Beyond High Tech Discussions - 12160 Social Network2024-03-28T21:11:29Zhttps://12160.info/groups/group/forum?groupUrl=beyond-high-tech&id=2649739%3AGroup%3A766756&feed=yes&xn_auth=noBruce Willis sells rights for AI ‘digital twin’ after aphasia diagnosis, retirementtag:12160.info,2022-09-29:2649739:Topic:22270072022-09-29T17:42:01.024ZBurbiahttps://12160.info/profile/Burbia
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<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/bruce-willis-sells-rights-for-digital-twin-after-aphasia-diagnosis/">https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/bruce-willis-sells-rights-for-digital-twin-after-aphasia-diagnosis/</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/bruce-willis-sells-rights-for-digital-twin-after-aphasia-diagnosis/">https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/bruce-willis-sells-rights-for-digital-twin-after-aphasia-diagnosis/</a></p> Addiction Treatment Gets Psychedelic With ‘Shark Tank’ Investor-Approved Startuptag:12160.info,2019-12-18:2649739:Topic:19876792019-12-18T16:45:08.974ZBurbiahttps://12160.info/profile/Burbia
<p><span>By </span><span class="author"><a class="url fn n" href="https://observer.com/author/harmon-leon/" rel="author" title="View All Posts by Harmon Leon">Harmon Leon</a></span><span> • </span><span class="entry-date">12/17/19 11:43am</span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span>"A big reason why psychedelic drug research got side-railed in the ’60s was primarily because it became intertwined with the hippie movement. Unless, of course, it was the CIA doing top secret LSD “mind-control”…</span></span></p>
<p><span>By </span><span class="author"><a rel="author" class="url fn n" href="https://observer.com/author/harmon-leon/" title="View All Posts by Harmon Leon">Harmon Leon</a></span><span> • </span><span class="entry-date">12/17/19 11:43am</span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span>"A big reason why psychedelic drug research got side-railed in the ’60s was primarily because it became intertwined with the hippie movement. Unless, of course, it was the CIA doing top secret LSD “mind-control” experiments under the code name: </span><a href="https://observer.com/2017/01/12-million-classified-cia-documents-available-online/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MK-Ultra</a><span>.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span>During that era, LSD was seen as the horrific drug that crazed hippies dropped right before they committed <a href="https://observer.com/2019/05/charlie-says-review-matt-smith-rex-reed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Manson murders</a>. That pretty much nixed all medical research into the potential benefits of psychedelics.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span>The compound, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11085336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">18-MC</a> (which is based on the natural psychedelic substance ibogaine), has yet to undergo human efficacy trials, but it’s been trumpeted as potentially reducing a person’s addiction to cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, alcohol, and, not to mention, sugar.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span>MindMed’s endgame is to have patients suffering from addiction be able to pick up these medicines from their local pharmacy with a prescription." Quotes from the Observer online:</span></span></p>
<p><span class="entry-date"><span><a href="https://observer.com/2019/12/microdosing-ibogaine-psychedelic-drugs-shark-tank-kevin-oleary-mindmed/">https://observer.com/2019/12/microdosing-ibogaine-psychedelic-drugs-shark-tank-kevin-oleary-mindmed/</a></span></span></p> Resourcestag:12160.info,2019-11-27:2649739:Topic:19820342019-11-27T22:30:34.462ZJames Robertshttps://12160.info/profile/JamesRoberts
<p>Not everyone is an inventor. However, it is in any case good to know about all kinds of arcane tech, as the best way to win against our overlords' is to develop that of our own, in my opinion. In addition to military applications, it's good to for us to know as much about alternative health, energy and agriculture as possible, as well as specifics like tissue regeneration, reprogramming one's mind and intelligence enhancement.</p>
<p>"Technology" simply means "applied knowledge", by the…</p>
<p>Not everyone is an inventor. However, it is in any case good to know about all kinds of arcane tech, as the best way to win against our overlords' is to develop that of our own, in my opinion. In addition to military applications, it's good to for us to know as much about alternative health, energy and agriculture as possible, as well as specifics like tissue regeneration, reprogramming one's mind and intelligence enhancement.</p>
<p>"Technology" simply means "applied knowledge", by the way.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rex Research</a> is an unparalleled collection of patents, technical papers, news stories and other written word / diagram resources on all kinds of alt tech.</p>
<p>A few of my favorites -</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/sprink/sprink.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leon Sprink</a> ... <a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/ebner/ebner.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Urzeit (Primeval) Code</a> ... <a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/sublimin/sublimin.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subliminal Influence Methods</a> ... <a href="http://rexresearch.com/sternheimer/sternheimer.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manipulation of Gene Function via Sound</a> ... <a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/wells/wells.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Wells Weather Control</a> ... <a href="http://www.rexresearch.com/hutchisn/hutchisn.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hutchison Effect</a></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>It is said that 80% of mankind's technical knowledge is patented. Thus -</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Patents</a> .... <a href="https://worldwide.espacenet.com/singleLineSearch?locale=en_EP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Patent Office Worldwide Patent Search</a></p>
