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Part human, part machine: is Apple turning us all into cyborgs? | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Nov. 25, 2020

Nov. 25, 2020

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/nov/25/part-human-part-machine-…> At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple engineers embarked on a rare collaboration with Google. The goal was to build a system that could track individual interactions across an entire population, in an effort to get a head start on isolating potentially infectious carriers of a disease that, as the world was discovering, could be spread by asymptomatic patients. Delivered at breakneck pace, the resulting exposure notification tool has yet to prove its worth. The NHS Covid-19 app uses it, as do others around the world. But lockdowns make interactions rare, limiting the tool’s usefulness, while in a country with uncontrolled spread, it isn’t powerful enough to keep the R number low. In the Goldilocks zone, when conditions are just right, it could save lives. The NHS Covid-19 app has had its teething problems. It has come under fire for not working on older phones, and for its effect on battery life. But there’s one criticism that has failed to materialise: what happens if you leave home without your phone? Because who does that? The basic assumption that we can track the movement of people by tracking their phones is an accepted fact. This year has been good for tech companies, and Apple is no exception. The wave of global lockdowns has left us more reliant than ever on our devices. Despite being one of the first large companies to be seriously affected by Covid, as factory shutdowns in China hit its supply chain delaying the launch of the iPhone 12 by a month, Apple’s revenue has continued to break records. It remains the largest publicly traded company in the world by a huge margin: this year its value has grown by 50% to $2tn (£1.5tn) and it is still $400bn larger than Microsoft, the No 2. It’s hard to think of another product that has come close to the iPhone in sheer physical proximity to our daily lives. Our spectacles, contact lenses and implanted medical devices are among the only things more personal than our phones. Without us even noticing, Apple has turned us into organisms living symbiotically with technology: part human, part machine. We now outsource our contact books, calendars and to-do lists to devices. We no longer need to remember basic facts about the world; we can call them up on demand. But if you think that carrying around a smartphone – or wearing an Apple Watch that tracks your vitals in real time – isn’t enough to turn you into a cyborg, you may feel differently about what the company has planned next. A pair of smartglasses, in development for a decade, could be released as soon as 2022, and would have us quite literally seeing the world through Apple’s lens – putting a digital layer between us and the world. Already, activists are worrying about the privacy concerns sparked by a camera on everyone’s face. But deeper questions, about what our relationship should be to a technology that mediates our every interaction with the world, may not even be asked until it’s too late to do anything about the answer. The word cyborg – short for “cybernetic organism” – was coined in 1960 by Manfred E Clynes and Nathan S Kline, whose research into spaceflight prompted them to explore how incorporating mechanical components could aid in “the task of adapting man’s body to any environment he might choose”. It was a very medicalised concept: the pair imagined embedded pumps dispensing drugs automatically. In the 1980s, genres such as cyberpunk began to express writers’ fascination with the nascent internet, and wonder how much further it could go. “It was the best we could do at the time,” laughs Bruce Sterling, a US science fiction author and futurist whose Mirrorshades anthology defined the genre for many. Ideas about putting computer chips, machine arms or chromium teeth into animals might have been very cyberpunk, Sterling says, but they didn’t really work. Such implants, he points out, aren’t “biocompatible”. Organic tissue reacts poorly, forming scar tissue, or worse, at the interface. While science fiction pursued a Matrix-style vision of metal jacks embedded in soft flesh, reality took a different path. “If you’re looking at cyborgs in 2020,” Sterling says, “it’s in the Apple Watch. It’s already a medical monitor, it’s got all these health apps. If you really want to mess with the inside of your body, the watch lets you monitor it much better than anything else.” The Apple Watch had a shaky start. Despite the company trying to sell it as the second coming of the iPhone, early adopters were more interested in using their new accessory as a fitness tracker than in trying to send a text message from a device far too small to fit a keyboard. So by the second iteration of the watch, Apple changed tack, leaning into the health and fitness aspect of the tech. Now, your watch can not only measure your heart rate, but scan the electric signals in your body for evidence of arrhythmia; it can measure your blood oxygenation level, warn you if you’re in a noisy environment that could damage your hearing, and even call 999 if you fall over and don’t get up. It can also, like many consumer devices, track your running, swimming, weightlifting or dancercise activity. And, of course, it still puts your emails on your wrist, until you turn that off. [...]

