Headline in Tech news of the week
US Supreme Court to decide the scope of law removing liability for harmful third party content on platform
…Platform companies are shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which generally protects websites from liability over content uploaded by users or third parties even when they disseminate illegal, violent conduct or materials, especially if the company has acted diligently removing illegal material.
In this case, the family of the victim of a shooting in Paris by the terrorist organisation ISIS sued YouTube/Google for recommending videos uploaded by ISIS which concerned brainwashing and recruiting new members, which it claimed breached the Antiterrorism Act. The Ninth Circuit said that YouTube was shielded by s.230. The family says s.230 can give platforms protection only insofar as a particular complaint seeks to treat that service as a publisher.
In Twitter v. Taamneh, there is a similar issue – the question there is whether Twitter could be liable because they could have been more proactive about taking down terrorist content.
Had this been a newspaper, then it would likely be found liable. Newspapers have full control of, and so are responsible for the content on its own media. But, is a platform responsible because their algorithms decide what should be on the recommendations page?
Recently, the Texan Federal Court ruled that state law banning content moderation (excludes instances where material uploaded is illegal) by platforms of at least certain size were not unconstitutional whilst a Court in Florida came to a different conclusion. It would seem that a review by Supreme Court would be necessary to clarify the position.
Artificial Intelligence
White House identifies 5 principles in its Non-binding AI Bill of Rights
…The framework applies to (1) automated systems that (2) have the potential to meaningfully impact the American public’s rights, opportunities, or access to critical resources or services.
The 5 principles identified are
- Safe and Effective Systems – Automated systems should be developed with consultation from diverse communities, stakeholders, and domain experts to identify concerns, risks, and potential impacts of the system. Test the product to ensure it is safe and effective and minimise harms.
- Algorithmic Discrimination Protections – proactive and continuous measures should be implemented to protect individuals and communities from algorithmic discrimination.
- Data Privacy – implementation of protection from abusive data practices via built-in protections and ensuring users’ agency over how data about the user is used. Consent should only be used to justify collection of data in cases where it can be appropriately and meaningfully given.
- Notice and Explanation – notifying users that an automated system is being used and explain how and why it contributes to the outcomes.
- Human Alternatives, Consideration, and Fallback – provision of opt out from automated systems in favour of a human alternative, where appropriate
Some states have parallel laws which deal with these concepts.
Meta discloses its text to video AI system Make-a-Video
…Meta said it will use its Responsible AI Framework to evolve its approach. The Framework considers 5 pillars which are:
- Privacy & Security – careful use over face and speech recognition, use of AI to improve privacy
- Fairness & Inclusion – detecting certain forms of statistical bias, AI-driven Portal Smart Camera designed to accurately focuses on people on-camera regardless of apparent skin tone or gender presentation
- Robustness & Safety – working on developing deepfake detection models and multimodal hate speech detection
- Transparency & Control – be more transparent about when and how AI systems are making decisions that impact the people who use Meta’s products, to make those decisions more explainable, and to inform people about the controls they have over how those decisions are made
- Accountability and Governance – give people a way to appeal and seek additional human review of a broad range of content-takedown decisions, which are sometimes first made with the assistance of AI systems
These principles very much overlap with the AI Bill of Rights just published.
New AI uses spotted this week
- Mayo Clinic shows its AI algorithm can pick out patients with atrial fibrillation.
- Microsoft’s AI can predict who is likely to miss a doctor’s appointment. It can be used to remind patients and schedule appointments so that doctors’ practices can account for no-shows.
BigTech/ Data / Platforms
Business
Google to change its search format into a more visual system for the TikTok Generation
…Google search works almost perfectly well, right? But Google must not sit on its laurels for the TikTok generation are more and more carrying out searches on TikTok, rather than Google. According to Google’s own research, almost 40% of young people will search places to lunch in TikTok or Instagram. This is really an incredible shift in habit. Certain Google searches, like that for a travel destination will present various types of results, such as weather, images and videos of sight-seeing spots, how to get there. You can also carry out searches more easily using your camera – take a photograph of your maths homework and Google will solve it for you, for example.
Content Moderation
Advertisers pull plug on Twitter as adverts displayed alongside child exploitation accounts
…YouTube has been there, done that too – when an Argos ad popped up next to a video of someone emulating kidnapping. But that was 5 years ago. In the case of Twitter, the illegal accounts were not subtle, featuring words such as rape and teens, trading teens/child. The article notes that Twitter has become a hive of adult content (which Twitter does allow), although a very clear line is drawn between adult and child sexual content, latter being illegal. However Twitter’s policing is reportedly not adequate.