<p>*</p>
<p><a href="http://en.bookfi.net/g/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BookFi</a> is the world's largest free ebook downloading site.</p>
<p><a href="https://scihub.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sci Hub</a> gives access to 64,000,000 free scientific papers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rsc.org/merck-index" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Merck Index of Chemicals and Biologicals</a> Online version, searchable, free. Started as a catalog of chemicals for sale, and evolved into a reference work. 120 years and running. Heavy book with thousands of thin pages, like a large Holy Bible. Has chemical properties, drug specifics, references for synthesis, uses, toxicity, etc. I wore out two editions when I was 20 - 21. <a href="http://en.bookfi.net/s/?q=merck+index&e=1&t=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Downloadable as Ebook (4 Versions)</a></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Torrent sites - Many ebooks and videos on survival, improvised tools and weaponry, field medicine, et cetera can be found. As well as on subjects like spiritual healing, weather modification research (Reich), Viktor Schauberger's and Gerry Vassilatos' books, and so on (last time I checked).</p>
<p><a href="https://thepiratebay.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Pirate Bay</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bestsevenreviews.com/7-extratorrent-alternatives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7 Best Torrent Sites October 2019</a></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Add your suggestions, please. Thanks!</p>
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<p></p> Artificial intelligence Bot communicationtag:12160.info,2019-07-23:2649739:Topic:19306982019-07-23T09:00:08.081ZBurbiahttps://12160.info/profile/Burbia
<p>July 13, 2019 Angelina Nic</p>
<h3 class="body-line ltr"><span class="heading">WHAT IF HUMAN PARTICIPATION HAS BEEN SQUEEZED OUT OF THE INTERNET IN KEY AREAS– HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?</span></h3>
<h3 class="body-line ltr">How can you tell a bot from a human, across a screen?…</h3>
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<p>July 13, 2019 Angelina Nic</p>
<h3 class="body-line ltr"><span class="heading">WHAT IF HUMAN PARTICIPATION HAS BEEN SQUEEZED OUT OF THE INTERNET IN KEY AREAS– HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?</span></h3>
<h3 class="body-line ltr">How can you tell a bot from a human, across a screen?</h3>
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<p><a href="https://wakeupthesheep.com/artificial-intelligence-bot-communication/">https://wakeupthesheep.com/artificial-intelligence-bot-communication/</a></p>
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<h1>Special Report: Artificial intelligence apps come of age</h1>
<div class="date"><span>Last updated:<a href="https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/archive/2016/9">September 2016</a></span></div>
<p><span>A Turing Test is a method of inquiry in artificial intelligence (</span><span><a href="https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence">AI</a></span><span>) for determining whether or not a computer is capable of thinking like a human being. The test is named after Alan Turing, the founder of the Turning Test and an English computer scientist, cryptanalyst, mathematician and theoretical biologist.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/essentialguide/Special-Report-Artificial-intelligence-apps-come-of-age">https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/essentialguide/Special-Report-Artificial-intelligence-apps-come-of-age</a></span></p> DOD Briefing on Mind Control/Corruption Technologiestag:12160.info,2018-12-30:2649739:Topic:18641542018-12-30T01:44:27.436ZDTOMhttps://12160.info/profile/DTOM
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</p> A.I Alexa’s advice to ‘kill your foster parents’ fuels concern over Amazon Echotag:12160.info,2018-12-30:2649739:Topic:18639752018-12-30T00:44:35.011ZDTOMhttps://12160.info/profile/DTOM
<div class="content__labels content__labels--not-immersive"><div class="content__section-label content__label"><a class="content__label__link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/amazon-alexa"><span class="label__link-wrapper">Amazon Alexa</span></a></div>
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<div class="tonal__standfirst u-cf"><div class="content__standfirst"><p>Smart speaker’s remarks, apparently quoted from Reddit, come as Amazon tries to boost speaker’s conversational capacity</p>
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<div class="content__meta-container js-content-meta u-cf"><div class="meta__contact-wrap"><p class="byline"><span><a rel="author" class="tone-colour" href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/erin-durkin"><span>Erin Durkin</span></a></span> in New York and agencies</p>
<p class="content__dateline">Sat 22 Dec 2018 <span class="content__dateline-time">06.00 GMT</span> Last modified on Sat 22 Dec 2018 <span class="content__dateline-time">13.44 GMT</span></p>
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<div class="u-h meta__number"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/21/alexa-amazon-echo-kill-your-foster-parents">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/21/alexa-amazon-echo-kill-your-foster-parents</a></div>
