- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Borsa di dottorato su "trasparenza e PA"
by Andrea Trentini July 3, 2023

July 3, 2023

Buongiorno. vi segnalo la pubblicazione del *nuovo bando di concorso* per il Dottorato di Ricerca In Informatica[1], in particolare quello che mi vede coinvolto: - borsa di studio messa a disposizione dall’Università degli Studi di Milano a valere su fondi del DM 118/2023 per la Pubblica Amministrazione per il seguente programma: "Metodi e tecnologie informatiche per la trasparenza nella Pubblica Amministrazione" (CUP G43C23000930006) *** IMPORTANTE: le domande di ammissione devono essere presentate improrogabilmente entro le ore 14.00 del **26 luglio 2023**, seguendo le modalità descritte nel bando[2] Grazie mille anche per eventuali inoltri verso destinatari potenzialmente interessati! [1] https://www.unimi.it/it/corsi/corsi-post-laurea-e-formazione-continua/corsi… [2] https://apps.unimi.it/files/bandi/call-2024-2-computer-science.pdf?26-JUN-23 -- Andrea Trentini ⠠⠵ http://atrent.it public key ID: 0xA7A91E3B Dip.to di Informatica Università degli Studi di Milano

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Suicide Hotlines Promise Anonymity. Dozens of Their Websites Send Sensitive Data to Facebook
by Alberto Cammozzo July 3, 2023

July 3, 2023

The Markup found many sites tied to the national mental health crisis hotline transmitted information on visitors through the Meta Pixel <https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2023/06/13/suicide-hotlines-promise-anonym…> Websites for mental health crisis resources across the country—which promise anonymity for visitors, many of whom are at a desperate moment in their lives—have been quietly sending sensitive visitor data to Facebook, The Markup has found. Dozens of websites tied to the national mental health crisis 988 hotline, which launched last summer, transmit the data through a tool called the Meta Pixel, according to testing conducted by The Markup. That data often included signals to Facebook when visitors attempted to dial for mental health emergencies by tapping on dedicated call buttons on the websites. In some cases, filling out contact forms on the sites transmitted hashed but easily unscrambled names and email addresses to Facebook. See the full data here. GitHub The Markup tested 186 local crisis center websites under the umbrella of the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Calls to the national 988 line are routed to these centers based on the area code of the caller. The organizations often also operate their own crisis lines and provide other social services to their communities. The Markup’s testing revealed that more than 30 crisis center websites employed the Meta Pixel, formerly called the Facebook Pixel. The pixel, a short snippet of code included on a webpage that enables advertising on Facebook, is a free and widely used tool. A 2020 Markup investigation found that 30 percent of the web’s most popular sites use it. The pixels The Markup found tracked visitor behavior to different degrees. All of the sites recorded that a visitor had viewed the homepage, while others captured more potentially sensitive information. Illustration of a pink vacuum hose sucking up pixels and dirt from browser windows. Half of the browser windows are cleaned up of dirt and sparkling. Many of the sites included buttons that allowed users to directly call either 988 or a local line for mental health help. But clicking on those buttons often triggered a signal to be sent to Facebook that shared information about what a visitor clicked on. A pixel on one site sent data to Facebook on visitors who clicked a button labeled “24-Hour Crisis Line” that called local crisis services. Clicking a button or filling out a form also sometimes sent personally identifiable data, such as names or unique ID numbers, to Facebook. The website for the Volunteers of America Western Washington is a good example. The social services nonprofit says it responds to more than 300,000 requests for assistance each year. When a web user visited the organization’s website, a pixel on the homepage noted the visit. If the visitor then tried to call the national 988 crisis hotline through the website by clicking on a button labeled “call or text 988,” that click—including the text on the button—was sent to Facebook. The click also transmitted an “external ID,” a code that Facebook uses to attempt to match web users to their Facebook accounts. If a visitor filled out a contact form on the Volunteers of America Western Washington’s homepage, even more private information was transmitted to Facebook. After filling out and sending the form, a pixel transmitted hashed, or scrambled, versions of the person’s first and last name, as well as email address. After publication, Maca Ferguson, a spokesperson for Volunteers of America Western Washington, said the pixel was used for fundraising efforts and “not intended to collect personally identifiable information for purposes of tracking or transmitting this data back to Meta, its subsidiaries, or any third party for any reason” and that any data was sent “without our knowledge or consent.” Ferguson told The Markup the organization has since removed the pixel. The Markup found similar activity on other sites. [...]

