Jun 22
The “Late Show” host rips the “moocher” former president.
Jun 22
Facebook has long taken action against fake reviews, but now it’s formalizing that stance. As The Verge notes, Facebook parent company Meta has updated its Community Feedback Policy in the US to explicitly ban fake and paid reviews on its platforms. Users can’t post a bogus review for a restaurant in hopes of getting a free meal, or take kickbacks to leave glowing opinions about a product.
The revised policy also forbids “irrelevant” and spam reviews, not to mention those that include graphic or otherwise offensive content. Meta will pull reviews that violate policies, and reserves the right to suspend access to some or all of its products. Habitual violators could face suspensions or permanent bans for their Facebook accounts, and businesses could lose access to product listings and tags.
You might not see a dramatic increase in crackdowns when the new policy mainly continues an existing strategy. It’s also uncertain how well this commitment will hold. Facebook removed 16,000 fake review groups last year in response to a UK watchdog’s concerns, but there’s no guarantee it will catch every offender. An official policy indicates commitment to tackling the problem, though, and could help Meta justify bans when perpetrators complain.
Jun 22
The former New York mayor’s bizarre election claim gets put to the test.
Jun 22
Cryptocurrency is more centralized than many advocates claim, according to report
Posted in: Today's ChiliOne of the big advantages of cryptocurrency over other financial systems, according to many of its proponents, is that no particular company, central bank or government has control. That’s not necessarily the case, though. Researchers who worked on a report commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) found that there can be “unintended centralities” in these supposed decentralized systems.
“It’s been taken for granted that the blockchain is immutable and decentralized, because the community says so,” said Dan Guido, CEO of Trail of Bits, the software security research company that worked on the report. He told NPR that cryptocurrency power is concentrated among people or organizations that have a large chunk of the pie. Almost like any other capitalist system, some might argue.
Trail of Bits defined “unintended centralities” as circumstances under which an entity has sway over a so-called decentralized system, which could afford them the opportunity to tamper with records of ownership. The report also notes that three ISPs handle 60 percent of all bitcoin traffic. A blockchain network could be disrupted if a communications regulator, a hacker or someone else with oversight of one of those ISPs slowed down or halted bitcoin traffic.
There are also weaknesses in the bitcoin network itself. The report found that 21 percent of nodes are running an old, vulnerable version of the core bitcoin client. Those systems could be targeted in an attempt by an attacker who’s looking to take over the majority of a blockchain network, though that seems relatively unlikely given the size of the bitcoin network.
Some of these situations are theoretical, but the report highlights some of the deficiencies of blockchain tech. There have been some clear instances of centralization impacting parts of the ecosystem, however.
It was reported this week that lending platform Solend (which is based on the Solana blockchain) tried to take control of its single largest account, because it said the operator could have significant sway over market movements. Solend planned to temporarily take over the “whale” investor’s account in order to liquidate their position “gracefully” and avoid possible disruption.
A proposal allowing the platform to carry out the controversial move (Solend calls itself a “decentralized protocol,” after all) passed on Sunday. However, Solend’s users voted on another proposal to overturn the first one, with 99.8 percent of votes in favor. As it turns out, the holder of the account in question had more than 1 million of the 1.48 million total votes. Solend is trying another method of liquidating the whale’s position, but for now, the platform’s power seems to be centralized in that account holder’s favor.
Jun 22
The Fox News host compared the “Late Show” crew’s arrest in a congressional building to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jun 22
Microsoft is keenly aware of the mounting backlash toward facial recognition, and it’s shuttering a significant project in response. The company has revealed it will “retire” facial recognition technology that it said could infer emotions as well as characteristics like age, gender and hair. The AI raised privacy questions, Microsoft said, and offering a framework created the potential for discrimination and other abuses. There was also no clear consensus on the definition of emotions, and no way to create a generalized link between expressions and emotions.
New users of Microsoft’s Face programming framework no longer have access to these attribute detection features. Current customers can use them until June 30th, 2023. Microsoft will still fold the tech into “controlled” accessibility tools, such as its Seeing AI for people with vision issues.
