The World
Biden signs Executive Order on a new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework
…The Executive Order introduces new binding safeguards with the aim to address all the points raised by the Court of Justice of the EU (Schrems II decision), (i) limiting access to EU data by US intelligence services to what is necessary and proportionate to protect national security and (ii) establishing a Data Protection Review Court. The European Commission will now prepare a draft adequacy decision, as well as launch its adoption procedure.
The framework thereby establishes a new two-layer redress mechanism, with independent and binding authority:
First layer: EU individuals can lodge a complaint with ‘Civil Liberties Protection Officer’ of the US intelligence community.
Second layer: individuals will have the possibility to appeal the decision of the Civil Liberties Protection Officer before the newly created Data Protection Review Court. The Court will be composed of members chosen from outside the US Government, appointed on the basis of specific qualifications.
Previously individuals could turn to an Ombudsperson, which was part of the US State Department and did not have similar investigatory or binding decision-making powers. The EU will have 6 months to consider, but privacy advocates are expected to challenge the framework as being inadequate. One such person, Max Schrems said that he, through his privacy advocacy group Noyb will challenge the proposal.
Artificial Intelligence
WHO releases Florence, its AI powered chat bot designed to provide reliable information on health, including Covid
…it is usable in English, with Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, and Russian to follow.
There are other types of health chat bots. This article mentions the following:
- Ada Health, Healthily and Sensely – combines symptom checkers with information
- Woebot, OneRemission – provide psychological and behavioural support to patients with specific health concerns
- Babylon Health and Gyant – appointment management and connecting patients remotely with clinicians.
Also, 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
Former Google engineers release character.ai which enables you to talk to figures, such as Trump, Xi, Musk…
…there is clear warning to users that it is all made up. It’s a bit like the end of a film, reminding everyone that the story is fiction, so the explanation goes.
New AI uses spotted this week
- Now Google’s Imagen can do Text to Video AI – type in a description and a video based on the description will be generated. Check out Imagen Video. Meta released a similar tool recently.
- Alphabet’s DeepMind has a new AI system, AlphaTensor which can do some serious matrix multiplications speedily. These are complex and key for engineering and physics simulations.
BigTech/ Data / Platforms
Business
Microsoft – Meta partnership: Microsoft’s Teams, Office, Windows and Xbox Cloud Gaming (including the “Netflix of games” Game Pass) to be delivered via the Oculus
…this is a clever partnership. Both parties announced very similar visions of the Metaverse at similar times, about this time last year. Yet they have decided to collaborate, which will no doubt accelerate the concept. Meta’s internal notes revealed this week that it was struggling with take up even within Meta’s employees. The article notes Microsoft gets to trade on what it does best (purveyor of software, especially productivity tools) and Meta gets to access enterprise clients. But thought leader Ben Thompson says Meta may be in danger of becoming what IBM was to Microsoft all those years ago – IBM invested all the R&D in the hardware (PCs) only for Microsoft to benefit from it.
Content Moderation
Now you can influence your feed on Facebook
…you can get the Facebook algorithm to show more or show less on a post to ensure you have a better chance of getting what you want. At the same time, you show more of yourself to Facebook, which enable them to ad-target you better, and incidentally perhaps Facebook can better defend themselves should any content moderation issues crop. Users though will have the benefit of seeing more of what they want, and get better targeted ads. Some users will see it as a win win. Last week I reported on a case which looks at YouTube’s liability for using AI which resulted in a recommendation of a post uploaded by a terrorist organisation. If the recommendation were controlled by the users, the platform could have more of a defence? It might also be less likely to be attacked for content moderating inappropriately, if users had a hand in formulating its own algorithm.
Twitter expands its crowd-sourcing fact checking measure Birdwatch
…misinformation, perpetrated deliberately or not, is rife on Twitter. To combat that, Twitter provided for Birdwatch, a group of people who have proven that they are capable of writing helpful notes. They will then be monitored to see how helpful their contributions are. Birdwatch algorithm looks at consensus across those with differing viewpoints. This will increase the chances of identifying misleading posts for removal. Users can rate Birdwatch notes as Helpful or Not Helpful. If a Birdwatch member’s scores dip, then they could get their Birdwatch status stripped. Twitter will now be making the Birdwatch fact check tweets visible to all users.