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<span class="inline-triangle inline-icon hide-until-tablet"></span> Alexa develops its conversational skills through machine learning. Photograph: Mike Stewart/AP<br />
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<div class="content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body"><p>An Amazon customer got a grim message last year from Alexa, the virtual assistant in the company’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/24/amazon-alexa-recorded-conversation" class="u-underline">smart speaker device</a>: “Kill your foster parents.”</p>
<p>The user who heard the message from his Echo device wrote a harsh review on Amazon’s website, Reuters reported - calling Alexa’s utterance “a whole new level of creepy”.</p>
<p>An investigation found the bot had quoted from the social media site Reddit, known for harsh and sometimes abusive messages, people familiar with the investigation told Reuters.</p>
<p>The odd command is one of many hiccups that have happened as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/amazon" class="u-underline">Amazon</a> tries to train its machine to act something like a human, engaging in casual conversations in response to its owner’s questions or comments.</p>
<p>The research is helping Alexa mimic human banter and talk about almost anything she finds on the internet. But making sure she keeps it clean and inoffensive has been a challenge.</p>
<p>Alexa gets its conversational skills through machine learning, the most popular form of artificial intelligence. It uses computer programs to transcribe human speech, and then guess the best response based on patterns of observation.</p>
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<div class="rich-link tone-comment--item rich-link--pillar-opinion"><div class="rich-link__container"><div class="rich-link__header"><h2 class="rich-link__title"><span class="inline-garnett-quote inline-icon"></span> <a class="rich-link__link">My shopping habits help Amazon take over the world. Alexa, this ends now</a></h2>
<div class="rich-link__byline">Krista Burton</div>
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<p>Amazon has given Alexa a script to respond to more popular questions – like “what is the meaning of life?” – usually written by human editors. But responding to more obscure queries can be tricky for the virtual assistant.</p>
<p>Amazon launched an annual competition called the Alexa prize, offering $500,000 to the team of computer science students that creates the best chatbot allowing Alexa to attempt more sophisticated discussions with human customers. This year’s winner, a team from the University of California, Davis, used more than 300,000 movie quotes to train computer models to recognize distinct sentences.</p>
<p>Once the bot is trained to recognize what a human is saying, it must learn an appropriate response. Teams programmed their bots to search for text on the internet to craft a response. They could use news articles from the Washington Post, owned by the Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. They could pull from Wikipedia, a film database or book review site, or a social media post.</p>
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<div class="rich-link__header"><h2 class="rich-link__title"><a class="rich-link__link">Amazon's Alexa knows what you forgot and can guess what you're thinking</a></h2>
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<p>That led to some questionable conversational choices for Alexa. One team in the contest, from Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University, found that its Alexa bot developed a nasty personality when they trained her to chat using comments from Reddit – the same site that generated the homicidal message toward the user’s foster parents.</p>
<p>Alexa also recited a Wikipedia entry for masturbation to a customer, the Scottish team’s leader said. It gave a graphic description of sexual intercourse, using terms like “deeper”. Amazon has developed tools that can detect and block profanity, but it’s harder to prevent words like that which are innocuous on their own but vulgar in context.</p>
<p>“I don’t know how you can catch that through machine-learning models. That’s almost impossible,” a person familiar with the incident said.</p>
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<div class="content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body"></div> Nvidia's Artifical Intelligence Generates CGI Humans That Look 100% Realtag:12160.info,2018-12-23:2649739:Topic:18614352018-12-23T01:28:32.622ZDTOMhttps://12160.info/profile/DTOM
<div class="clear-both widget widget-hero widget-hero widget-hero-hero widget-hero widget-hero-inlinehero" id="hero"><div class="widget-hero-inlinehero-wrapper"><div class="p-g p-g-bbs widget-hero-left"><div class="clear-both widget-header p-u-1-2"><h1 class="widget-title special1">Nvidia’s Scary AI Generates Humans That Look 100% Real…</h1>
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<div class="widget-author-wrapper"><img class="widget-author-image lazy loaded" src="https://img.purch.com/rc/54x54/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS84LzQvNzkyMTQ4L29yaWdpbmFsL0plc3VzRGlhei5qcGc="/><div class="widget-author-data"><div class="widget-author-name subheading1"><a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/articles/?author_name=Jesus%20Diaz" title="Jesus Diaz">Jesus Diaz</a> ·</div>
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<div class="widget-last-modified"><span class="widget-last-modified-text">Updated</span> Dec 17, 2018</div>
<div class="widget-last-modified"><a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nvidia-ai-faces-generative-adversarial-network,news-28869.html">https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nvidia-ai-faces-generative-adversarial-network,news-28869.html</a></div>