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I: Invito al Miniworkshop: Advances in AI-based approaches to cancer imaging and molecular profiling
by Bruno Gambarotta July 1, 2023

July 1, 2023

________________________________ Da: Giovanna Gambarotta <giovanna.gambarotta(a)unito.it> Inviato: venerdì 30 giugno 2023 12:08 A: bruno gambarotta <brunogambarotta(a)hotmail.it> Oggetto: Fwd: Invito al Miniworkshop: Advances in AI-based approaches to cancer imaging and molecular profiling caro papà, ti giro questo avviso di seminari dedicato all'utilizzo dell'AI in campo medico, se vuoi girarlo ai tuoi contatti per vedere aspetti utili dell'intelligenza artificiale, ciao e grazie, Giovanna Giovanna Gambarotta, PhD Associate Professor Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences (DSCB) Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO) Ospedale San Luigi Regione Gonzole 10 10043 - Orbassano (TO) - ITALY tel +39-011-670.5436 [https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4ziudmV1Sc7MTq4LrTmdmkmhM29…] [https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4y5kimF-H7l34oUAGRcPp4t9MI7…] ---------- Forwarded message --------- Da: Giovanna Gambarotta <giovanna.gambarotta(a)unito.it<mailto:giovanna.gambarotta@unito.it>> Date: ven 30 giu 2023 alle ore 09:24 Subject: Fwd: Invito al Miniworkshop: Advances in AI-based approaches to cancer imaging and molecular profiling To: Guglielmo Stefanuto <g.stefanuto(a)elitechgroup.com<mailto:g.stefanuto@elitechgroup.com>> Caro Guglielmo, inoltralo pure ai tuoi colleghi se vuoi, è via WebEx e mi sembra interessante... ciao, Giovanna Giovanna Gambarotta, PhD Associate Professor Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences (DSCB) Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO) Ospedale San Luigi Regione Gonzole 10 10043 - Orbassano (TO) - ITALY tel +39-011-670.5436 [https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4ziudmV1Sc7MTq4LrTmdmkmhM29…] [https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4y5kimF-H7l34oUAGRcPp4t9MI7…] ---------- Forwarded message --------- Da: Direzione Dscb2 <direzione.dscb2(a)unito.it<mailto:direzione.dscb2@unito.it>> Date: gio 29 giu 2023 alle ore 15:10 Subject: Invito al Miniworkshop: Advances in AI-based approaches to cancer imaging and molecular profiling To: <dscb-tutti(a)unito.it<mailto:dscb-tutti@unito.it>> Cc: Direzione Dscb2 <direzione.dscb2(a)unito.it<mailto:direzione.dscb2@unito.it>> Gentilissime/Gentilissimi, da parte del prof. Enzo Medico, trasmetto alla vostra attenzione l'invito a partecipare a un mini-worksohp su: "Advances in AI-based approaches to cancer imaging and molecular profiling", programmato per martedì 4 Luglio, ore 10:00/13:00. Si allega il programma con il webex link di partecipazione. Un cordiale saluto, Fiorenza Catino ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dott.ssa Fiorenza Catino DIREZIONE Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Biologiche Dipartimento di Eccellenza 2023-2027 Università degli Studi di Torino Regione Gonzole, 10 - 10043 Orbassano (TO) Tel +39.011.670.5492 - Fax +39.011.670.5704

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Alessandro Orsini, l'agenzia NATO e Wikipedia
by 380° July 1, 2023

