based business segment, to $22.1 billion for the quarter. Revenue also grew 11% to $17.5 billion from Microsoft's productivity software segment centered around its Office suite of workplace products such as email.