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<p>Believe it or not, all these faces are <span>fake</span><span>. They have been synthesized by Nvidia’s new AI algorithm, a generative adversarial network capable of automagically creating humans, cats, and even cars.</span></p>
<div id="1545528333028" class="img-zoom-container"><img class="lazy loaded z-loaded" alt="Credit: Nvidia" title="Credit: Nvidia" src="https://img.purch.com/img-1236-jpg/w/755/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS85LzQvODE1NTEyL29yaWdpbmFsL0lNRy0xMjM2LmpwZw==" width="599" height="333"/><div id="1545528333028-3" class="img-zoom-sub"></div>
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<p><span class="imgContent imgCenter"><span class="imgWrapperOutter"><span class="imgWrapperInner"><span class="iZoom img-zoom-in"><span class="imgCaption">Credit: Nvidia</span></span></span></span></span><span>The technology works so well that we can expect synthetic image search engines soon — just like Google’s, but generating new fake images on the fly that look real. Yes, you know where</span> <span>that</span> <span>is going — and sure, it can be a lot of fun, but also scary.</span> <span>Check out the video. It truly defies belief:</span></p>
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<p><span>According to Nvidia, its GAN is built around a concept called “style transfer.” Rather than trying to copy and paste elements of different faces into a frankenperson, the system analyzes three basic styles — coarse, middle, and fine styles — and merges them transparently into something completely new.</span></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/806-best-alexa-skills.html"></a></strong><span>Coarse styles include parameters such as pose, the face’s shape, or the hair style. Middle styles include facial features, like the shape of the nose, cheeks, or mouth. Finally, fine styles affect the color of the face’s features like skin and hair.</span></p>
<p><span>According to the scientists, the generator is “capable of separating inconsequential variation from high-level attributes” too, in order to eliminate noise that is irrelevant for the new synthetic face.</span> <span><br/></span></p>
<p><span>For example, it can distinguish a hairdo from the actual hair, eliminating the former while applying the latter to the final photo. It can also specify the strength of how styles are applied to obtain more or less subtle effects.</span></p>
<p><span><span class="imgContent imgCenter"><span class="imgWrapperOutter"><span class="imgWrapperInner"><span class="iZoom img-zoom-in"><img class="lazy loaded" alt="Credit: Nvidia" title="Credit: Nvidia" src="https://img.purch.com/img-1237-jpg/w/755/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS85LzYvODE1NTE0L29yaWdpbmFsL0lNRy0xMjM3LmpwZw=="/><span class="imgCaption">Credit: Nvidia</span></span></span></span></span>Not only the generative adversarial network is capable of autonomously creating human faces, but it can do the same with animals like cats. It can even create new cars and even bedrooms.</span></p>
<p><span>Nvidia’s system is not only capable of generating completely new synthetic faces, but it can also seamlessly modify specific features of real people, like age, the hair or skin colors of any person.</span></p>
<p><span>The applications for such a system are amazing. From paradigm-changing synthetic free-to-use image search pages that may be the end of stock photo services to people accurately previewing hair styling changes. And of course, porn.</span></p>
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</div> MICROSOFT POSTS LIST OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH GUIDELINES IT THINKS THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD MAKE MANDATORYtag:12160.info,2018-12-11:2649739:Topic:18558062018-12-11T19:01:19.593ZCentral Scrutinizerhttps://12160.info/profile/H0llyw00d
<h1>MICROSOFT POSTS LIST OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH GUIDELINES IT THINKS THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD MAKE MANDATORY</h1>
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<div id="newsheader"><h2>SOURCE:<span> </span><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181208/09212441181/microsoft-posts-list-facial-recognition-tech-guidelines-it-thinks-government-should-make-mandatory.shtml" rel="noopener" target="_blank">TECH DIRT</a></h2>
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<p dir="ltr">Earlier this year, Microsoft …</p>
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<h1>MICROSOFT POSTS LIST OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH GUIDELINES IT THINKS THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD MAKE MANDATORY</h1>
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<div id="newsheader"><h2>SOURCE:<span> </span><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181208/09212441181/microsoft-posts-list-facial-recognition-tech-guidelines-it-thinks-government-should-make-mandatory.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TECH DIRT</a></h2>
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<p dir="ltr">Earlier this year, Microsoft <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180620/10012940077/tech-employees-revolting-over-government-contracts-reminds-us-that-government-needs-tech-more-than-tech-needs-government.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced backlash</a> for appearing to be working with ICE to provide it with facial recognition technology. A <a href="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/azuregov/2018/01/24/federal-agencies-continue-to-advance-capabilities-with-azure-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">January blog post</a> from its Azure Government wing stated it had acquired certification to set up and manage ICE cloud services. The key bit was this paragraph, which definitely made it seem Microsoft was joining ICE in the facial recognition business.</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr"><em>This ATO [Authority to Operate] is a critical next step in enabling ICE to deliver such services as cloud-based identity and access, serving both employees and citizens from applications hosted in the cloud. This can help employees make more informed decisions faster, with Azure Government enabling them to process data on edge devices or utilize deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification.</em></p>