Crypto/NFTs
Argentine low cost carrier Flybondi to issue tickets in NFTs
…NFTs are essentially a tamper proof receipt. It says you own the thing. If that is a ticket, you can prove that you own the real thing. The difference between an NFT ticket and your standard e-ticket is that you can trade the former knowing it be a real ticket. Contractual terms can be embedded to ensure that the original ticket issuer (eg. Flybondi) gets a commission upon transfer. If the ticket is then re-sold, the issuer gets a further cut and so on. Can be used for concert tickets and other events as well. The Flybondi ticket will allow you to change the name on the ticket etc, of course. There may be a possibility of using stablecoins in the future [and talking of which see below].
Other interesting NFT use cases I have heard about
- Software licence: I have also heard that you could use NFTs for software licences as well. You buy a 10 year licence, but suppose your company becomes insolvent. You can sell off that licence to other businesses.
- Debt: If you are in debt, you could sell tokens for that debt. If the company survives and does well you could profit from that token. Bitfinex (the Crypto exchange) did this by issuing LEO tokens. Thanks to the increase in bitcoin price increase and recovery of lost $4billion after a hack, the price of LEO tokens went up and lenders got their money back.
Stripe (the leading online digital payments processing service provider) to deal in USDC stablecoin
…these are cryptoassets, but much less volatile (hence the term stablecoin). It means the unbanked can join the economy and those that get paid in a currency which is not their local currency can duck the exchange rate commissions and the payment processing lag. The latter is incredibly important as engineers and developers in countries such as India, other Asian territories and Easter European territories are increasingly engaging in work for western companies (notably the US).
Apple now supporting NFT trading and reportedly insisting 30% commission
…note though Apple levies 15% commission for developers that generate under $1million in revenue. Apple’s position is simple. NFTs are digital assets, so buy NFT using the iOS platform, then 30% commission should be levied (although quite how the cryptocurrency transactions are carried out on iOS I am not sure). Note that Apple’s move to support NFT trading could signal a tipping point on NFT popularity. This is because the great majority of NFT trades occur on a desk top and not on mobile phones.
However, there are question marks over whether Apple’s proposal would work. Suppose an NFT on the NFT marketplace OpenSea is being traded. Note that OpenSea trades are often in secondary markets, in which case OpenSea merely brokers the transaction (a bit like Ebay in this regard, they match-make seller and buyer). All OpenSea does is to connect the digital wallets, they will process the transaction, take the 2.5% fee, and the NFT is transferred. Apple is saying that they want the 30% of the entire transaction from OpenSea, not the seller. In this case, OpenSea will lose money.
EV / AVs
Leading LiDAR company Velodyne acquires AI company specialising in providing traffic solutions
…the pair have been working together for some time to provide smart city applications using LiDAR technology. LiDAR is laser sensor technology that is used to enable vehicles to sense the environment around them.
Gaming
Google terminates its cloud gaming platform Stadia
… Google ploughed in large swathes of cash into cloud based gaming, to build a service marked with low latency and fidelity – meaning users could play great games on low spec devices (because all the complex high graphics rendering is done on the server end). However, the Achilles’ heel, being the internet connection at the users’ end was too much, as those technical advantages were lost. Early on in the project, Google closed down its own gaming studio, leaving it too dependent on others to provide it with the top titles. There simply was not enough content, which meant that Google didn’t have the traction it needed to get Stadia properly off the ground. Developers that had created games especially for Stadia are now left on the lurch. Some commentators have said that Google’s habit of mothballing projects often at an early stage could mean future developers may be wary of developing works for Google.
Stadia technology will be recycled for use in other initiatives such as AR.
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and Take-Two (gaming publisher) have to pay tattoo artist for including wrestler Randy Orton’s tattoos in WWE 2K video-game series
…defences such as fair use and licenced use were rejected. Similar case is pending in Ohio.
Green technology
University of Illinois Chicago discovers a way to convert virtually all carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust into ethylene – critical material for making plastics
…the process uses electrolysis, and the conversion rate is better than previously achieved.
Semiconductors
US is likely to impose tighter restrictions on exporting cutting edge products to China
…especially chip technology. The US aims to prevent China from using its technology for military use, supercomputers and AI applications and to cement US’ position as leading technology developer.
US chipmaker Micron to receive $320m worth of subsidies from Japan
…the aim is to reduce dependence on China and Taiwan amid geopolitical tensions.
US chipmaker Micron to invest $100billion to build a chip factory in New York state
…with the help of US subsidy.
One more thing…
What is art? Tyga x MSCHF collab piece “Wavy Baby” causes beef with Old Skool TM owner Vans
..this is the question before one Second Circuit panel. Tyga [appears to be a singer] and MSCHF [pronounced mischief – it’s a product studio] dropped [another term for launched these days] the Wavy Baby sneaker which resembles Vans’ sneakers. One party relies on freedom of expression, saying it’s art or parody. The other says TM infringement, and that the First Amendment does not allow a distortion of TM.