Roblox, Discord, Meta and Snap sued for suicide attempts of girl
…apparently caused by predators, despite various measures which are said to be available on the platforms – such as the scanning of images and GIFs to identify instances of child exploitation. This is a US case, but it comes in the wake of the UK Coroner’s finding that Meta, Pinterest, and other social media platforms are legally to blame for the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell who was exposed to self-harming images and posts as a result of the platforms’ recommendations.
The present case though concerns the lack of monitoring of messages. On the one hand, users consider that platforms should not have access to messages and on the other hand, platforms are said to be liable for failing to identify illegal and harmful conduct. Striking the balance between privacy and child protection is notoriously difficult and the EU is debating what to do – privacy concerns have been raised against the draft Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse which would allow national courts to issue “detection orders,” requiring messaging and hosting companies to actively monitor and files for signs of child sexual abuse and grooming.
One of the complaints was that the platform provided no age verification. This is likely to come soon enough it has been said – not just on porn sites, which was originally targeted in the UK (and then withdrawn owing to potentially fuelling blackmailing activities in case of data breach) but to all sites accessible by children in the UK, EU, US, Australia and beyond, from search engines to social media.
Privacy
Dutch Court rules that forcing employees to turn their webcam on throughout the working day is violation of European Convention on Human Rights
…the decision was made against Chetu, a US company which had hired a Dutch telemarketer. Chetu also had requested the employee to share screen as well. The employee refused and was sacked. The Dutch Court ruled that the business’ requirement conflicted with the respect for the privacy of the workers (Art 8).
Cloud Computing
Google ramps up Cloud offering
…these include:
- Translation Hub: enterprise-scale translation AI Agent for self-serve document translation, available in 135 languages
- Vertex AI Vision: makes powerful computer vision and image recognition AI more accessible to data practitioners. It also reduces the time to create computer vision applications from days to minutes at one-tenth the cost of current offerings.
- Advanced security tools: including Confidential Space will help unlock the value of secure data collaboration. See also the provision of Google Cloud Ready – Sovereign Cloud (which it says complies with EU regs)
And lots more!
Google cloud has also announced new relationships with Coinbase [see below], Prudential plc, Rite Aid, Snap, T-Mobile, Toyota, and Wayfair.
Connectivity
EU Commission thinking about making BigTechs pay for infrastructure upgrades as the world tries to get 5G deployed
…56% of global traffic were derived from just six companies Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Netflix so why not make them pay [and incidentally they are all US companies, not EU] for the upgrade from the copper networks to fiber, to help the struggling telecom companies?
The BigTechs say they are already investing in data centres, subsea cables and helped telecom companies to store content local to deal with traffic spikes – and that besides it’s the telecom companies fault for failing to properly monetise on their infrastructure.
Crypto
Cryptoexchange FTX partners with Visa to enable users to buy items using cryptocurrencies with debit cards
…Visa already has partnerships with Coinbase and Binance, and others. Mastercard has also partnered with Coinbase on NFT. Merchants can now easily deal with users wanting to buy with crypto – Visa and FTX essentially deal with the backend. FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried said it will likely be used most widely in countries where inflation has spiked, such as Turkey (83%) and Argentina (78%). Yikes.
Google partners with Coinbase to enable customers to pay for its cloud services using cryptocurrencies
…Coinbase will get a commission from the transaction [which is a bit ironic because one of the attractions of cryptocurrencies is the removal of bank commission charges]. Coinbase will move its cloud supplier from AWS to Google Cloud.
BNY Mellon now licensed to carry out crypto custody service
…fund managers can use one custody platform for traditional and crypto currencies. Basically, crypto is getting more mainstream. See also above.
Cybersecurity
Former Uber executive convicted on charges for covering up data breach
…Sullivan (a former lawyer) had be found to have paid $100,000 as reward under the bug bounty program and asked the hackers to sign up to a non-disclosure agreement not to disclose the incident [ he had managed to track down the hackers – and meanwhile they went on to hack other businesses]. The hackers had stolen the data of 50 million customers and 7 million drivers. The conduct took place when the Federal Trade Commission was investigating Uber. New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi found out and fired him. This is the first time an executive has been found guilty for covering up a hack. Sentencing is due which could involve imprisonment, up to 8 years.
CISOs (chief investigation security officers) are now concerned that it is never acceptable to pay the ransom fee to keep stolen data private.