July 1, 2023

Buongiorno, a quanto pare la pagina https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Orsini_(saggista) [1] era stata presa in "ostaggio" da tal Hypergio, che pare essere un analista che lavora per NCI Agency, agenzia di comunicazione della NATO; ora la pagina è protetta in attesa degli sviluppi legali. https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2023/06/21/dopo-le-pro… «Dopo le proteste ora Wikipedia chiude la pagina sul prof. Orsini» --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- L’amministratore in conflitto di interessi si dimette e Wikipedia oscura la pagina sul professor Alessandro Orsini, dopo la diffida inviata dai legali del sociologo. [...] le proteste di molti utenti dell’enciclopedia che non riuscivano a modificare la voce su Orsini [...]. Alcuni di questi utenti erano stati anche bloccati dagli amministratori e in particolare il nick Gitz era stato “bannato” da HyperGio, che un leak di pubblico dominio fa risalire a un analista della Nci Agency, agenzia di comunicazione della Nato. Dopo il nostro articolo, l’amministratore in questione ha subito lasciato ogni ruolo, nonostante fosse tra gli account più longevi nella comunità di Wikipedia. Ma le molte altre testimonianze di utenti in favore di Orsini hanno anche spinto i legali del sociologo ad avanzare una diffida nei confronti di Wikipedia, ritenendo appunto che la pagina sul professore e le modalità con cui veniva amministrata rappresentassero un danno per l’interessato. Chiunque oggi provi ad aprire la voce su Orsini si ritrova così davanti una scritta: “Questa pagina è stata oscurata e protetta a scopo cautelativo a causa di una possibile controversia legale. Verrà eventualmente ripristinata alla fine della vicenda che la riguarda”. Orsini festeggia sui social: “Numerosi tentativi sono stati fatti di correggere la mia biografia nel rispetto delle regole (gli editor onesti non mancano) ma un gruppo di amministratori-detrattori, tra cui un analista della Nato, bloccava i profili che cercavano di emendare le menzogne pubblicate sul mio conto per danneggiare la mia immagine umana e professionale”. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Non sono riuscito a trovare da nessuna parte quale sia il «leak di pubblico dominio» che fa risalire il nickname alla NCI Agency: quancuno può aiutarmi? Il 26 Maggio scorso Alessandro Orsini aveva pubblicato un post su Facebook, ripreso qui: https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-alessandro_orsini_non_donate_a_wik… «Non donate a Wikipedia» --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] I detrattori che hanno assunto il controllo della pagina Wikipedia a me dedicata non hanno gradito che io abbia smascherato il loro modo inqualificabile di procedere e stanno organizzando nuovi attacchi su quella piattaforma a colpi di informazioni grottesche come la notizia “importantissima” secondo cui mi sarei diplomato al liceo classico con 40/60. [...] Ovviamente i detrattori di Wikipedia omettono di dire che mi sono laureato alla Sapienza con 110 e lode e la “dignità di stampa”. [...] Ad ogni modo, voglio ribadire le prove che dimostrano inequivocabilmente che la mia pagina Wikipedia è gestita da un gruppo di detrattori che opera nella scia di una più ampia aggressione mediatica per indurmi a sparire dalla scena pubblica. Ecco le prove. Wikipedia rifiuta di pubblicare queste informazioni documentate contro le stesse regole di Wikipedia. I profili che cercano di inserire le seguenti informazioni vengono bloccati. [...] Tutte le volte che qualcuno ha aggiunto queste informazioni su Wikipedia sono state cancellate da chi controlla la mia pagina. Credo che sia sufficiente affinché tutti possano esprimere un giudizio sulle persone che si sono impossessate della mia biografia su Wikipedia. Aggiungo che i pensieri che Wikipedia mi ha attribuito, di volta in volta, sulla guerra in Ucraina sono assolutamente falsi. Guardate il servizio di Sigfrido Ranucci su Wikipedia e capirete perché io abbia smesso di donare. Ringrazio tutti coloro che mi vogliono bene e che si sono iscritti al mio canale Youtube per mostrarmi affetto e vicinanza. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Il 2 Giugno Hypergio ha cancellato la propria pagina utente [2] ed è stato tolto (non so quando) dall'elenco degli amministratori italiani [3] Il 19 Giugno il Team VRT [4] ha messo in protezione la pagina "Alessandro Orsini (saggista)" inserendo come causa: "Diffida Orsini ticket:2023061910002266" [5]; non è dato sapere il contenuto della diffida perché il sistema di ticketing è utilizzabile solo da un gruppo ristretto di utenti autorizzati [6]. Ricostruendo un minimo di storia, l'amministratore Hypergio è stato riconfermato con formula "riconferma tacita" per 6 volte consecutive [7], nonostante nel Agosto 2020 ci siano state molte lamemtele di utenti in merito al suo comportamento [8] ma le "discussioni" non hanno mai portato a nessuna conclusione; ci sono anche due segnalazioni di "utente problematico" [9], la prima chiusa come "segnalazione impropria" e la seconda "senza provvedimenti", discussione relativa a come Hypergio abbia condotto la sua campagna di modifica delle regole di cancellazione degli articoli. Purtroppo non (mi) è dato sapere quali sono i contributi alla pagina incriminata rifiutati da Hypergio, da quali utenti provenissero e quali motivazioni sono state date da Hypergio per il rifuito e addirittura per il blocco degli utenti rei di aver provato a modificare la pagina. ...purtroppo è un wiki e non un repo git con associata mailing list per le "patch request", quindi il debugging (e il meta-debugging) è un delirio. Per chiudere, quindi, quella pagina era **manipolata** da un utente legato ad una agenzia di stampa NATO e solo la diffida da parte dei legali di Orsini è riuscita a sbloccare la situazione; /pare/ che le pagine "attenzionate" da Hypergio fossero altre, ma forse meno "problematiche". Leggendo molto rapidamente alcune pagine di discussione, alla luce dei fatti la perla delle perle è questo estratto da un messaggio di Threecharlie del 14 Agosto 2020 [8]: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Può anche sembrare che tra admin si faccia comunella, o comunque che qualcuno invochi krikka e adminkomplottismi, ma dato che mi sento un po' chiamato in causa come "admin che è andato a supportare" vediamo di non guardare il dito e rifocalizzarsi sulla luna, e si cerchi di vedere se e chi abbia esagerato nelle posizioni che non gli competevano. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- «adminkomplottismi»: ROTFL saluti, 380° [1] ultima versione prima dell'oscuramento: https://web.archive.org/web/20230619053525/https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al… [2] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciale:Registri?type=&user=Hypergio&page=&w… [3] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Amministratori#Amministratori_di_Wi… (qui la versione del 4 Aprile, dove Hypergio era presnete: https://web.archive.org/web/20230403115317/https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi…) [4] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Team_VRT, «VRT è un acronimo che sta per Volunteer Response Team e si riferisce al gruppo di volontari che rispondono ai ticket, ossia a tutte le email inviate agli indirizzi @wikimedia.org gestite mediante il sistema VRTS (sistema gestione ticket, n.d.r.» [5] https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Speciale:Registri&type=protect&p… [6] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VRT#Utenti_attivi_su_Wikipedia_in_l… [7] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Amministratori/Riconferma_annuale/H… [8] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Amministratori/Riconferma_annuale/H… [9] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Utenti_problematici/Hypergio -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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AI Myths
by Alberto Cammozzo June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