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Asimov’s Three Laws Helped Shape A.I. and Robotics. We Need Four More.
by don Luca Peyron Nov. 24, 2020

Nov. 24, 2020

Una interessante intervista a Frank Pasquale Buona lettura dl https://onezero.medium.com/its-time-to-add-4-new-laws-of-robotics-8791139cd… _________________________ 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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irruzione di Daniël Verlaan nella videoconf dei ministri della difesa EU
by Giovanni Biscuolo Nov. 24, 2020

Nov. 24, 2020

Buongiorno, non vi sarà sfuggita la notizia, ma vale la pena fissarla anche in questa lista :-) https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/11/21/hackerata-la-riunione-privata-d… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Hackerata la riunione privata dei ministri della Difesa dell’Unione. Siparietto irresistibile tra il giornalista e il presidente: “Sa che è un crimine?” [...] la deputata Nathalie Loiseau scrive: “Grazie Daniel Verlaan per aver hackerato la conferenza dei ministri della Difesa dell’UE. A parte le risate, spero che serva per alzare il livello di sicurezza delle comunicazioni delle istituzioni europee. Nel caso, sarai il mio eroe”. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- La BBC - riprendendo l'articolo della testata di Verlaan in Olandese [1] - spiega che il giornalista ha ottenuto l'accesso grazie a una foto su Twitter nella quale c'era il nome di login del ministro della difesa Olandese e 5 delle 6 cifre del PIN per accedere: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55027641 --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Mr Verlaan managed to access the meeting after Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld tweeted a photo that contained the login address and part of the PIN code. "After a number of attempts, RTL Nieuws succeeded in guessing the PIN code of the secret consultation, because five of the six digits of the pin code were visible in the photo," the news outlet said. While many have seen the funny side of the hack, it raises serious questions over the security of confidential EU meetings. The meeting was ended due to the breach, while a Foreign Affairs Council spokesman told RTL: "Such a breach is illegal and will be reported to the authorities." A Dutch defence ministry spokesperson said tweeting the login details had been a "stupid mistake". "This shows how careful you should be careful when sending a picture of a meeting," they added. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Su Vice Verlaan dice che gli hanno detto che per l'accesso è necessario un passaggio di sicurezza ulteriore: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3v44j/eu-defence-ministers-video-call-dani… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- In a Twitter DM, Verlaan told VICE World News that spokespeople for the Dutch defence ministry and the EU had told him that it was not possible to join the video call with just the PIN as there was an additional security step, but nevertheless he suddenly managed to join the call while on the phone with a colleague. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Ma Verlaan assicura che tutto quello che ha dovuto fare è indovinare la sesta cifra del PIN. Saluti. Giovanni [1] https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/tech/artikel/5198276/rtl-nieuws-hack-defensie-mini… -- Giovanni Biscuolo

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Secret Amazon Reports Expose Company Spying on Labor, Environmental Groups
by J.C. DE MARTIN Nov. 24, 2020

Nov. 24, 2020

Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon’s Global Security Operations Center reveal the company’s reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers and the extensive monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements. By Lauren Kaori Gurley https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp3yn/amazon-leaked-reports-expose-spying-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Sentenza Tribunale di Palermo sui riders (Glovo)
by Luigi Scorca Nov. 24, 2020

Nov. 24, 2020

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/11/23/glovo-assuma-il-fattorino-come-… Luigi

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Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
by Giacomo Tesio Nov. 23, 2020

Nov. 23, 2020

Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon’s Global Security Operations Center reveal the company’s reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers and the extensive monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements. [...] The documents show Amazon analysts closely monitor the labor and union-organizing activity of their workers throughout Europe, as well as environmentalist and social justice groups on Facebook and Instagram. They also reveal, and an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, that Amazon has hired Pinkerton operatives—from the notorious spy agency known for its union-busting activities—to gather intelligence on warehouse workers. Internal emails sent to Amazon's Global Security Operations Center obtained by Motherboard also reveal that all the division's team members around the world receive updates on labor organizing activities at warehouses that include the exact date, time, location, the source who reported the action, the number of participants at an event (and in some cases a turnout rate of those expected to participate in a labor action), and a description of what happened, such as a "strike" or "the distribution of leaflets." Other documents reveal that Amazon intelligence analysts keep close tabs on how many warehouse workers attend union meetings; specific worker dissatisfactions with warehouse conditions, such as excessive workloads; and cases of warehouse-worker theft, from a bottle of tequila to $15,000 worth of smart watches. The documents offer an unprecedented look inside the internal security and surveillance apparatus of a company that has vigorously attempted to tamp down employee dissent and has previously been caught smearing employees who attempted to organize their colleagues. Amazon's approach of dealing with its own workforce, labor unions, and social and environmental movements as a threat has grave implications for its workers' privacy and ability to join labor unions and collectively bargain—and not only in Europe. [...] "It’s not enough for Amazon to abuse its dominant market power and face antitrust charges by the EU; now they are exporting 19th century American union-busting tactics to Europe," Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union, a global federation of trade unions that represents more than 20 million workers, told Motherboard. "This is a company that is ignoring the law, spying on workers, and using every page of the U.S. union-busting playbook to silence workers' voices." "For years people have been comparing Big Tech bosses to 19th century robber barons," she continued. "And now by using the Pinkertons to do his dirty work, [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos is making that connection even clearer." [...] "These reports suggest that corporations like Amazon stand in the way of democracies and economies that work for everyone, and that we have every reason to be concerned," said Dania Rajendra, the director of Athena, a coalition of dozens of grassroots organizations in the United States aligned against Amazon. "We have every right to expect that our elected officials will take this information and protect communities who are harmed by Amazon." [...] A team within Amazon's Global Security Operation Center, which includes former military intelligence analysts, according to LinkedIn, closely tracks organized labor and union activity in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia—noting where organized labor groups are strongest and could influence Amazon workers. [...] Stefan Clauwaert, a legal and human rights advisor at the European Trade Union Confederation, told Motherboard that Amazon's intelligence activities could potentially violate EU data collection laws and labor conventions and standards outlined by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Council of Europe's European Social Charter, both of which guarantee workers the freedom to associate with unions as well as the right to organize and collectively bargain. The European Union's 2018 data privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to disclose their collection and usage of personal data—and explain why the data is being collected. "In the EU, we have regulations which protect workers and trade unions," said Clauwaret. "I can envision many legal avenues for actions against Amazon for these activities, many more than exist in the United States. But what we need to do now is make noise to our bodies about the violations and what Amazon is doing." Continua (a lungo) su https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp3yn/amazon-leaked-reports-expose-spying-… Giacomo