The exit comes as Microsoft has shared its Responsible AI Standard framework with the public for the first time. The guidelines illustrate the tech firm’s decision-making process, including a focus on principles like inclusion, privacy and transparency. This also represents the first big update to the standard since it was introduced in late 2019, and promises more fairness in speech-to-text tech, stricter controls for neural voice and “fit for purpose” requirements that rule out the emotion-detecting system.
Microsoft isn’t the first company to have second thoughts about facial recognition. IBM stopped work in that field over worries its projects could be used for human rights abuses. With that said, this is still a major change of heart. One of the world’s largest cloud and computing companies is backing away from AI that could have a substantial impact.
Jun 22
Early in the pandemic, scientists tried training dogs to detect COVID-19 infections in humans. The results were predictable. Man’s best friend proved adept at sniffing out the disease, but the question researchers kept asking themselves was how they would scale that approach. After all, training a dog is expensive, and taking care of one can be a handful.
Still, the idea of using animals to spot sick humans is a good one and one that a team of researchers from Michigan State University approached in a novel way. In a recent study published in the journal bioRXiv, they detailed a locust-based cancer screening system. Per MIT Technology Review, the tech involves surgically-altered locusts with electrodes implanted into the lobes of their brains by Professor Debajit Saha and his colleagues. Those electrodes were there to capture signals from each insect’s antennae, which they use to sense smells.
Additionally, the team grew three different types of cancerous human mouth cells – in addition to a separate set of healthy ones – and built a device for capturing the gases emitted by those tissues. They then used that device to give the insects a whiff of the gases. They found that the locusts’ brains responded to each type of tissue differently and that they could correctly identify sick cells with only the recording of the gasses.
It’s hard to say if you’ll ever see your local clinic uses insects for cancer screenings. The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet, and it’s difficult to know if regulators like the Food and Drug Administration would ever approve such a procedure. People could also find the treatment of the locusts questionable. “The insect is dead in terms of its body function,” Saha told MIT Technology Review. “We are just keeping its brain alive.”
Saha and his team plan to continue work on the project. Their current system requires between six and 10 locust brains to function. He hopes new electrodes will allow his team to record more neurons, thereby making a single locust brain sufficient for an individual screening. He also wants to make the device holding the brain and antennae portable, which would allow the team to use the system outside of a lab.
University of Michigan, Saha et al.
Jun 22
Google News turned 20 this year, and it’s getting a major redesign that reflects changing priorities in journalism. The newly launched News desktop revamp now prioritizes catching up on important stories. In addition to top stories and personalized picks, there’s a particular focus on local news. That section is finally at the top of the page, and you can add multiple locations in case one city’s coverage isn’t enough.
The company is also bolstering its fact checking. Google News now shows the original claim next to a headline, along with fact checks (from independent sources) that show whether the claim holds up. You aren’t locked into the topics Google chooses, either. Click a “customize” button in Your Topics (pictured below) and you can add, delete or reshuffle subjects to match your tastes.
Google
The reworked site also marks Google News’ official return to Spain. Google dropped the local offering in December 2014 ahead of a law that would have required paying publishers to use their content, including headlines. A newspaper coalition pushed for Google to restore News, however, and Google announced plans for a revival last November following a Royal Decree that let Google negotiate licenses with individual publishers (in sync with the EU’s European Copyright Directive) instead of having to pay all of them.
The updated site helps support the Google News Initiative, a long-running campaign to support newsrooms amid concerns the internet is eroding access to quality journalism. Accordingly, Google has started taking applications for a Global News Equity Fund that helps back news for minorities and underrepresented groups. They have until July 21st to apply for money. The tech firm is also handing out its first round of funding ($1 million) for a Data-Driven Reporting Project that assists communities with data-heavy investigations.
It’s too early to say if the redesign will prove a success. It does give local news much higher priority than in the past, though (you previously had to scroll past multiple sections just to see it). And simply speaking, the new layout is overdue — the cleaner, more modern look is easier to digest. In theory, this could get more people to use Google’s hub instead of visiting specific media outlets or relying on dedicated apps like Apple News.
Jun 22
Senate Advances Bipartisan Gun Safety Bill With Hopes Of Passing It This Week
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe Bipartisan Safer Communities Act includes modest curbs on obtaining firearms, and aid for mental health and schools.
Jun 22
According to a study commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, blockchain technology might not be so decentralized and immutable after all.
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