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AI ethics research conference suspends Google sponsorship
by Giacomo Tesio March 3, 2021

March 3, 2021

The ACM Conference for Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) has decided to suspend its sponsorship relationship with Google, conference sponsorship co-chair and Boise State University assistant professor Michael Ekstrand confirmed today. The organizers of the AI ethics research conference came to this decision a little over a week after Google fired Ethical AI lead Margaret Mitchell and three months after the firing of Ethical AI co-lead Timnit Gebru. Google has subsequently reorganized about 100 engineers across 10 teams, including placing Ethical AI under the leadership of Google VP Marian Croak. “FAccT is guided by a Strategic Plan, and the conference by-laws charge the Sponsorship Chairs, in collaboration with the Executive Committee, with developing a sponsorship portfolio that aligns with that plan,” Ekstrand told VentureBeat in an email. “The Executive Committee made the decision that having Google as a sponsor for the 2021 conference would not be in the best interests of the community and impede the Strategic Plan. We will be revising the sponsorship policy for next year’s conference.” The decision followed days of questions about whether FAccT would continue its relationship with Google following the company’s treatment of Ethical AI team leaders. The news first emerged Friday, when FAccT program committee member Suresh Venkatasubramanian tweeted that the organization would pause its relationship with Google. Putting Google sponsorship on hold doesn’t mean the end of sponsorship from Big Tech companies, or even Google itself. DeepMind, another sponsor of the FAccT conference that incurred an AI ethics controversy in January, is also a Google company. Since its founding in 2018, FAccT has sought funding from Big Tech sponsors like Google and Microsoft, along with the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. An analysis released last year that compares Big Tech funding of AI ethics research to Big Tobacco’s history of funding health research found that nearly 60% of researchers at four prominent universities have taken money from major tech companies. Continua su https://venturebeat.com/2021/03/02/ai-ethics-research-conference-suspends-g… Giacomo

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Blockchain imperialism in the Pacific
by Giacomo Tesio March 3, 2021

March 3, 2021

This article argues that blockchain represents a form of ‘platform imperialism’ that extends both the cultural and economic power of Silicon Valley and American geopolitical interests. [...] The US State Department has played a crucial role in coalescing these networks through initiatives such as Civil Society 2.0 which cast Silicon Valley platforms and a culture of techno-solutionism as universal. What is distinct about blockchain platform imperialism are its claims to algorithmic governance and powers of cartography. As part of ‘Data’s Empire’, blockchain undermines the developing world state’s ability to control its own resources, while mapping new ‘territory as an object of power’. Blockchain complements techno-colonial processes of data extraction and computational capitalism by using code to lock in proprietary relations. Opening new terrains of data and expanding network technologies does not depend upon imperial coercion but an assemblage of development agencies, foreign governments and platforms all ‘celebrat[ing] the transformative nature of ICTs’. Within these contours, there are rival cyber-powers and platforms as well as indeterminacies of connectivity which diffuse the exercise of imperial power. However the ‘spiritual hegemony of American-based entrepreneurship’ pervades these networks. The US has relied on the soaring rhetoric of freedom, democracy and empowerment through connectivity in shaping global communication systems. American hegemony in ICT4D can be explained in political-economic terms as the support of domestic capital and platforms, the leadership of governing bodies such as ICANN and the US State Department’s long-standing interest in tech-centric soft power initiatives. This continuity of soft power and cultural imperialism spans the ‘free flow of information doctrine’ during the Cold War to the ‘freedom to connect agenda’ in the era of network computing. As articulated by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, connectivity is the ‘great leveller’ creating ‘a common body of knowledge that benefits and unites us all’ [...] The emergence of blockchain in the development sector foregrounds its role as a technology and discourse, at the fulcrum of American soft power initiatives, Silicon Valley solutionism and the promises of big data. This is a discourse that inculcates solutionism and a Silicon Valley performative style in the development sector, while materially expanding the purview of computational capitalism. [...] Far from the promises of decentralized and transparent data empowering all participants, data production in Pacific blockchain projects redounds to imperial hierarchies. Continua su https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951720985249 Giacomo

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The Guardian: Smile for the camera: the dark side of China's emotion-recognition tech
by Andrea Pellegrini March 3, 2021