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Voto Elettronico: In Italia Commissioni "nascoste" che decidono per 1 milione di euro di sperimentazione
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) Nov. 23, 2020

Nov. 23, 2020

Sapevate che in Italia la commissione responsabile di allocare 1 milione di euro per sperimentare il voto elettronico remoto non produce verbali e i cui componenti sono stati nominati in sordina? Ecco inchiesta giornalistica che spiega bene: https://www.linkiesta.it/2020/11/comitato-foia-voto-elettronico-italia-news/ Questo nasce dalla interrogazione parlamentare della deputata Nissoli alla Ministra Lamorgese dell'11 Settembre, dalla cui risposta emerge l'esistenza del comitato. Il 4 Ottobre ho fatto una richiesta FOIA ai ministeri competenti, ottenendo l'elenco dei membri e la notizia dell'assenza di verbalizzazione: https://www.linkiesta.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/commissione-voto-elettr… Ricordiamo come negli US è talmente sensibile il tema, che è affrontato con audizioni pubbliche di esperti presso il congresso e gli apparati di sicurezza nazionale hanno detto la loro ben prima. A questo punto auspichiamo un prossimo intervento del Copasir con richiesta di audizioni dei soggetti coinvolti sul tema, ma sopratutto un intervento della politica per audizioni pubbliche di esperti giuristi, politici, tecnologhi e di sicurezza delle informazioni. Questo è anche un invito, come Comitato per i Requisiti del Voto in Democrazia https://crvd.org, a tenere "attenzionato" il tema, troppo spesso sottovalutato fino al patatrack. Facciamoci un film dell'orrore: Cosa sarebbe accaduto negli USA in questo transition period se avessero avuto un sistema di voto elettronico remoto? Ok, ora proviamo a riportarlo nello stivale: Cosa sarebbe accaduto se non solo fosse stato introdotto un sistema di voto elettronico remoto, ma fosse stato fatto sulla base del prodotto software Terminus di Casaleggio? La democrazia richiede fiducia nel sistema di voto, e l'unico modo è non fidarsi, architetture distribuite di umani e carta per riconteggio. Fabio

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olease, stop sending mails
by Dr. Ónodi Krisztina Nov. 23, 2020

Nov. 23, 2020

Grazie Küldte a Windows 10 Posta

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AI in the Age of Cyber-Disorder - F. Rugge (Ed.) - ISPI-Brookings Report November 23, 2020 [notsp]
by Diego.Latella Nov. 23, 2020

Nov. 23, 2020

You may be interested in the following ISPI-Brookings report: AI in the Age of Cyber-Disorder [1] F. Rugge (Ed.) ISPI [2]-Brookings [3] Report November 23, 2020 DL -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR-ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [4]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) http://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, 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] https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/ai-age-cyber-disorder-28309 [2] https://www.ispionline.it/ [3] https://www.brookings.edu/ [4] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Convegno "Per una nuova etica dell’Intelligenza Artificiale: le tecnologie rinnovano e cambiano l’umano", giovedi' 3 dicembre h10:00
by Guido Boella Nov. 23, 2020