<https://www.aimyths.org/> The project Whether it's claims about AI revolutionizing the insurance industry or enabling Orwellian mass surveillance, everyone seems to be talking about 'artificial intelligence' these days. Unfortunately, much of this talk is riddled with myths, misconceptions and inaccuracies. The aim of this website is to help disentangle and debunk some of these misleading ideas. We'll explore how these ideas appear in the media, and point you towards high quality resources for further reading. The myths to tackle were chosen in two ways. First, a group of stakeholders from civil society, academia, government and industry discussed the problem of AI bulls**t at RightsCon 2019 in Tunis. Together, we brainstormed a list of the most insidious misconceptions and myths about AI. Based on this preliminary list, a survey was sent out to allow people to rank these myths, and also to contribute additional ones. A combination of these survey results and additional consultations with the target audience led to the choice of these final 8 topics. It should be clarified that in no case is there a simple, straightforward refutation of the misconceptions and myths. Rather, the ideas are explored, obvious misconceptions are refuted and more complex perspectives are introduced. The aim of these resources is to guide you towards further materials as presented in the bibliographies and guides at the end of each section. If you have any comments, criticisms, or requests, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. This is a live resource, and we're happy to update it based on your feedback. Acknowledgments This project was funded and supported as part of Daniel Leufer's Mozilla Open Web Fellowship - a collaboration between the Ford Foundation and Mozilla. It would not have been possible without the incredible support, encouragement and direction provided by the Mozilla Fellowship team, but a special thanks must go to Amy Schapiro Raikar for her unfailing support and direction. For the duration of Daniel's fellowship, he was hosted by the digital rights organisation Access Now. Enormous thanks must go to all the staff at Access Now for their fantastic work which contributed to and inspired this project. Fanny Hidvégi in particular deserves the utmost gratitude for inspiring and guiding this project from its initial conception through to its completion. Her commitment to combatting AI bulls**t and protecting people's rights has been a constant source of inspiration. This project also benefitted enormously from the collaboration of the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Jessica Fjeld provided support for this project from the get go and organised the collaboration with two students from the Cyberlaw Clinic, Rachel Jang and Kathryn Mueller, whose work was instrumental to the project. The material on this site has been immesurably improved thanks to the thoughtful, insightful, and critical comments provided by a number of reviewers, including Agata Foryciarz, Sarah Chander, Alexa Steinbrück, and especially Vera Tylzanowski, who read every bit of the site more than once. Any faults or typos that remain are entirely Daniel's responsibility. Lastly, the utmost gratitude must be expressed to all the authors whose work inspired and is featured on this site. We have drawn endless inspiration from the community of people working to make AI systems safer, to protect people's rights and freedoms and to combat AI bulls**t. We hope that this site does justice to all of that work, and helps guide readers in further study. [...]

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Hundreds attend ‘soulless’ AI-generated church service
by don Luca Peyron June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

Interessante, anche se personalmente assai contrario dl https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-church-service-chatgpt-b2356508.html _________________________ 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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convegno privacy e libertà 1 luglio alle ore 15 a Torino
by Mauro Alovisio June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

Gent.mi segnalo convegno di interesse 1 luglio, ore 15-18 - Istituto Universitario Pontificio Salesiano di Torino *Convegno “Privacy e Libertà"* *fra i relatori: Agostino Ghiglia,* Componente del Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, Francesco Pizzetti, Roberto Sorcinelli, Marco Camisani Calzolari,Pier Franco Quaglieni. *PER INFORMAZIONI: * https://digitalgovernance.unipv.it/blog/2023/05/31/privacy-e-liberta/