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<p dir="ltr">Roughly five months later, this blog post was discovered, leading to Microsoft receiving a large dose of social media shaming. A number of its own employees signed a letter opposing any involvement at all with ICE. <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/07/13/facial-recognition-technology-the-need-for-public-regulation-and-corporate-responsibility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A July blog post</a> from the president of Microsoft addressed the fallout from the company's partnership with ICE. It clarified that Microsoft was not actually providing facial recognition tech to the agency and laid out a number of ground rules the company felt would best serve everyone going forward.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This starting point has now morphed <a href="http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/">into a full-fledged rule set Microsoft will apparently be applying to itself</a>. Microsoft's Brad Smith again addresses the positives and negatives of facial recognition tech, especially when it's deployed by government agencies. The blog post is a call for government regulation, not just of tech companies offering this technology, but for some internal regulation of agencies deploying this technology.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Smith's post is long, thoughtful, and detailed. I encourage you to read it for yourself. But most of it falls under these headings -- all issues Microsoft believes should be addressed via federal legislation.</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr"><em>First, especially in its current state of development, certain uses of facial recognition technology increase the risk of decisions and, more generally, outcomes that are biased and, in some cases, in violation of laws prohibiting discrimination.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Second, the widespread use of this technology can lead to new intrusions into people’s privacy.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>And third, the use of facial recognition technology by a government for mass surveillance can encroach on democratic freedoms.</em></p>
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<p dir="ltr">The three points affect everyone involved: the government, facial recognition tech developers, and private sector end users. It asks the government to police itself, as well as any vendors it deals with. It's a big ask, especially since the government has historically shown <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170523/15221337438/dea-deploying-powerful-spyware-without-required-privacy-impact-assessments.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minimal restraint</a> when exploiting <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171222/20445338872/dhss-new-airport-face-scanning-program-is-expensive-flawed-illegal.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new surveillance technology</a>. It often falls on <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180622/13221840093/supreme-court-says-warrants-are-needed-cell-site-location-info.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the nation's courts</a> to regulate the government's tech use, rather than the government being proactively cautious when rolling out new tools and toys.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But it also demands a lot from the private sector and suggests those who can't follow these rules Microsoft has laid out shouldn't be allowed to offer their services to the government. Here's what Smith proposes as a baseline for the tech side:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr"><em>Legislation should require tech companies that offer facial recognition services to provide documentation that explains the capabilities and limitations of the technology in terms that customers and consumers can understand.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>New laws should also require that providers of commercial facial recognition services enable third parties engaged in independent testing to conduct and publish reasonable tests of their facial recognition services for accuracy and unfair bias.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>[...]</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>While human beings of course are not immune to errors or biases, we believe that in certain high-stakes scenarios, it’s critical for qualified people to review facial recognition results and make key decisions rather than simply turn them over to computers. New legislation should therefore require that entities that deploy facial recognition undertake meaningful human review of facial recognition results prior to making final decisions for what the law deems to be “consequential use cases” that affect consumers. [...]</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Finally, it’s important for the entities that deploy facial recognition services to recognize that they are not absolved of their obligation to comply with laws prohibiting discrimination against individual consumers or groups of consumers. This provides additional reason to ensure that humans undertake meaningful review, given their ongoing and ultimate accountability under the law for decisions that are based on the use of facial recognition.</em></p>