March 3, 2021

Pure questo... https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/03/china-positive-e… <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/03/china-positive-e…> Personalmente trovo questo passaggio il più preoccupante: “Violence and suicide are very common in detention centres,” says Chen. “Even if police nowadays don’t beat prisoners, they often try to wear them down by not allowing them to fall asleep. As a result, some prisoners will have a mental breakdown and seek to kill themselves. And our system will help prevent that from happening.” Chen says that since prisoners know they are monitored by this system – 24 hours a day, in real time – they are made more docile, which for authorities is a positive on many fronts. “Because they know what the system does, they won’t consciously try to violate certain rules,” he says. Questo tipo di soluzionismo tecnologico è ciò che ha reso il governo estremamente forte e incontrastabile, ma - a mio parere - sarà anche ciò che lo porterà a crollare. Se vi sembra noioso riconoscere la faccia e le emozioni degli umani, allora il riconoscimento facciale per maiali fa per voi: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/10/facial-recognition-for-… <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/10/facial-recognition-for-…> Ciao ciao Andrea Pellegrini 346 705 0039 <tel:+393467050039> Via Superga, 5 Pino Torinese (TO) Italy pelle(a)andreapellegrini.net <mailto:pelle@andreapellegrini.net> andreapellegrini.net <https://andreapellegrini.net/>

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Corte Ue: accesso ai dati personali desumibili dalle comunicazioni elettroniche: autorizzabile solo da giudice o da autorità indipendente e solo per contrasto a criminalità grave o per prevenire gravi minacce a sicurezza pubblica (sent C-746/18)
by Marco Ciurcina March 2, 2021

March 2, 2021

L’accesso, per fini penali, ad un insieme di dati di comunicazioni elettroniche relativi al traffico o all’ubicazione, che permettano di trarre precise conclusioni sulla vita privata, è autorizzato soltanto allo scopo di lottare contro gravi forme di criminalità o di prevenire gravi minacce alla sicurezza pubblica. Il diritto dell’Unione osta, peraltro, ad una normativa nazionale che attribuisca al pubblico ministero la competenza ad autorizzare l’accesso di un’autorità pubblica ai dati suddetti al fine di condurre un’istruttoria penale (Sentenza nella causa C-746/18 H.K. / Prokuratuur) https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-03/ cp210029it.pdf

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Judge approves $650m settlement for Facebook users in privacy, biometrics lawsuit | ZDNet
by Alberto Cammozzo March 2, 2021

March 2, 2021

<https://www.zdnet.com/article/judge-approves-650m-settlement-for-facebook-u…> A $650 million settlement to close a class-action lawsuit alleging that Facebook violated user privacy has been approved. The case, a class-action lawsuit filed against the social media giant six years ago, alleged that Facebook violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act <https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3004&ChapterID=57> (BIPA), which prevents companies from gathering or using biometric information from users without consent. The lawsuit claimed that the Facebook Tag Suggestions feature, which used facial markers to suggest people in image tagging, violated BIPA by scanning, storing, and using user biometrics to create "face templates" without written permission. On Friday, in California, US District Judge James Donato approved the $650 million settlement, an increase of $100 million from Facebook's proposed $550 million in January 2020 <https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-agrees-to-pay-550-million-to-end-fac…>. The ruling has been described as a "landmark result." In total, close to 1.6 million Facebook users in Illinois could receive as much as $345 each within months, on the assumption that no appeal is filed, as reported by the Chicago Tribune <https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-facebook-privacy-settlement-…>. However, only users that signed up for representation in the class-action suit before the November 23, 2020 deadline are eligible for compensation. The three plaintiffs who originally filed the suit will receive $5,000 each. "Overall, the settlement is a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy," the order read. "Final approval of the class action settlement is granted. Attorneys' fees and costs, and incentive awards to the named plaintiffs, are also granted." In a statement <https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-san-francisco-chicago-lawsui…>, Facebook said, "we are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders." In related news over the past week, video content-sharing platform TikTok has agreed to a $92 million settlement <https://www.zdnet.com/article/tiktok-agrees-to-pay-92-million-to-settle-tee…> to resolve claims that the company harvested and shared data belonging to minors. The case, originating from 21 class-action lawsuits filed in California and Illinois, also included allegations of BIPA violations. TikTok has agreed to the settlement -- despite denying any wrongdoing -- in order to focus on "building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community."

