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[SEMINARIO GI-STS - CON PREGHIERA DI DIFFUSIONE] Intelligenze al confine tra biologico e artificiale
by Diego.Latella Aug. 25, 2023

Aug. 25, 2023

[CON PREGHIERA DI DIFFUSIONE] ======================================== ANNUNCIO DI SEMINARIO APERTO AL PUBBLICO ======================================== Intelligenze al confine tra biologico e artificiale Seminario aperto al pubblico e on-line Mercoledì 20 settembre 2023 alle 15:30 Sala Azzurra - Scuola Normale Superiore - Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa (è prevista anche la partecipazione online all'evento) L'avvento delle applicazioni avanzate di intelligenza artificiale ha portato alla ribalta domande che coinvolgono i fondamenti della relazione tra scienza, tecnologia e società: in che senso questi algoritmi sono "intelligenti"? Come potremmo definire criteri per attribuire a macchine una "coscienza" e - con essa - diritti e responsabilità? Il prof. Ascoli esporrà i principi funzionali dei sistemi nervosi biologici, come il cervello umano, che hanno ispirato gli algoritmi di reti neurali cosiddette "Deep Learning" alla base di ChatGPT & C., mettendo in risalto analogie e differenze cruciali. La Dott.ssa Tafani analizzerà problematiche legate alla diffusione di sistemi di apprendimento automatico e dei prodotti di intelligenza artificiale, come la responsabilità degli effetti di tali prodotti, e la comparsa di una famiglia di narrazioni riguardanti il principio di inevitabilità tecnologica, l'antropomorfizzazione delle macchine e la correlata de- umanizzazione delle persone, nonché la convinzione che il futuro di singoli individui sia già scritto e leggibile. L'evento è Organizzato dal Gruppo Interdisciplinare su Scienza, Tecnologia e Società (GI-STS) dell'Area della Ricerca di Pisa del CNR In collaborazione con Areaperta - Area della Ricerca CNR di Pisa Istituto di Biofisica del CNR Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica del CNR Istituto di Informatica e Telematica del CNR Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione ``A. Faedo'' del CNR Istituto Nanoscienze del CNR La Nuova Limonaia Laboratorio Informatica e Società del CINI Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs Unione degli Scienziati Per Il Disarmo Con il patrocinio della Scuola Normale Superiore e con il supporto del progetto EU-Lesgo. Per ulteriori informazioni---incluso il link per la partecipazione all'evento---si rimanda alla pagina "Events" del sito web del Gruppo Interdisciplinare su Scienza, Tecnologia e Società (GI-STS) dell'Area della Ricerca di Pisa del CNR (gists.pi.cnr.it). Diego -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, fax: +390506212040 =================== The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn how to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity. -- Sir Joseph Rotblat I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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"Web Environment Integrity" is an all-out attack on the free Internet
by Giacomo Tesio Aug. 23, 2023