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<p dir="ltr">This is the burden on the tech side. What the government needs to do is just not use it for mass surveillance or the continuous surveillance of certain people. Microsoft suggests warrants for continuous surveillance using facial recognition tech with the expected exceptions for emergencies and public safety risks.</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr"><em>When combined with ubiquitous cameras and massive computing power and storage in the cloud, a government could use facial recognition technology to enable continuous surveillance of specific individuals. It could follow anyone anywhere, or for that matter, everyone everywhere. It could do this at any time or even all the time. This use of facial recognition technology could unleash mass surveillance on an unprecedented scale.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>[...]</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>We must ensure that the year 2024 doesn’t look like a page from the novel “1984.” An indispensable democratic principle has always been the tenet that no government is above the law. Today this requires that we ensure that governmental use of facial recognition technology remain subject to the rule of law. New legislation can put us on this path.</em></p>
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<p dir="ltr">It's all good stuff that would protect citizens and curb abusive tech deployment if implemented across the board by tech companies. But that would likely require a legislative mandate, according to Microsoft. The end result is Microsoft asking the same entity its feels may abuse the tech to lay down federal guidelines for development and deployment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I don't have any complaints about what Microsoft's proposing. I only question why it's proposing it. When a large corporation <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180321/16254339473/wherein-facebook-loses-recess-everyone.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">starts asking</a> for government regulation, it's usually because increased regulation would keep the market smaller and help Microsoft weed out a few possible competitors. I wouldn't say this is the <em>only</em> reason Microsoft is handing out a long wish list of government mandates, but there's no way this isn't a factor.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Microsoft's management likely has genuine concerns about this tech and its future uses. Somewhat coincidentally, it's also in the best position to make these arguments. Other than a supposed misunderstanding about selling facial recognition tech to ICE, the company hasn't set its reputation on fire and/or been caught handing the government loads of tools that can be repurposed for oppression.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Other players in the facial recognition market have already ceded the high ground. Amazon has been <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180522/10395139880/aclu-obtains-documents-showing-amazon-is-handing-out-cheap-facial-recognition-tech-to-law-enforcement.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">handing out tech</a> to law enforcement agencies even as Congress members <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180726/12520640318/congress-members-want-answers-after-amazons-facial-recognition-software-says-28-them-are-criminals.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are demanding answers</a> from the company about its facial recognition software. Google may not be pushing facial recognition tech, but with it currently engaged in building an <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180915/13340840647/googles-chinese-search-engine-will-censor-results-provide-govt-approved-pollution-data.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">oppressor-friendly search engine</a>for China's government, it can't really portray itself as a champion of civil liberties. Facebook has used facial recognition tech for years, but is <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181125/15293341102/to-obtain-documents-about-facebook-data-sharing-uk-govt-seizes-detains-us-lawyer-working-different-company.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently so toxic</a> no one really wants to hear what it has to say about privacy or government surveillance. Apple may have some guidance to offer, but the DOJ likely uses Tim Cook <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180327/15444939518/fbi-officials-were-angry-that-iphone-hack-blocked-them-getting-court-to-force-apple-to-break-encryption.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headshots for dartboards</a>, making it less than receptive to the company's thoughts on biometric scanning. As for the rest of the players in the field -- the multiple contractors who sell surveillance equipment to the governments all over the world -- they have <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171017/07423938416/details-emerge-worlds-biggest-facial-recognition-surveillance-system-aiming-to-identify-any-chinese-citizen-three-seconds.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">zero concerns</a> about government abuse or respecting civil liberties, so Microsoft's post may as well be written in Etruscan for all they'll get out it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm in firm agreement with Brad Smith/Microsoft that facial recognition tech is a threat to privacy and civil liberties. I also believe the companies crafting/selling this tech should vet their products thoroughly and be prepared to shut them down if they can't <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180518/10000439863/report-confirms-deep-flaws-automated-facial-recognition-software-uk-warns-use-us-is-spreading.