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Australia passes new media law that will require Google, Facebook to pay for news
by Antonio Iacono March 1, 2021

March 1, 2021

"Australia will become the first country where a government-appointed arbitrator can decide on the final price that either platform will have to pay Australian news publishers, provided a commercial deal cannot be reached independently." Articolo completo qui: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/australia-passes-its-news-media-bargaining-… Qui la posizione di Facebook [1], di cui: "The assertions — repeated widely in recent days — that Facebook steals or takes original journalism for its own benefit always were and remain false. We neither take nor ask for the content for which we were being asked to pay a potentially exorbitant price. In fact, news links are a small part of the experience most users have on Facebook. Fewer than one post in every 25 in your News Feed will contain a link to a news story, and many users say they would like to see even less news and political content. As Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, warned, the Australian law could make the internet as we know it “unworkable,” arguing that it “risks breaching a fundamental principle of the web by requiring payment for linking between certain content online." Antonio [1] https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/the-real-story-of-what-happened-with-news…

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Contributi dal panorama spirituale
by don Luca Peyron March 1, 2021

March 1, 2021

What Buddhism can do for AI ethics. Buddhism teaches us to focus our energy on eliminating suffering in the world. https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015779/what-buddhism-can-do-ai… _________________________ 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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138° Mercoledì di Nexa | 10 Marzo 2021 | Modalità Telematica
by Nexa Media March 1, 2021

March 1, 2021

Gentilissimi, vi segnaliamo che il 138° Mercoledì di Nexa, *"/Macchine ingannevoli: L'Intelligenza Artificiale dopo il test di Turing/"*, con ospite *Simone Natale *(Università di Torino), si svolgerà *mercoledì 10 marzo, dalle ore 18.00 alle ore 20.00*, in *modalità telematica*, utilizzando il software open source di conference call *Jitsi Meet*. Per chi vorrà partecipare live al seminario sarà possibile accedere alla conference call attraverso il seguente link: https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa <https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa> Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-138> NEXA 138° Mercoledì di Nexa Mercoledì 10 marzo 2021, ore 18.00 - 20.00 Politecnico di Torino https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-138 <https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-138> Macchine ingannevoli: L’Intelligenza Artificiale dopo il test di Turing Speaker Simone Natale (Università di Torino) This event will be webcast live: https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air <https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air> L'INCONTRO SI SVOLGERÀ IN MODALITÀ TELEMATICA UTILIZZANDO IL SOFTWARE DI CONFERENCE CALL *JITSI MEET*. Per partecipare all'incontro: https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa <https://meet.nexacenter.org/MercolediNexa> Si raccomanda di accedere al link sopra indicato utilizzando il browser *Google Chrome* per una migliore resa del servizio. Fin dalle sue origini, la *ricerca dell'Intelligenza Artificiale* si è nutrita del sogno – coltivato da alcuni studiosi e considerato irrealistico da altri – di creare forme di coscienza simili o equivalenti agli esseri umani. Eppure, l’Intelligenza Artificiale potrebbe essere descritta più accuratamente come un insieme di tecnologie che producono un'illusione di intelligenza - non tanto degli esseri intelligenti quanto delle macchine che percepiamo come tali. Attraverso l’analisi di alcuni aspetti della storia dell’Intelligenza Artificiale dal *test di Turing* fino agli *assistenti vocali Siri e Alexa*, e a partire dal mio ultimo libro */“Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test”/* (Oxford University Press, 2021), proporrò di rovesciare il discorso su queste tecnologie, suggerendo che “l’intelligenza” delle macchine risieda anche e soprattutto nella nostra percezione quando interagiamo con esse. Adottare questo punto di vista ci aiuterà a realizzare in che misura la nostra tendenza a proiettare umanità e intelligenza sugli oggetti, alleata alle tecnologie informatiche, possa trasformare l’essenza della socialità e del vivere quotidiano. BIOGRAFIE - e informazioni supplementari [mercoledì138] *Simone NATALE* è Professore Associato in Storia e Teoria dei Media all'Università di Torino. È autore di numerosi saggi tra cui la sua più recente monografia /Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test/ (Oxford University Press, 2021). Prima di tornare nel 2020 a Torino, la città dove è nato e cresciuto, è stato ricercatore e docente alla Loughborough University nel Regno Unito, alla Columbia University negli Stati Uniti, alla Concordia University in Canada, e in Germania all’Università di Colonia e all’Università Humboldt di Berlino. *Letture consigliate e link utili:* * Guzman AL and Lewis SC (2019) Artificial intelligence and communication: A Human–Machine Communication research agenda. /New Media & Society/ 22(1): 70–86. * Natale S (2021) /Deceitful media: Artificial intelligence and social life after the Turing Test. /New York: Oxford University Press. LINK <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deceitful-media-9780190080372?view=…> * Natale S (2019) If software is narrative: Joseph Weizenbaum, artificial intelligence and the biographies of ELIZA. /New Media & Society/ 21(3): 712–728. LINK <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444818804980> * Rhee J (2018) /The Robotic Imaginary: The Human and the Price of Dehumanized Labor./ Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. * Turkle S (2005) /The second self: Computers and the human spirit./ Cambridge, Mass.: Mit Press. Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” <https://www.facebook.com/nexa.center/> <https://twitter.com/nexacenter> <https://www.youtube.com/user/NexaCenter> #SimoneNatale <https://twitter.com/simone_natale> #nexawednesday <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nexawednesday&src=typd> Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) dal 2006 è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che, in collaborazione con l'Università di Torino, studia Internet (e più in generale le Tecnologie digitali) e i suoi rapporti con la società. Maggiori informazioni all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/about. Durante i “*Mercoledì di Nexa*”, che si tengono *ogni 2° mercoledì del mese* alle *ore 18 in punto*, il Centro Nexa su Internet e Società apre le sue porte non solo agli esperti e a tutti coloro i quali lavorano con Internet, ma anche a semplici appassionati e cittadini. Il ciclo di incontri intende approfondire, con un linguaggio preciso ma accessibile, i temi legati alla Rete: motori di ricerca, Creative Commons, social networks, open source/software libero, neutralità della rete, libertà di espressione, privacy, file sharing, big e open data, smart cities e molto altro. Al centro di quasi tutti gli incontri un ospite pronto a dialogare con i direttori del Centro Nexa, il Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin del Politecnico di Torino e il Prof. Marco Ricolfi dell'Università di Torino, nonché lo staff e i Fellows del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa, incluso un elenco di tutti i “Mercoledì” passati, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi. Si segnala inoltre che dal maggio 2012 *ogni 4° mercoledì* del mese *dalle ore 13 alle ore 14* il Centro Nexa organizza anche i "*Nexa Lunch Seminar*". Una lista di tutti i “Lunch Seminar” passati è disponibile all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-seminars. See our events calendar <http://nexa.polito.it/events> if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Responsabile Comunicazione Centro Nexa su Internet & Società: *Anita Botta*, tel: +39 011 090 7219, Mob: +39 347 131 3903, anita.botta(a)polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it>. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/events <http://nexa.polito.it/events>. Weekly Events Newsletter. Sign up <http://nexa.polito.it/mailing-lists> to receive this newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. To manage your subscription preferences, please click here <https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa>. Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more <http://nexa.polito.it/get-involved>. Cordiali saluti, -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino _web:_ https://nexa.polito.it/ <https://nexa.polito.it/> _mail:_anita.botta@polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it> tel: 011 090 7219