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Evgeny Morozov - The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence
by Daniela Tafani June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence By Evgeny Morozov June 30, 2023 In May, more than 350 technology executives, researchers and academics signed a statement<https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk#open-letter> warning of the existential dangers of artificial intelligence. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the signatories warned. This came on the heels of another high-profile letter<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-mu…>, signed by the likes of Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of advanced A.I. systems. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has urged<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/23/fac…> responsible A.I. innovation, stating that “in order to seize the opportunities” it offers, we “must first manage its risks.” In Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer called<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/us/ai-regulation-schumer-congress.html> for “first of their kind” listening sessions on the potential and risks of A.I., a crash course of sorts from industry executives, academics, civil rights activists and other stakeholders. The mounting anxiety about A.I. isn’t because of the boring but reliable technologies that autocomplete our text messages or direct robot vacuums to dodge obstacles in our living rooms. It is the rise of artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., that worries the experts. A.G.I. doesn’t exist yet, but some believe that the rapidly growing capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT suggest<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/technology/microsoft-ai-human-reasoning.…> its emergence is near. Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, has<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond> described it as “systems that are generally smarter than humans.” Building such systems remains a daunting — some say impossible<https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi-exp…> — task. But the benefits appear truly tantalizing. Imagine Roombas, no longer condemned to vacuuming the floors, that evolve into all-purpose robots, happy to brew morning coffee or fold laundry — without ever being programmed to do these things. Sounds appealing. But should these A.G.I. Roombas get too powerful, their mission to create a spotless utopia might get messy for their dust-spreading human masters. At least we’ve had a good run. Discussions of A.G.I. are rife with such apocalyptic scenarios. Yet a nascent A.G.I. lobby of academics, investors and entrepreneurs counter that, once made safe, A.G.I. would be a boon to civilization. Mr. Altman, the face of this campaign, embarked on a global tour to charm lawmakers<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/technology/sam-altman-ai-regulations.html>. Earlier this year he wrote<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond> that A.G.I. might even turbocharge the economy, boost scientific knowledge and “elevate humanity by increasing abundance.” This is why, for all the hand-wringing, so many smart people in the tech industry are toiling to build this controversial technology: not using it to save the world seems immoral. They are beholden to an ideology that views this new technology as inevitable and, in a safe version, as universally beneficial. Its proponents can think of no better alternatives for fixing humanity and expanding its intelligence. But this ideology — call it A.G.I.-ism — is mistaken. The real risks of A.G.I. are political and won’t be fixed by taming rebellious robots. The safest of A.G.I.s would not deliver the progressive panacea promised by its lobby. And in presenting its emergence as all but inevitable, A.G.I.-ism distracts from finding better ways to augment intelligence. Unbeknown to its proponents, A.G.I.-ism is just a bastard child of a much grander ideology, one preaching that, as Margaret Thatcher memorably put it, there is no alternative, not to the market. Rather than breaking capitalism, as Mr. Altman has hinted<https://fortune.com/2023/02/03/openai-sam-altman-chatgpt-break-capitalism/> it could do, A.G.I. — or at least the rush to build it — is more likely to create a powerful (and much hipper) ally for capitalism’s most destructive creed: neoliberalism. Fascinated with privatization, competition and free trade, the architects of neoliberalism wanted to dynamize and transform a stagnant and labor-friendly economy through markets and deregulation. Some of these transformations worked, but they came at an immense cost. Over the years, neoliberalism drew many, many critics, who blamed it for the Great Recession and financial crisis, Trumpism, Brexit and much else. It is not surprising, then, that the Biden administration has distanced<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/us/politics/joe-biden.html> itself from the ideology, acknowledging<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/04/27/remark…> that markets sometimes get it wrong. Foundations, think tanks and academics have even dared to imagine<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/business/neoliberalism-free-market-resea…> a post-neoliberal future. Yet neoliberalism is far from dead. Worse, it has found an ally in A.G.I.-ism, which stands to reinforce and replicate its main biases: that private actors outperform public ones (the market bias), that adapting to reality beats transforming it (the adaptation bias) and that efficiency trumps social concerns (the efficiency bias). These biases turn the alluring promise behind A.G.I. on its head: Instead of saving the world, the quest to build it will make things only worse. Here is how. A.G.I. will never overcome the market’s demands for profit. Remember when Uber, with its cheap rates, was courting cities to serve as their public transportation systems? It all began nicely, with Uber promising implausibly cheap rides, courtesy of a future with self-driving cars and minimal labor costs. Deep-pocketed investors loved this vision, even absorbing Uber’s multibillion-dollar losses. But when reality descended<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/technology/farewell-millennial-lifestyle…>, the self-driving cars were still a pipe dream. The investors demanded returns and Uber was forced to raise prices<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-29/when-a-town-takes-uber-i…>. Users that relied on it to replace public buses and trains were left on the sidewalk. The neoliberal instinct behind Uber’s business model is that the private sector can