June 2023 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Innaugurazione del G-IPTech Centre a QUB
by GC F June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

Cari tutti, un breve reminder per ricordarvi che l'evento di inaugurazione del nuovo Global Intellectual Property and Technology (G-IPTech) Centre si terrà Lunedì, 5 giugno presso la School of Law di Queen's University Belfast. Ulteriori informazioni sono disponibili presso https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/g-iptech. Potete partecipare da remoto all'evento tramite iscrizione su Eventbrite - presso il link di cui sopra. Giancarlo *** Join us for the launch of the Global Intellectual Property and Technology (G-IPTech) Centre at QUB School of Law. This engaging event aims to unite leading international scholars, QUB School of Law members, and university representatives to explore pressing issues relevant for building a sustainable algorithmic society, and establish a programmatic research agenda for the G-IPTech Centre. Featuring panels on globalization, sustainability, creative economy, and fundamental rights, the workshop fosters collaboration and idea exchange on key IP/IT legal challenges, such as current policy debate surrounding whether we should ban or temporarily halt LLMs and other similar AI technologies. The dialogue regarding the Centre's future trajectory and research focus will be significantly enriched by the involvement of esteemed Directors from prominent global IT and IP research centres. Kicking off the workshop, Lord Justice Arnold will deliver a keynote speech, inaugurating the Centre and setting the stage for the panel discussions to follow. Open to all, the event encourages participants from various backgrounds to contribute their perspectives to the conversation. Speakers include: Lord Justice Sir Richard Arnold, Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Prof. Maurizio Borghi, Professor of Law and Co-director of the Nexa Centre for Internet and Society, University of Turin. Prof Josef Drexl, Honorary Professor at the University of Munich and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. Prof. David Erdos, Professor of Law and the Open Society; Co-Director, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL), Cambridge University. Prof. Marie-Christine Janssens, Professor of Law and Director (Head of Unit) of the Centre for IT & IP Law, KU Leuven. Prof. Eleonora Rosati, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, the Director of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law (IFIM). A full program is available here <https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/filestore/Filetoupload,1741856,en…> . Reserve a spot in person or online (you will receive a Zoom link the day before the event) here <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.event…> .

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US eating disorder helpline takes down AI chatbot over harmful advice | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/31/eating-disorder-hotline-…> The National Eating Disorder Association (Neda) has taken down an artificial intelligence chatbot, “Tessa”, after reports that the chatbot was providing harmful advice. Neda has been under criticism over the last few months after it fired four employees in March who worked for its helpline and had formed a union. The helpline allowed people to call, text or message volunteers who offered support and resources to those concerned about an eating disorder. Members of the union, Helpline Associates United, say they were fired days after their union election was certified. The union has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Tessa, which Neda claims was never meant to replace the helpline workers, almost immediately ran into problems. On Monday, activist Sharon Maxwell posted on Instagram that Tessa offered her “healthy eating tips” and advice on how to lose weight. The chatbot recommended a calorie deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories a day and weekly weighing and measuring to keep track of weight. “If I had accessed this chatbot when I was in the throes of my eating disorder, I would NOT have gotten help for my ED. If I had not gotten help, I would not still be alive today,” Maxwell wrote. “It is beyond time for Neda to step aside.” Neda itself has reported that those who diet moderately are five times more likely to develop an eating disorder, while those who restrict extremely are 18 times more likely to form a disorder. “It came to our attention last night that the current version of the Tessa Chatbot, running the Body Positivity program, may have given information that was harmful and unrelated to the program,” Neda said in a public statement on Tuesday. “We are investigating this immediately and have taken down that program until further notice for a complete investigation.” In a 4 May blogpost, former helpline employee Abbie Harper said the helpline had seen a 107% increase in calls and messages since the start of the pandemic. Reports of suicidal thoughts, self-harm and child abuse and neglect nearly tripled. The union, Harper wrote, “asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with the needs of the hotline”. “We didn’t even ask for more money,” Harper wrote. “Some of us have personally recovered from eating disorders and bring that invaluable experience to our work. All of us came to this job because of our passion for eating disorders and mental health advocacy and our desire to make a difference.” Lauren Smolar, a vice-president at Neda, told NPR in May that the influx of calls reporting serious mental health crises had presented a legal liability to the organization. “Our volunteers are volunteers. They’re not professionals. They don’t have crisis training. And we really can’t accept that kind of responsibility. We really need them to go to those services who are appropriate,” she said. Neda worked with psychology researchers and Cass AI, a company that develops AI chatbots focused on mental health, to develop the chatbot. In a post on Neda’s website about the chatbot that has since been taken down, Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, a psychologist at Washington University in St Louis who helped develop the chatbot, said that “Tessa” was thought up as a solution to make eating disorder prevention more widely available. “Programs that require human time and resources to implement them are difficult to scale, particularly in our current environment in the US where there is limited investment in prevention,” Fitzsimmons-Craft wrote, adding that the support of a human coach has shown to make prevention more effective. “Even though the chatbot was a robot, we thought she could provide some of that motivation, feedback and support … and maybe even deliver our effective program content in a way that would make people really want to engage.” In a statement to the Guardian, Neda’s CEO, Liz Thompson, said that the chatbot was not meant to replace the helpline but was rather created as a separate program. Thompson clarified that the chatbot is not run by ChatGPT and is “not a highly functional AI system”. “We had business reasons for closing the helpline and had been in the process of that evaluation for three years,” Thompson said. “A chatbot, even a highly intuitive program, cannot replace human interaction. “With regard to the weight loss and calorie limiting feedback issues in a chat Monday, we are concerned and are working with the technology team and the research team to investigate this further; that language is against our policies and core beliefs as an eating disorder organization,” she said, adding that 2,500 people have engaged with the chatbot and “we hadn’t see that kind of commentary or interaction”