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eliminate bias</a> or if products are being used to conduct pervasive, unjustified surveillance. I don't believe most tech companies will do this voluntarily and know for a fact the government will not actively police use of these systems. The status quo -- zero accountability from governments and government contractors -- cannot remain in place. The courts may right some wrongs eventually, but until then, suppliers of facial recognition technology are complicit in the resulting civil liberties violations.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I applaud Microsoft for calling for action. But I will hold that applause until it becomes apparent Microsoft will maintain these standards internally, with or without a legislative mandate. If other companies choose to sign on as… I don't know… ethical surveillance tech dealers, that would be great. Asking the government to regulate tech development the preferred course of action, but a surveillance tech Wild West isn't an ideal outcome either. Ideally, the government would set higher standards for adoption and deployment of tech along the lines Microsoft has proposed, policing itself by vetting its vendors better. But if the federal government was truly interested in limiting its abuse of tech developments, we would have seen some evidence of it already.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These suggestions <em>should</em> be voluntarily adopted by other tech companies, if for no other reason than it insulates them from elimination should the government decide its going to up its acquisition and deployment standards. Microsoft scores a PR win, if nothing else, simply by being first. I appreciate its staking out its stance on this issue, but remain cautiously pessimistic about the company's ability to live up to its own standards.</p>
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</div> AN EYE-SCANNING LIE DETECTOR IS FORGING A DYSTOPIAN FUTUREtag:12160.info,2018-12-05:2649739:Topic:18537222018-12-05T02:37:42.272ZCentral Scrutinizerhttps://12160.info/profile/H0llyw00d
<h2>SOURCE:<span> </span><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/eye-scanning-lie-detector-polygraph-forging-a-dystopian-future/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">WIRED</a></h2>
<div id="newsheader"><div class="div_clear"><span class="lede">SITTING IN FRONT </span>of a Converus EyeDetect station, it’s impossible not to think of <em>Blade Runner</em>. In the 1982 sci-fi classic, Harrison Ford’s rumpled detective identifies artificial humans using a steam-punk Voight-Kampff device that watches their…</div>
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<h2>SOURCE:<span> </span><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/eye-scanning-lie-detector-polygraph-forging-a-dystopian-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WIRED</a></h2>
<div id="newsheader"><div class="div_clear"><span class="lede">SITTING IN FRONT </span>of a Converus EyeDetect station, it’s impossible not to think of <em>Blade Runner</em>. In the 1982 sci-fi classic, Harrison Ford’s rumpled detective identifies artificial humans using a steam-punk Voight-Kampff device that watches their eyes while they answer surreal questions. EyeDetect’s questions are less philosophical, and the penalty for failure is less fatal (Ford’s character would whip out a gun and shoot). But the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/inside-polygraph-job-screening-black-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">basic idea</a> is the same: By capturing imperceptible changes in a participant’s eyes—measuring things like pupil dilation and reaction time—the device aims to sort deceptive humanoids from genuine ones.</div>
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<div id="newsdetail"><p>It claims to be, in short, a next-generation lie detector. <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/inside-polygraph-job-screening-black-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Polygraph tests</a> are a $2 billion industry in the US and, despite their inaccuracy, are widely used to screen candidates for government jobs. Released in 2014 by Converus, a Mark Cuban–funded startup, EyeDetect is pitched by its makers as a faster, cheaper, and more accurate alternative to the notoriously unreliable polygraph. By many measures, EyeDetect appears to be the future of lie detection—and it’s already being used by local and federal agencies to screen job applicants. Which is why I traveled to a testing center, just north of Seattle, to see exactly how it works.</p>
<p>Jon Walters makes an unlikely Blade Runner. Smartly dressed and clean cut, the former police chief runs Public Safety Testing, a company that conducts preemployment tests for police forces, fire departments, and paramedics in Washington State and beyond. Screening new hires used to involve lengthy, expensive polygraph tests, which typically require certified examiners to facilitate them. Increasingly, however, Walters tells me, law enforcement agencies are opting for EyeDetect.</p>
<h4><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/eye-scanning-lie-detector-polygraph-forging-a-dystopian-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE...</a></h4>
</div> SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS CAN IDENTIFY EVERYONE BY "TALKING TO THEIR CELLPHONES"tag:12160.info,2018-10-30:2649739:Topic:18385002018-10-30T18:42:03.033ZCentral Scrutinizerhttps://12160.info/profile/H0llyw00d