do better than the public sector — the market bias. It’s not just cities and public transit. Hospitals<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/business/google-ascension-health-data.ht…>, police departments<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-reco…> and even the Pentagon<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/technology/anduril-military-palmer-lucke…> increasingly rely on Silicon Valley to accomplish their missions. With A.G.I., this reliance will only deepen, not least because A.G.I. is unbounded in its scope and ambition. No administrative or government services would be immune to its promise of disruption. Moreover, A.G.I. doesn’t even have to exist to lure them in. This, at any rate, is the lesson of Theranos, a start-up that promised to “solve” health care through a revolutionary blood-testing technology and a former darling of America’s elites. Its victims are real, even if its technology never was. After so many Uber- and Theranos-like traumas, we already know what to expect of an A.G.I. rollout. It will consist of two phases. First, the charm offensive of heavily subsidized services. Then the ugly retrenchment, with the overdependent users and agencies shouldering the costs of making them profitable. As always, Silicon Valley mavens play down the market’s role. In a recent essay titled “Why A.I. Will Save the World<https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/>,” Marc Andreessen, a prominent tech investor, even proclaims that A.I. “is owned by people and controlled by people, like any other technology.” Only a venture capitalist can traffic in such exquisite euphemisms. Most modern technologies are owned by corporations. And it will be them — not the mythical “people” — who will monetize saving the world. And are they really saving it? The record, so far, is poor. Companies like Airbnb and TaskRabbit were welcomed as saviors for the beleaguered middle class<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/airbnb-a-solution-to-mid…>; Tesla’s electric cars were seen as a remedy<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/business/energy-environment/electric-veh…> to a warming planet. Soylent, the meal-replacement shake, embarked on a mission<https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/13/health/soylent-hunger/index.html> to “solve” global hunger, while Facebook vowed to “solve<https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/opinion/sunday/evgeny-morozov-facebooks-…>” connectivity issues in the Global South. None of these companies saved the world. A decade ago, I called this solutionism<https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/the-perils-of-perfection.…>, but “digital neoliberalism” would be just as fitting. This worldview reframes social problems in light of for-profit technological solutions. As a result, concerns that belong in the public domain are reimagined as entrepreneurial opportunities in the marketplace. A.G.I.-ism has rekindled this solutionist fervor. Last year, Mr. Altman stated<https://twitter.com/sama/status/1552356314482937863?lang=en> that “A.G.I. is probably necessary for humanity to survive” because “our problems seem too big” for us to “solve without better tools.” He’s recently asserted<https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond?> that A.G.I. will be a catalyst for human flourishing. But companies need profits, and such benevolence, especially from unprofitable firms burning investors’ billions, is uncommon. OpenAI, having accepted billions from Microsoft, has contemplated<https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openais-losses-doubled-to-540-milli…> raising another $100 billion to build A.G.I. Those investments will need to be earned back — against the service’s staggering invisible costs. (One estimate<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/05/chatgpt-hidden-cost-gp…> from February put the expense of operating ChatGPT at $700,000 per day.) Thus, the ugly retrenchment phase, with aggressive price hikes to make an A.G.I. service profitable, might arrive before “abundance” and “flourishing.” But how many public institutions would mistake fickle markets for affordable technologies and become dependent on OpenAI’s expensive offerings by then? And if you dislike your town outsourcing public transportation to a fragile start-up, would you want it farming out welfare services, waste management and public safety to the possibly even more volatile A.G.I. firms? A.G.I. will dull the pain of our thorniest problems without fixing them. Neoliberalism has a knack for mobilizing technology to make society’s miseries bearable. I recall an innovative tech venture<https://www.citytech.org/rebate-offer-helped-cta-red-line-commuters-avoid-w…> from 2017 that promised to improve commuters’ use of a Chicago subway line. It offered rewards to discourage metro riders from traveling at peak times. Its creators leveraged technology to influence the demand side (the riders), seeing structural changes to the supply side (like raising public transport funding) as too difficult. Tech would help make Chicagoans adapt to the city’s deteriorating infrastructure rather than fixing it in order to meet the public’s needs. This is the adaptation bias — the aspiration that, with a technological wand, we can become desensitized to our plight. It’s the product of neoliberalism’s relentless cheerleading for self-reliance and resilience. The message is clear: gear up, enhance your human capital and chart your course like a start-up. And A.G.I.-ism echoes this tune. Bill Gates has trumpeted<https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-Age-of-AI-Has-Begun> that A.I. can “help people everywhere improve their lives.” The solutionist feast is only getting started: Whether it’s fighting the next pandemic<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/how-to-stop-the-next-pan…>, the loneliness epidemic<https://www.salon.com/2023/05/21/tech-wants-ai-chatbots-to-help-ease-loneli…> or inflation<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-04/artificial-intelligence-…>, A.I. is already pitched as an all-purpose hammer for many real and imaginary nails. However, the decade lost to the solutionist folly reveals the limits of such technological fixes. To be sure, Silicon Valley’s many apps — to monitor our spending, calories and workout regimes — are occasionally helpful. But they mostly ignore the underlying causes of poverty or obesity. And without tackling the causes, we remain stuck in the realm of adaptation, not transformation. There’s a difference between nudging us to follow our walking routines — a solution that favors individual adaptation — and understanding why our towns have no public spaces to walk on — a prerequisite for a politics-friendly solution that favors collective and institutional transformation. But A.G.I.