Aug. 23, 2023

Using a free browser is now more important than ever. We've written recently on this topic, but the issue we wrote about there was minor compared to the gross injustice Google is now attempting to force down the throats of web users around the world. The so-called "Web Environment Integrity" (WEI) is the worst stunt we've seen from them in some time. Beginning its life as an innocuous, if worrying, policy document posted to Microsoft GitHub, Google has now fast-tracked its development into their Chromium browser. At its current rate of progress, WEI will be upon us in no time. By giving developers an API through which they can approve certain browser configurations while forbidding others, WEI is a tremendous step toward the "enshittification" of the web as a whole. Many of us have grown up with a specific idea of the Internet, the notion of it as a collection of hyperlinked pages that can be accessed by a wide variety of different machines, programs, and operating systems. WEI is this idea's antithesis. Compared to its staggering potential effects, the technical means through which WEI will accomplish its ends is relatively simple. Before serving a web page, a server can ask a third-party "verification" service to make sure that the user's browsing environment has not been "tampered" with. A translation of the policy's terminology will help us here: this Google-owned server will be asked to make sure that the browser does not deviate in any way from Google's accepted browser configuration, precluding any meaningful use of the four freedoms. It is not far-fetched to imagine a future in which sites simply refuse to serve pages to users running free browsers or free operating systems. If WEI isn't stopped now, that future will come sooner than we think. While Web Environment Integrity has a policy document that attempts to explain valid ways in which it could be used, these are all non-issues compared to the way that we know it will be used. It will be used by governments to ensure that only their officially "approved" (read: backdoored) browsers are able to access the Internet; it will be used by corporations like Netflix to further Digital Restrictions Management (DRM); it will be used by Google to deny access to their services unless you are using a browser that gels with their profit margin. Once upon a time, Google's official policy was "don't be evil." With the rapid progress they've made on Web Environment Integrity in such a short time, we can say very safely that their policy is now to pioneer evil. As we write this, talented and well-paid Google engineers and executives are working to dismantle what makes the web the web. Given that Google is one of the largest corporations on the planet, our only hope of saving the Internet as we know it is a clear and principled stance for freedom, a collective upholding of the communal principles on which the web was based. Let us repeat: there is absolutely no legitimate justification for WEI. The use cases that the policy document highlights are nothing compared to its real use case, which is developing a method to obtain complete and total restriction of the free Internet. We urge everyone involved in a decision-making capacity at Google to consider the principles on which the web was founded, and to carefully contemplate whether Web Environment Integrity aligns with those principles. We hope that they will realize WEI's fundamental incompatibility with the free Internet and cease work on the standard immediately. And if they don't? Well, they ought to be ashamed. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/web-environment-integrity-is-an-all-out… Dopo tutti questi anni di Google, sperare che gli sviluppatori di Google si vergognino di ciò che stanno facendo è estremamente ingenuo. Può però essere utile a chi legge i suoi lobbisti più o meno insospettabili, sapere a cosa Google sta puntando da anni. Ma come con ChatGPT e Microsoft/OpenAI, anche in questo caso vedremo spuntare come funghi allucinogeni diversi utili idioti pronti a difendere a spada tratta la povera Google che non vuole altro che proteggere i poveri utenti... dalla propria libertà. Loro non si vergogneranno, ma noi potremo indignarci disgustati. Giacomo

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The AI Power Paradox Can States Learn to Govern Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late? - Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman - FOREIGN AFFAIRS
by Diego.Latella Aug. 23, 2023

Aug. 23, 2023

Non mi sembra sia passato nella lista (in caso contrario mi scuso) Jan Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman The AI Power Paradox. Can States Learn to Govern Artificial Intelligence--Before It's Too Late? FOREIGN AFFAIRS Aug. 16, 2023 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/artificial-intelligence-power-paradox Diego -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, fax: +390506212040 =================== I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Unpacking Cyber Capacity-Building Needs - S. Dominioni, G. Persi Paoli - UNIDIR
by Diego.Latella Aug. 22, 2023

Aug. 22, 2023

Published recently: S. Dominioni - G. Persi Paoli Unpacking Cyber Capacity-Building Needs - Part I. Mapping the Foundational Cyber Capabilities UNIDIR https://unidir.org/publication/unpacking-cyber-capacity-building-needs-part… S. Dominioni - G. Persi Paoli Unpacking Cyber Capacity-Building Needs - Part II. Introducing a Threat-Based Approach UNIDIR https://unidir.org/publication/unpacking-cyber-capacity-building-needs-part… DL -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, fax: +390506212040 =================== The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn how to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity. -- Sir Joseph Rotblat Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo ministero
by alessandro marzocchi Aug. 21, 2023

