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Rapporto “Artificial Intelligence and Economic and Financial Policy Making"
by Luigi Scorca Dec. 21, 2024

Dec. 21, 2024

È online l'High-Level Panel of Experts’ report to the G7 on "Artificial Intelligence and Economic and Financial Policy Making". Il Rapporto, commissionato a un gruppo di esperti di alto livello allo scopo di esplorare le implicazioni dell’intelligenza artificiale per l’economia e il settore finanziario, è stato presentato ai Ministri delle Finanze e i Governatori delle Banche Centrali del G7 il 19 dicembre 2024, in occasione della loro ultima riunione sotto la Presidenza italiana del G7. https://www.dt.mef.gov.it/it/news/2024/rapporto_G7.html

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How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories
by 380° Dec. 20, 2024

Dec. 20, 2024

Buongiorno, siccome l'ha detto la BBC _sicuramente_ ora lo sanno tutti quindi la mia segnalazione dovrebbe essere inutile, comunque: «How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories» https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c786wlxz4jgo by Ahmed Nour, Joe Tidy and Yara Farag, Dec. 18 2024 --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, we found that newsrooms in the Palestinian territories - in Gaza and the West Bank - had suffered a steep drop in audience engagement since October 2023. The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram - another Meta-owned platform - increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023. [...] Since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, just a few outside reporters have been allowed to enter the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza from the outside, and they were only able to do so escorted by the Israeli army. Social media has filled the gap for those wanting to hear more voices from inside Gaza. Facebook pages for news outlets such as Palestine TV, Wafa news agency and Palestinian Wattan News - which operate out of the West Bank territory - became a vital source of updates for many around the world. [...] During a period of war, audience engagement might be expected to rise. However, the data showed a 77% decline after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook. Journalists at the newsroom shared statistics with us showing a 60% drop in the number of people seeing their posts. [...] Over the past year, Palestinian journalists have raised fears that their online content is being "shadow-banned" by Meta - in other words, restricted in how many people see it. To test this, we carried out the same data analysis on the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organisations such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13. These pages also posted a large amount of war-related content, but their audience engagement increased by nearly 37%. Meta has previously been accused by Palestinians and human rights groups of [failing to moderate online activity fairly]. An independent report in 2021 commissioned by the company said this was not deliberate but because of a lack of Arabic-speaking expertise among moderators. Words and phrases were being interpreted as offensive or violent, when they were in fact innocuous. For example, the Arabic phrase "Alhamdulillah", which means "Praise be to God", was sometimes being auto-translated as "Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom". To see if this explained the decline in engagement with Palestinian outlets, the BBC carried out the same analysis on Facebook pages for 30 prominent Arabic-language news sources based elsewhere, such as Sky News Arabia and Al-Jazeera. However, these pages saw an average increase in engagement of nearly 100%. Responding to our research, Meta pointed out that it had made no secret of "temporary product and policy measures" taken in October 2023. It said it had faced a challenge balancing the right to freedom of speech, with the fact that Hamas was both US-sanctioned and designated as a dangerous organisation under Meta's own policies. The tech giant also said that pages posting exclusively about the war were more likely to see engagement impacted. "We acknowledge we make mistakes, but any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false," a spokesperson said. [failing to moderate online activity fairly] <https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/systemic-censor…> Leaked Instagram documents ─────────────────────────── The BBC has also spoken to five former and current employees of Meta about the impact they say their company's policies have had on individual Palestinian users. One person, who spoke anonymously, shared leaked internal documents about a change made to Instagram's algorithm, which toughened the moderation of Palestinians commenting on Instagram posts. "Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive towards Palestinian people," he said. Internal messages show that an engineer raised concerns about the order, worried that it could be "introducing a new bias into the system against Palestinian users". Meta confirmed it took the measure but said it had been necessary to respond to what it called a "spike in hateful content" coming out of the Palestinian territories. It said that policy changes put in place at the start of the Israel-Gaza war had now been reversed, but did not say when this happened. [...] "A lot of information can't be published as it is too graphic - for example if the [Israeli] army commits a massacre and we film it, the video won't spread," says Omar el Qataa, one of the few photojournalists who chose to stay in northern Gaza. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- «Non è colpa nostra, siamo solo incompetenti nelle traduzioni dall'arabo». Saluti, 380° -- 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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Tutti [gli] uomini del[la] presidente
by Roberto Resoli Dec. 19, 2024

Dec. 19, 2024

Segnalo l'articolo di Roberto Caso (unitn): https://www.robertocaso.it/2024/12/15/tutti-gli-uomini-della-presidente/ > Tra le tante disposizioni normative oggetto di critica ve ne è una che ha ricevuto meno attenzione. Essa riguarda l’estensione del potere delle agenzie di informazione (servizi segreti) in riferimento alle università e agli enti pubblici di ricerca. ... > “Il comma 1, lett. a), n. 1, modifica l’articolo 13, comma 1, della legge 124/2007 (la legge reca la nuova disciplina dei servizi di informazione), prevedendo che le pubbliche amministrazioni e alcuni soggetti ad esse equiparati siano tenuti a prestare al Dipartimento delle informazioni per la sicurezza (DIS) e alle agenzie del sistema di informazione per la sicurezza della Repubblica – ossia l’Agenzia informazioni e sicurezza esterna (AISE) e l’Agenzia informazioni e sicurezza interna (AISI) – la collaborazione e l’assistenza richieste, anche di tipo tecnico e logistico, necessarie per la tutela della sicurezza nazionale. > > Attualmente, la disposizione vigente prevede che DIS e agenzie possono corrispondere con le pubbliche amministrazioni e con i soggetti che erogano, in regime di autorizzazione, concessione o convenzione, servizi di pubblica utilità e chiedere ad essi la collaborazione, anche di ordine logistico, necessaria per l’adempimento delle loro funzioni istituzionali. > > La norma in esame, da un lato, rende cogente la collaborazione – ed anche l’assistenza, non prevista dalla norma vigente – che gli organismi di sicurezza eventualmente richiedono alle pubbliche amministrazioni. Dall’altro, specifica che la collaborazione e assistenza debbano essere motivate dalla necessità della tutela della sicurezza nazionale, mentre la disposizione vigente fa riferimento alla necessità di adempiere alle funzioni istituzionali di detti organismi. ... > Com’è stato rilevato dal Dott. Armando Spataro in sede di audizione[1], tale nuovo intervento normativo risponde all’”orientamento politico finalizzato ad estendere il ruolo delle Agenzie di Informazione nella direzione di attività che non competono loro, come – in particolare – quelle di indagine giudiziaria”. rob [1] https://www.senato.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg19/attachments/docum…