-ism, like neoliberalism, sees public institutions as unimaginative and not particularly productive. They should just adapt to A.G.I., at least according to Mr. Altman, who recently said he was nervous about “the speed with which our institutions can adapt” — part of the reason, he added, “of why we want to start deploying these systems really early, while they’re really weak, so that people have as much time as possible to do this.” But should institutions only adapt? Can’t they develop their own transformative agendas for improving humanity’s intelligence? Or do we use institutions only to mitigate the risks of Silicon Valley’s own technologies? A.G.I. undermines civic virtues and amplifies trends we already dislike. A common criticism of neoliberalism is that it has flattened our political life, rearranging it around efficiency. “The Problem of Social Cost<https://www.law.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/file/coase-problem.pdf>,” a 1960 article that has become a classic<https://www.law.uchicago.edu/lawecon/coaseinmemoriam/problemofsocialcost> of the neoliberal canon, preaches that a polluting factory and its victims should not bother bringing their disputes to court. Such fights are inefficient — who needs justice, anyway? — and stand in the way of market activity. Instead, the parties should privately bargain over compensation and get on with their business. This fixation on efficiency is how we arrived at “solving” climate change by letting the worst offenders<https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-big-polluters-win-carbon-credit-windfa…> continue as before. The way to avoid the shackles of regulation is to devise a scheme — in this case, taxing carbon — that lets polluters buy credits to match the extra carbon they emit. This culture of efficiency, in which markets measure the worth of things and substitute for justice, inevitably corrodes civic virtues. And the problems this creates are visible everywhere. Academics fret<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/opinion/sunday/colleges-measure-learning…> that, under neoliberalism, research and teaching have become commodities. Doctors lament<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/technology/microsoft-ai-human-reasoning.…> that hospitals prioritize more profitable services such as elective surgery over emergency care. Journalists hate that the worth of their articles is measured in eyeballs<https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/jonah-peretti-has-r…>. Now imagine unleashing A.G.I. on these esteemed institutions — the university, the hospital, the newspaper — with the noble mission of “fixing” them. Their implicit civic missions would remain invisible to A.G.I., for those missions are rarely quantified even in their annual reports — the sort of materials that go into training the models behind A.G.I. After all, who likes to boast that his class on Renaissance history got only a handful of students? Or that her article on corruption in some faraway land got only a dozen page views? Inefficient and unprofitable, such outliers miraculously survive even in the current system. The rest of the institution quietly subsidizes them, prioritizing values other than profit-driven “efficiency.” Will this still be the case in the A.G.I. utopia? Or will fixing our institutions through A.G.I. be like handing them over to ruthless consultants? They, too, offer data-bolstered “solutions” for maximizing efficiency. But these solutions often fail to grasp the messy interplay of values, missions and traditions at the heart of institutions — an interplay that is rarely visible if you only scratch their data surface. In fact, the remarkable performance of ChatGPT-like services is, by design, a refusal to grasp reality at a deeper level, beyond the data’s surface. So whereas earlier A.I. systems relied on explicit rules and required someone like Newton to theorize gravity — to ask how and why apples fall — newer systems like A.G.I. simply learn to predict gravity’s effects by observing millions of apples fall to the ground. However, if all that A.G.I. sees are cash-strapped institutions fighting for survival, it may never infer their true ethos. Good luck discerning the meaning of the Hippocratic oath by observing hospitals that have been turned into profit centers. Margaret Thatcher’s other famous neoliberal dictum was that “there is no such thing as society<https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689>.” The A.G.I. lobby unwittingly shares this grim view. For them, the kind of intelligence worth replicating is a function of what happens in individuals’ heads rather than in society at large. But human intelligence is as much a product of policies and institutions as it is of genes and individual aptitudes. It’s easier to be smart on a fellowship in the Library of Congress than while working several jobs in a place without a bookstore or even decent Wi-Fi. It doesn’t seem all that controversial to suggest that more scholarships and public libraries will do wonders for boosting human intelligence. But for the solutionist crowd in Silicon Valley, augmenting intelligence is primarily a technological problem — hence the excitement about A.G.I. However, if A.G.I.-ism really is neoliberalism by other means, then we should be ready to see fewer — not more — intelligence-enabling institutions. After all, they are the remnants of that dreaded “society” that, for neoliberals, doesn’t really exist. A.G.I.’s grand project of amplifying intelligence may end up shrinking it. Because of such solutionist bias, even seemingly innovative policy ideas around A.G.I. fail to excite. Take the recent proposal for a “Manhattan Project for A.I. Safety<https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/08/manhattan-project-for-ai-…>.” This is premised on the false idea that there’s no alternative to A.G.I. But wouldn’t our quest for augmenting intelligence be far more effective if the government funded a Manhattan Project for culture and education and the institutions that nurture them instead? Without such efforts, the vast cultural resources of our existing public institutions risk becoming mere training data sets for A.G.I. start-ups, reinforcing the falsehood that society doesn’t exist. Depending on how (and if) the robot rebellion unfolds, A.G.I. may or may not prove an existential threat. But with its antisocial bent and its neoliberal biases, A.G.I.-ism already is: We don’t need to wait for the magic Roombas to question its tenets. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/opinion/artificial-intelligence-danger.h…

