“AI offers a unique opportunity for social progress,” Mustafa Suleyman, The Economist, September 20, 2018
The co-founder of DeepMind, a leader in AI research and application, says artificial intelligence has the potential to dramatically reshape the world for good — but only if it is held to the highest ethical standards.
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/20/ai-offers-a-unique-opportunity-for-social-progress
“A Future Where Everything Becomes a Computer Is as Creepy as You Feared,” Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times, October 10, 2018
Highlights the huge security issues arising out of the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), primarily as detailed in the new book by Bruce Schneier, Click Here to Kill Everybody.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/technology/future-internet-of-things.html
“The Weaponization of Social Media is Transforming Politics,” Tamara Evdokimova, New America, October 11, 2018
https://www.newamerica.org/weekly/edition-221/weaponization-social-media-transforming-politics/, and
“The Weaponization of Social Media,” podcast on Fresh Air, October 9, 2018
Article is about the new book, LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media. The podcast is an interview with the book’s authors, P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking.
Both focus on the authors’ contention that social media has become one of the newest, most important, weapons of war — with the result that war, tech, and politics have blurred into a new kind of battle space playing out on our smartphones.
“Watch Boston Dynamics’ Humanoid Robot Do Parkour,” Matt Simon, Wired, October 11, 2018
Article, with video clips, of a very-humanoid-like robot successfully moving through military-type obstacle course training.
https://www.wired.com/story/watch-boston-dynamics-humanoid-robot-do-parkour/
“Myanmar’s Military Said to Be Behind Facebook Campaign That Fueled Genocide,” Paul Mozur, The New York Times, October 15, 2018
Major report that hundreds of Myanmar’s military personnel took part in a years-long Facebook campaign against the country’s Rohingya minority designed to inflame the general population and stoke feelings of fear and vulnerability to which only the military could respond.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html
“Alexa, Should We Trust You?,” Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, November 2018 Issue
Explores the current state of digital voice assistants, with a particular emphasis on the intimacy that voice invites, and worries about a future where our voice assistants have become our (too) comfortable companions.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/alexa-how-will-you-change-us/570844/
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