Aug. 21, 2023

don Luca è la persona più titolata per portare avanti questo argomento. Ho mille dubbi ""laici"" ma da anni frequento la Messa domenicale senza crisi od imbarazzi. Chiesa è la società dei credenti, persone con qualità e difetti, anche nei preti e fino ai vertici più alti. Mi fa piacere che Marco Fioretti abbia riproposto i suoi interventi. don Luca ci ha proposto un tema, Maria Chiara e Marco gli hanno fornito buoni argomenti, spero vorrà aggiornarci, dall'aramaico all'ebraico, al greco, al latino alle lingue volgari molto è questione di "parola" e quella digitale è la "nuova parola". Per non dire le somiglianze fra "la creazione" e la cd "IA". Grazie e cari auguri. Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi) Il giorno lun 21 ago 2023 alle ore 12:00 <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> ha scritto: > Send nexa mailing list submissions to > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > You can reach the person managing the list at > nexa-owner(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nexa digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo > ministero (alessandro marzocchi) > 2. Re: Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo > ministero (Maria Chiara Pievatolo) > 3. Re: Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo > ministero (Marco Fioretti) > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2023 15:07:25 +0200 > From: alessandro marzocchi <alemarzoc(a)gmail.com> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Subject: [nexa] Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo > ministero > Message-ID: > <CAG5xczfjw=aNMXo7bdF1Zqo= > xJyRUSqPKXBP2DvPo4jGbberfA(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > La Chiesa, il Vaticano, quali strumenti digitali usano? > Potrebbero dare il buon esempio usando strumenti aperti, non proprietari? > Proponendo cultura e pratica digitali liberi da condizionamenti economici? > Cari auguri. > Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi) > - - - > Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:05:43 +0200 don Luca Peyron < > dluca.universitari(a)gmail.com> > To: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo ministero > Message-ID: < > CAGS_u7hTYAGi60U4+o+eb3quNn_eDGmPvCBsOiBdM2zrZPMomw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Buona lettura > dl > > https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/perch-la-missione-digitale-pu-esser… >

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Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo ministero
by alessandro marzocchi Aug. 21, 2023

Aug. 21, 2023

La Chiesa, il Vaticano, quali strumenti digitali usano? Potrebbero dare il buon esempio usando strumenti aperti, non proprietari? Proponendo cultura e pratica digitali liberi da condizionamenti economici? Cari auguri. Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi) - - - Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:05:43 +0200 don Luca Peyron < dluca.universitari(a)gmail.com> To: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> Subject: [nexa Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo ministero Message-ID: < CAGS_u7hTYAGi60U4+o+eb3quNn_eDGmPvCBsOiBdM2zrZPMomw(a)mail.gmail.com> Buona lettura dl https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/perch-la-missione-digitale-pu-esser…

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US District Court of Columbia: No copyright in AI-generated works
by Maurizio Borghi Aug. 20, 2023

Aug. 20, 2023

E' di due giorni fa la sentenza della US District Court di Columbia che conferma la decisione del Copyright Office di negare la registrazione a un'opera creativa interamente realizzata con intelligenza artificiale. A mia conoscenza, è la prima volta che un giudice si pronuncia sulla sussistenza di diritti d'autore in capo a creazioni di AI. La conclusione in senso negativo è abbastanza scontata, ma è interessante leggere la sentenza perché è ben argomentata e ricca di riferimenti alla giurisprudenza: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2022cv1564-24 Il sig. Thaler (parte attrice nella causa) sta conducendo "test cases" in tutto il mondo nel tentativo di trovare un giudice che riconosca un diritto di proprietà intellettuale (copyright o brevetto) su creazioni o invenzioni generate dall'AI. Finora ha sempre perso, ma in UK la corte suprema ha (soprendentemente) accettato di considerare il suo appello contro la sentenza della Appeal Court che aveva negato la brevettabilità a un'invenzione generata dal suo sistema di AI chiamato DABUS. Qui i dettagli: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2021-0201.html Buona domenica -- _______________ *Maurizio Borghi* Università di Torino https://www.dg.unito.it/persone/maurizio.borghi Co-Director Nexa Center for Internet & Society <https://nexa.polito.it/>

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Perché la «missione digitale» può essere un nuovo ministero
by don Luca Peyron Aug. 19, 2023