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<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.wardsauto.com/technology/camera-smartphone-combo-curbs-distracted-walking?NL=WAW-04&Issue=WAW-04_20181009_WAW-04_44&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1&utm_rid=CPENT000003330051&utm_campaign=21182&utm_medium=email&elq2=4293b9debc414a2aa15176ca401bda17" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“This system basically allows surveillance cameras to talk to the public through their individual phones,”</a> Purdue Univeristy doctoral student Siyuan Cao said.<br/><br/>As the above video illustrates, soon no where will be safe from Big Brother's prying eyes.<br/><br/>Purdue University's <a href="https://simbalab.cs.purdue.edu/media.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SIMBA Labs</a> has developed a camera-to-human surveillance program called <a href="https://simbalab.cs.purdue.edu/media.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHADE</a> otherwise known as Private Human Addressing. The name of this new program, seems appropriate as everyone's privacy will soon phade fade away. (Pun intended.)<br/><br/>Before I discuss PHADE I would like to point out a few important facts.<br/><br/>Purdue University is also known as <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/phsi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Purdue Homeland University (PHU)."</a> PHU's mission is to <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/phsi/about/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"enhance Homeland Security.and validate Homeland Security technology."</a><br/><br/>DHS/PHU also has an entire section devoted to giving threat assessments of K-12 grade students, <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/phsi/outreach/K12.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"we have created a threat assessment tool that schools can use for an all-hazards approach." </a> You cannot make this stuff up.<br/><br/>PHADE's effect on everyone's privacy cannot be understated.<br/><br/>Forget Facebook and Twitter's massive surveillance program, PHADE will make those programs look trivial due to its shear size. With the number of cellphone users expected to reach <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/274774/forecast-of-mobile-phone-users-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">4.68 billion by next year</a>, PHADE will allow governments to pry into people's lives like never before.<br/><br/>Purdue University's newsroom claims PHADE will protect everyone's privacy by blurring <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q2/system-allows-surveillance-cameras-to-talk-to-the-public-through-individual-smartphones.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"partial details."</a> But contradicts itself by boasting that <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q2/system-allows-surveillance-cameras-to-talk-to-the-public-through-individual-smartphones.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"government agencies can use PHADE to enhance public safety."</a><br/><br/><div>Unknown IP/Mac address; PHADE knows who you are </div>
<br/>A white paper titled <a href="https://simbalab.cs.purdue.edu/papers/phade_imwut18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Enabling Public Cameras to Talk to the Public"</a> is so Orwellian in nature that I find it extremely difficult to write about.<br/><br/>"This paper asks: Is it possible for cameras in public areas, say ceiling cameras in a museum, to send personalized messages to people without knowing any addresses of their phones? We define this kind of problem as Private Human Addressing and develop a real-time end-to-end system called PHADE to solve it. Unlike traditional data transmission protocols that need to first learn the destination’s address, our cameras rely on viewing user’s motion patterns, and use the uniqueness of these patterns as the address for communication. Once receiving the wireless broadcast from the cameras, the user’s phone can locally compare the motion address of the packet against its own motion sensor data, and accept the packet upon a good match."<br/><br/>This is truly frightening, PHADE allows CCTV cameras to identify people in real-time even if they don't know the cellphones IP/MAC address.<br/><br/>"Without knowing users’ smartphone addresses, PHADE is able to communicate with them relying on the motion patterns captured by cameras and using these patterns as destination addresses."<br/><br/>The paper goes onto to warn people that PHADE can identify people by how they walk and what they are looking at in real-time.</div>
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<div><div dir="ltr"><br/>PHADE uses <a href="https://simbalab.cs.purdue.edu/papers/phade_imwut18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion extraction</a> or gait matching to identify individuals.<br/><br/>"First, an efficient motion feature should have high distinguishability, which means that it holds rich diversity among different people and can be used to easily discriminate their walking behaviors." (To learn more about gait matching click <a href="https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/cctv-software-identifies-people-their-walk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.)<br/><br/>And that is not even the worst of it.<br/><br/>PHADE also uses gesture-based messaging to identify what a person is pointing at.<br/><br/>"We detect three gestures (i.e. pointing to the left wall, the right wall or the roof) using the body parts generated by OpenPose, and send customized messages to the user according to the mural that it is pointing at."<br/><br/>What is PHADE's real mission?<br/><br/>PHADE's mission is "to identify and associate individuals in the camera view with their smartphones."<br/><br/>Imagine how law enforcement will use this.<br/><br/>All a police officer would need to do is point a CCTV camera at a person of interest and know in real-time who they are, where they live and exactly what they are looking at.<br/><br/>To call PHADE a privacy nightmare really does not do it justice.</div>
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<h4><a href="http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2018/10/surveillance-cameras-can-identify.html">READ MORE...</a></h4>