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Gli orrori annunciati dell’IA diventano realtà. Come reagire?
by Alberto Cammozzo June 30, 2023

June 30, 2023

<https://attivissimo.blogspot.com/2023/06/podcast-rsi-story-gli-orrori-annun…> Quando sono stati annunciati pubblicamente i primi software di intelligenza artificiale capaci di generare immagini e testi, per molti imprenditori la reazione istintiva è stata un entusiasmo sconfinato di fronte all’idea di poter tagliare i costi di produzione dei contenuti mettendo al lavoro questi nuovi servitori digitali al posto delle persone. Ma per molti altri, anche non esperti di informatica, la reazione è stata ben diversa. Paura, pura e semplice. Paura per il proprio posto di lavoro e paura per i possibili abusi, facilmente prevedibili, di questa tecnologia. Questa è la storia di come quella paura del possibile è oggi diventata reale, raccontata attraverso tre casi recenti che sono un campanello d’allarme urgente. Le temute truffe di identità basate sulle immagini sintetiche si sono concretizzate e sono in corso; i siti di disinformazione generano fiumi di falsità per incassare milioni; e le immagini di abusi su minori generate dal software travolgono, per pura quantità, chi cerca di arginare questi orrori. La politica nazionale e internazionale si china su queste questioni con i suoi tempi inevitabilmente lunghi, ma nel frattempo i danni personali e sociali sono già gravi e tangibili, ed è decisamente il momento di chiedersi se si possa fare qualcosa di più di un coro tedioso di meritatissimi “Ve l’avevamo detto”. Benvenuti alla puntata del 30 giugno 2023 del Disinformatico, il podcast della Radiotelevisione Svizzera dedicato alle notizie e alle storie strane – e questa settimana inquietanti – dell’informatica. Io sono Paolo Attivissimo. [...]

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webinar: AI Act and facial recognition technology (June 30, 2-3pm)
by Milan, Stefania June 29, 2023

June 29, 2023

Dear colleagues Sperando di fare cosa gradita… Why should we worry about facial recognition technology? Will the AI Act change things for real? If you are curious to know more about the forthcoming AI Act, join us tomorrow Friday the 30th of June at 2pm, for a 1-h webinar on the AI Act with a focus of facial recognition technology. Further details can be found here<https://www.eui.eu/events?id=560748>—do register for the link. The webinar engages Marjolein Lanzing from the University of Amsterdam/Bits of Freedom and Laura Carrer from the Hermes Center for Technology and Human Rights and freelance journalist. No presentations but a lively conversation, hosted by the Chair in AI & Democracy, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute. Hope to see you there! Best, Stefania Stefania Milan (she/her) Professor of Critical Data Studies, University of Amsterdam | https://stefaniamilan.net Fellow (2022-23), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) Faculty Associate (2022-23), Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University Research Associate, Chair “AI and Democracy”, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute Project Leader, Citizenship and standard-setting in digital networks (IN-SIGHT) (NWO Responsible Innovation Grant MVI.19.032) | https://in-sight.it Co-Principal Investigator, e-LADDA (MSCA 857897) | https://e-ladda.eu @annliffey | @data_ctive | @bigdatasur +31627875425 | +31(0)205252416 Fingerprint: 5A7B  6330  5684  FC39  3DC0 67D7  08B3  50AE  6AF5  1B63 The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, forwarding, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited without the express permission of the sender. If you received this communication in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

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