EVs/AVs
Ford and GM follows Tesla by taking fate into their own hands by securing supply of raw material for batteries
…Tesla leads the trend. Two years ago, it purchased the right to mine Lithium in Nevada, and last month it revealed that it was considering building a refinery in Texas. He will be applying for tax credits made available by the Inflation Reduction Act. This is available for those that are sourcing the minerals from the US or free trade partners and are not having these extracted, processed or recycled by a “foreign entity of concern”. The Australia’s Jervois Global has opened a new Cobalt mine in Idaho which will be helped by the Act. Note that the EU Commission is unhappy about the Act – because it discriminates against EV makers that do not produce in the US, and so is thinking about initiating an action before the WTO.
Batteries for EV requires rare metals, such as Cobalt (Co), Lithium (Li), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni). Prices for these have soared, as has the demand for EV. But the following make it difficult to contain price rises for the rare metals:
- Geopolitics [especially the Russia/Ukraine war]
- Child labour involved in mining these
- Environmental issues
Other car makers are also implementing measures to secure these materials:
- GM has agreed to pre-pay Livent, a lithium mining group $200million to secure supply
- Ford is paying Liontown Resources to develop a lithium mine.
- Stellantis has invested in Vulcan Energy Resources which has plans to produce lithium in Germany.
- Nikola has purchased battery supplier Romeo Power.
Recall that GM is following Tesla in other ways too – recently it announced that it was designing its own chips.
Rio Tinto plans $500million investment to mine titanium and scandium to reduce China dependency
…these materials are used in aerospace, medical products and fuel cells. 75% of finished products and 61% of scandium are produced in China. Canada has attracted attention of others as well:
- Cathode producers such as Germany’s BASF, Belgium’s Umicore and Korea’s Posco are apparently planning to invest in Canada too.
- Canada has received love calls from German and South Korean governments to secure supplies of Nickel and Cobalt for use in German cars and Korean batteries.
Tesla says it will bin ultrasonic sensors and rely on camera only
…Ultrasonic sensors were primarily used for short-range detections utilised for parking assist, auto summon and collision detection. The former two features will not be available for Teslas that drive using camera only for now.
Note that this is opposite of what Volvo are doing, which is to put laser technology (LiDAR) on all new models. Tesla have never relied on LiDAR, with Musk claiming that anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed.
Metaverse/ VR / AR / MR/ XR
The rise of the digital influencers
…the Chinese BigTechs, ByteDance (TikTok parent), Alibaba and Tencent have poured in cash into the “virtual idol industry” as they have proven to be safer bets compared to human influencers. Virtual idols are much less scandal prone, age-defying, and their IP is easy to control. SoftBank and US fund Sequoia are also investing, and brands such as Bulgari and Pandora are utilising virtual influencers.
Will it become vogue in the western world too? I think perhaps not, or not as much – the manga culture isn’t as pervasive in the west as it is in the east. But we shall see.
Semiconductors
US implements new export controls restricting sales of semiconductors with US technology
…unless sellers obtain an export licence (which it is understood is difficult to obtain). Targeted Chinese companies cannot now be supplied with hardware or software which contain US technology (this is the so-called “foreign direct product rule” pioneered by the Trump administration – and includes non-US made chips provided US technology is implicated). The aim is to stop China from progressing its AI, supercomputers and other high performance computing capabilities that could be used to develop military applications in particular nuclear and hypersonic weapons. US companies which do business in China are hard hit (Nvidia, AMD, Applied Materials etc). Note there is a carve out – for US and its allies who are making chips in China (eg. Apple – but they are quickly shifting that to other parts of the world, such as India and Vietnam), albeit Korean companies (allies of the US) are concerned that its chipmaking capability in China will be hit. It fears it will not be able to upgrade its lithography plant and its memory plants in China may be affected.
Note also that it might not be that simple, just to effectively ban the export of certain products to China. The assembling of those chips, installing them to devices etc are generally done in China. So who will do that job? Further still, clever corporate structuring involving shell companies may enable Chinese companies to defeat export controls. There are Chinese companies that have a good level of capability and they will just get more funds no doubt from the Chinese government. China boasts the biggest chip subsidy programme. Those Chinese chip makers will also gain more business from Chinese EV companies too, which will in turn allow them to flourish. Therefore, US measures may not be as effective as it might be hoping.