Nov. 23, 2020

CONVEGNO "PER UNA NUOVA ETICA DELL’INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE: LE TECNOLOGIE RINNOVANO E CAMBIANO L'UMANO" Giovedì 3 dicembre 2020 dalle ore 10:00 - Live streaming su Webex <https://unito.webex.com/webappng/sites/unito/meeting/download/8c35648245764…> n. riunione: 121 765 9559 - psw: dMzJGgNk322 Opinione ampiamente diffusa è che l'Intelligenza Artificiale (IA) debba servire gli interessi umani, che restano al cuore dell'innovazione tecnologica e il fine della stessa. Si va così ripetendo che l'IA è (e deve essere) pensata e implementata tenendo presente l'eccezionalità umana, che si manifesta nella capacità esclusivamente personale dell’autonomia etica. In questo senso, l’avvento dell'IA non comporterebbe affatto radicali cambiamenti sul piano morale, e i valori oggi già diffusi dovrebbero semplicemente essere applicati anche all'IA prestando soltanto una maggiore attenzione al fine di evitare abusi, che risulterebbero gravi anche per via dell'aumento delle capacità dispiegate. D'altro canto, l'enorme aumento della potenza di calcolo degli elaboratori e l'ampia disponibilità di dati hanno reso efficace e praticabile il machine learning e il deep learning, e ciò sta comportando un salto significativo nel controllo dell'umanità stessa. L'aiuto offerto dall'IA non si limiterà solo ad allargare le potenzialità umane, ma comporterà una loro trasformazione, aprendo la strada a forme inedite di umanità. Per prendere solo un esempio, già ora l'IA comporta un cambiamento radicale della “privacy”, nozione che verrà ad assumere connotati diversi da quelli del passato. Come la bioetica ha comportato un'etica nuova (senza assoluti) rispetto all'etica tradizionale (con assoluti), così anche IA-etica comporterà un rinnovamento dell’etica invalsa: in particolare, l'estensione dell'etica dal dominio dell’umano a quello dell’artificiale potrebbe portare a considerare le tecnologie stesse moralmente rilevanti, o come agenti o come pazienti morali. Tutto ciò richiederà un ripensamento delle nozioni centrali dell'etica oggi diffusa, foriero di innovazioni non facilmente prevedibili, ma che vanno considerate. Programma della giornata ore 10:00 Saluti istituzionali ore 10:30 Presiede Tiziana Catarci Sessione 1: Perché SIpEIA e perché un’etica innovativa dell'umano ore 10:40 Maurizio Mori (Università di Torino) - Perché una nuova Società per l'etica dell'IA ore 10:55 Tiziana Catarci (Sapienza Università di Roma) - AI for Good: equità, diversità e mancanza di pregiudizi ore 11:10 Giovanni Sartor (Università di Bologna) - Etica e diritto dell'IA ore 11:25 Piergiorgio Donatelli (Sapienza Università di Roma) - L'umanesimo liberale e l’etica dell’IA ore 11:40 Ines Crispini (Università della Calabria) - IA e nuove questioni di fiducia ore 11:55 Guido Boella (Università di Torino) - Un’etica per un mondo nuovo? ore 12:10 discussione sulle relazioni ore 12:30 pausa ore 12:50 Presiede Piergiorgio Donatelli Sessione 2: Dimensioni della IA che trasformano l'umano ore 13:00 Piero Poccianti (Presidente AIxIA) - Siamo sicuri che abbia senso parlare di etica dell’Intelligenza Artificiale? ore 13:20 discussione ore 13:30 Amedeo Santosuosso (Università di Pavia) - IA e diritto: dalla predizione alla motivazione ore 13:50 discussione ore 14:00 Fosca Giannotti (CNR, Pisa) - Intelligenza Artificiale comprensibile: un’aspetto cruciale per preservare l'autonomia di agire delle persone ore 14:20 discussione ore 14:30 Guglielmo Tamburrini (Università di Napoli Federico II) - Etica dell'IA: sfide locali, globali e strutturali ore 14:50 discussione ore 15:00 Paolo Fonio (Università di Torino) - Macchina, medico, paziente: la grande sfida dell'IA nella diagnostica per immagini ore 15:20 discussione ore 15:30 Viola Schiaffonati (Politecnico di Milano) - E’ possibile moralizzare l'IA in modo democratico? ore 15:50 discussione ore 16:00 Amedeo Cesta (CNR, Roma) - IA e benessere sociale: un obiettivo possibile? ore 16:20 discussione ore 16:30 Maurizio Mori (Università di Torino) - Conclusioni del Convegno e finalità di SIpEIA ore 16:45 conclusione dei lavori -- Direttore del Dipartimento di Informatica Università di Torino Cso Svizzera 185 10149 Torino

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