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Open Government Partnership (OGP)
by Antonio Iacono March 1, 2021

March 1, 2021

La pandemia ha, di fatto [1], troncato nel nascere quasi tutti i progetti relativi all'Open Government Partnership (OGP) [2]. Basta aprirne uno, ad esempio, "Dati aperti" [3] per leggervi Obiettivi raggiunti: 0/41 Ripartirà con il nuovo Governo? Mah, ho forti dubbi. Evidentemente se c'è qualcosa da "sacrificare", la prima è la trasparenza. Antonio [1] ... la pandemia di Covid-19 che ha assorbito molte risorse e cambiato le pianificazioni di molte Amministrazioni (v. http://open.gov.it/attuazione-quarto-nap/ ) [2] http://open.gov.it/open-government-partnership/come-funziona-ogp/ [3] http://open.gov.it/monitora/1-dati-aperti/

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Smartworking
by Antonio Iacono Feb. 28, 2021

Feb. 28, 2021

Ma quando portò il ricevitore all'orecchio, il suo volto bianco si increspò in un sorriso e disse: "Benissimo. Parliamo, ora mi isolo. Non mi aspetto che accada niente di importante per i prossimi cinque minuti. Perché posso darti al massimo cinque minuti, Kuno. Poi devo tenere la mia conferenza su - La musica durante il periodo australiano - ". Toccò la manopola per l'isolamento, così che nessun altro potesse parlare con lei. Poi toccò il dispositivo per l'illuminazione e la piccola stanza fu sommersa dalle tenebre ... La Macchina si ferma [1] E. M. Forster (1909) Antonio [1] http://foundintraslation.blogspot.com/2014/10/la-macchina-si-ferma.html

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