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Amazon’s main UK division pays no corporation tax for second year in a row | Amazon | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/01/amazon-uk-services-main-…> Amazon’s main UK division has paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row after benefiting from tax credits on a chunk of its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure, including robotic equipment at its warehouses. Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of £7.7m in the year to the end of December, according to accounts filed at Companies House, advance details of which were shared by Amazon with the Guardian. The government’s “super-deduction” scheme for businesses that invest in infrastructure was introduced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor. It allowed companies to offset 130% of investment spending on plant and machinery against profits for two years from April 2021. Amazon booked a credit of £1.13m in 2021 under the scheme. It is understood that as a result, Amazon’s main UK division paid no corporation tax but other parts of the group’s UK business did pay an undisclosed amount. Pretax profits at the main division rose about 9% to almost £222m in 2022 as sales rose by nearly 8% to £6.56bn. Paul Monaghan, the chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation, criticised Amazon for failing to disclose its total profits in the UK and the corporation tax paid on that despite calls for more transparency from tax justice campaigners and shareholders. He said: “Over the last decade, Amazon has grown its market domination across the globe on the back of income that is largely untaxed – allowing it to unfairly undercut local businesses that take a more responsible approach. “We now have a situation where Amazon UK Services is not only not paying tax, but is being handed tax credits for investment that almost certainly would have happened anyway. Tax credits for old rope, if you will. These super-deductions have not only wiped out the corporation charge for the last two years but will likely do so again in 2023 and possibly 2024.” An Amazon spokesperson said: “Amazon UK Services is only a small part of our business, and when you look across all our UK companies we paid corporation tax last year. The reduction in tax for Amazon UK Services specifically is a result of our significant capital investments in the UK.” Amazon’s UK fulfilment centre in Peterborough: the online retailer invested £1.6bn in infrastucture in 2022. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA Details of Amazon’s tax benefits emerged as the online retailer and digital services provider said that its employee numbers had stalled at 75,000 in 2022, having almost tripled from about 27,500 in 2018 after adding 10,000 new roles a year in 2021 and 2020. Amazon and other digital players have been making cuts as spending online has shrunk since the height of the pandemic, after high streets reopened and restrictions on socialising and office working eased. In January the business announced plans to shut three of its 30-plus UK warehouses and seven small delivery sites, affecting more than 1,300 jobs. It closed the Book Depository online bookseller in April as part of those efforts. However, Amazon said it had invested £12bn in the UK last year, spending £1.6bn on infrastructure including more robotics for its warehouses and a software development centre in Swansea for its Veeqo division, which provides online tools for sellers. Sales across the group’s entire UK network rose £1bn over the year, more than 4%, to £24bn last year, making it bigger than Asda, the UK’s third-largest supermarket, and about twice the size of Marks & Spencer, according to group’s US filings. Amazon said it paid £781m in total taxes in the UK, including business rates, employer’s national insurance contributions and corporation tax, up from £648m a year before. The UK tax credit at Amazon UK Services was part of €937m (£805m) of tax credits across Europe last year, according to accounts for the group’s Luxembourg-based retail division published in March, after just over €1bn of benefits the year before. The credits came after Amazon EU Sarl – an entity that includes the group’s UK, German, Spanish, Italian and other EU retail interests – more than doubled losses to €4.3bn, from €2.1bn a year before, as sales slipped back to €50.9bn from €51.3bn a year before. Monaghan said income was being “shunted to Luxembourg” where the subsidiary was “generating enormous tax reliefs year after year that will be used in the future to ensure that little or no tax continues to be paid there either.” However, Amazon said that revenues, profits and taxes for the bulk of its UK business were recorded and paid in the UK. “Our retail and AWS [Amazon Web Services] revenues – the bulk of our business – are part of Amazon EU Sarl and AWS EMEA Sarl, both of which have a UK branch. Our UK revenues, associated expenses, profits and taxes are recorded here in the UK and reported directly to HMRC,” the company said in a statement. Amazon has previously said it pays hundreds of millions of euros in corporation tax across Europe.

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Amazon’s Ring doorbell was used to spy on customers, FTC says in privacy case | Amazon | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/31/amazon-ring-doorbell-spy…> A former employee of Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera unit spied on female customers for months in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing on Wednesday when it announced a $5.8m settlement with the company over privacy violations. Amazon also agreed to pay $25m to settle allegations it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at the request of parents and kept them longer than necessary, according to a court filing in federal court in Seattle that outlined a separate settlement. The FTC settlements are the agency’s latest effort to hold big tech accountable for policies that critics say place profits ahead of privacy. Amazon, which purchased Ring in April 2018, pledged to make some changes in its practices. “While we disagree with the FTC’s claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon said in a statement. Alvaro Bedoya, the FTC Commissioner, told Reuters the settlements should send a message to tech companies that their need to collect data was not an excuse to break the law. “This is a very clear signal to them,” he said. The fines, totaling $30.8m, represent a fraction of Amazon’s $3.2bn first-quarter profit. In its complaint against Amazon filed in Washington state, the FTC said that it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers who used Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says that Amazon told users it would delete voice transcripts and location information upon request, but then failed to do so. In one instance in 2017, employees of Ring viewed videos made by at least 81 female customers and Ring employees using Ring products. “Undetected by Ring, the employee continued spying for months,” the FTC said. A colleague noticed the misconduct and the employee was eventually terminated. The FTC also said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers’ sensitive video data said “as a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download and transfer customers’ sensitive video data for their own purposes”. As part of the FTC agreement with Ring, which spans 20 years, Ring is required to disclose to customers how much access to their data the company and its contractors have. In February 2019, Ring changed its policies so that most Ring employees or contractors could only access a customer’s private video with that person’s consent.

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