Aug. 19, 2023

Buona lettura dl https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/perch-la-missione-digitale-pu-esser… _________________________ don Luca Peyron Direttore Ufficio per la Pastorale Universitaria Arcidiocesi di Torino www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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The Santiago Boys
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 18, 2023

Aug. 18, 2023

E' online The Santiago Boys, il nuovo, splendido progetto di Evgeny Morozov: https://the-santiago-boys.com/ Qui sotto l'annuncio. Inoltre, oggi "La Lettura" dedica quattro pagine (!) all'iniziativa e ieri il Guardian da pubblicato un articolo a uno dei protagonisti della storia, Stafford Beer: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/22/stafford-beer-chile-allende-t… Bravo, Evgeny! juan carlos / //The podcast that took 2+ years and 200+ interviews to produce is finally online!// // //You can listen to it on the main podcasting platforms (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts). // // //The website of the Santiago Boys offers plenty of extra materials for those of you who want to dig deeper: footnotes, backgrounders, sources, videos, a glossary, and so much else. // // //And we are also publishing the interviews with the many people we interviewed (check out, for example, this interview with Brian Eno where he talks about Stafford Beer and his own fascination with cybernetics). // // //Many thanks to dozens of people who worked on this ambitious project; you can see all their names here. // // //I hope you take a break from the Barbenheimer hyper and spend some time with the Santiago Boys instead! // // //Evgeny Morozov/

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US watchdog teases crackdown on data brokers that sell Americans’ personal information
by Daniela Tafani Aug. 17, 2023

Aug. 17, 2023

Washington CNN — The US government plans to rein in the vast data broker industry with new, privacy-focused regulations that aim to safeguard millions of Americans’ personal information from data breaches<https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/tech/ftc-kochava-abortion-suit/index.html>, violent criminals and even artificial intelligence chatbots. The coming proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would extend existing regulations that govern credit reports, arrest records and other data<https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/tech/abortion-personal-data-lawmaker-investi…> to what the agency describes as the “surveillance industry,” or the sprawling economy of businesses that traffic in increasingly digitized personal information. The potential rules, which are not yet public or final, could bar data brokers from selling certain types of consumer information — including a person’s income or their criminal and payment history — except in specific circumstances, the CFPB said. The push could also see new restrictions on the sale of personal information such as Social Security numbers, names and addresses, which the CFPB said data brokers often buy from the major credit reporting bureaus to create their own profiles on individual consumers. Issued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the regulations would seek to ensure that data brokers selling that sensitive information do so only for valid financial purposes such as employment background checks or credit decisions, and not for unrelated purposes that may allow third parties to use the data to, for example, train AI algorithms or chatbots, the CFPB said. The announcement follows an agency study into the data broker industry this year that found widespread concerns about how consumer data is being collected, used and shared. The inquiry received numerous submissions from the public warning about the disproportionate risks that unregulated data sharing can have on minorities, seniors, immigrants and victims of domestic violence. “Reports about monetization of sensitive information — everything from the financial details of members of the U.S. military to lists of specific people experiencing dementia — are particularly worrisome when data is powering ‘artificial intelligence’ and other automated decision-making about our lives,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “The CFPB will be taking steps to ensure that modern-day data brokers in the surveillance industry know that they cannot engage in illegal collection and sharing of our data.” The CFPB’s proposal will first be floated with a group of small businesses for feedback before being publicly unveiled in a formal rulemaking, the agency said. The CFPB isn’t the only US agency clamping down on the massive data industry. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a sweeping set of regulations<https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/11/tech/ftc-new-rules-big-data/index.html> that may restrict how all businesses collect and use consumer data, taking aim at what FTC Chair Lina Khan has described as the “persistent tracking and routinized surveillance of individuals.” The agency initiatives reflect how Congress has continually failed to produce a comprehensive, national-level consumer privacy law, despite years of lawmaker negotiations and the rise of privacy regulations overseas that increasingly affect US businesses https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers

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