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Gorwa, "È possibile la democrazia digitale?"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 19, 2024

Dec. 19, 2024

*È possibile la democrazia digitale? * /Due saggi indagano, da prospettive diverse, il complicato rapporto tra piattaforme online e partecipazione anti-gerarchica. Per capire se possiamo sottrarci ai modelli totalizzanti che governano la nostra attività in rete / Robert Gorwa 19 Dicembre 2024 All’inizio, ci fu una tormenta di neve. Era il gennaio del 1978 e forti raffiche subtropicali che si muovevano verso nord si scontrarono sui Grandi Laghi con una corrente artica diretta a sud, generando una delle più terribili tempeste di neve nella storia degli Stati uniti. La Grande tormenta di neve del 1978 scaricò quasi un metro di neve su alcune parti del Michigan, causando quasi un centinaio di vittime e mezzo miliardo di dollari di danni, al netto dell’inflazione. Bloccati a casa durante la grande nevicata, due appassionati di computer di Chicago decisero di costruire un sistema che gli avrebbe permesso di comunicare tra loro. All’epoca, la suite di protocolli Internet era ancora lontana anni dall’essere ampiamente utilizzata, ma i progressi nella microelaborazione avevano iniziato a portare i computer fuori dai laboratori e nelle case degli smanettoni. Con i primi modem si poteva «comporre il numero» e trasmettere informazioni su normali linee telefoniche, così Ward Christensen e Randy Suess, entrambi membri del Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange (Cache), unirono la loro competenza nella scrittura di software e nella modifica dell’hardware per creare un modem modificato a cui altri potevano collegarsi e sui quali lasciare messaggi da leggere in seguito. [...] continua qui: https://jacobinitalia.it/e-possibile-la-democrazia-digitale/

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black box in ricerche astronomiche
by alessandro marzocchi Dec. 18, 2024

Dec. 18, 2024

... ... ... «Le reti neurali artificiali spesso vengono definite “*black box*” perché è difficile capire cosa avviene al loro interno: sappiamo cosa entra e cosa esce, ma non sempre riusciamo a interpretare come si arriva a certe conclusioni. Nel nostro caso, però, non è proprio così. Analizzando lo spazio latente – cioè le rappresentazioni interne che la rete costruisce per interpretare i dati – siamo riusciti a individuare una struttura ben precisa, che riflette alcune proprietà fisiche delle galassie, incluse alcune mai mostrate al modello durante l’addestramento. Un esempio? La rete distingue spontaneamente tra galassie passive ed attive, una caratteristica che non era parte del processo di apprendimento. È come se la rete avesse imparato da sola a identificare nuovi pattern e simmetrie nei dati, suggerendo informazioni emergenti. Questo non solo rende la *pipeline* più interpretabile, ma apre anche la strada a nuove scoperte». ... ... ... https://www.media.inaf.it/2024/12/17/m-topnet-ginolfi/ Nessuno ha definito l'intelligenza, ma quasi ogni giorno veniamo a conoscenza di "operazioni mentali" che non sono più nostra esclusiva come ritenevamo. Cordiali auguri. Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi)

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ChatGPT Has No Place in the Classroom
by Giacomo Tesio Dec. 18, 2024

Dec. 18, 2024

K-12 educators can and should resist the sales pitch. And that's extra work, I know, and I'm sorry—K-12 educators already have more than enough on their collective and individual plates. Even the effort it takes to turn away from glitzy sales pitches seems like a lot to ask, much less the effort it takes to resist when administrators buy in and start pushing these systems. Let's add this to the pile of harms that OpenAI has perpetrated on the world, even as they claim (here too! think of the children!) to be acting for the good of humanity. If you're exhausted by all of this you can stop here, with the affirmation that it's not only reasonable but in fact principled and beneficial to say no to ChatGPT and all other GenAI in the classroom. But I'll keep going for a bit in this post, because the guide itself is a rich text as a hype artifact and it may be useful to apply the usual MAIHT3k lens to it. Here is a brief overview of some of the hype. It's incomplete, because I have things to do (my own class to teach, among others), but it's a start: Continua su https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/chatgpt-has-no-place-in-the-classroo… Una breve lettura utile per molti insegnanti (e genitori). Ad esempio: In the section on responsible use, the guide says: "While AI bias may be hard to detect, you can reduce its occurrence and impacts by critically thinking about when and how to use generative AI, by using the product's reporting function when you encounter objectionable content, and by adopting best practices for prompting." As someone who has spent a lot of time critically thinking about "AI", I can confidently say that the answer to when to use generative AI to produce anything that will be put in front of students is: never. Giacomo

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BIAS IN MILITARY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - SIPRI Report
by Diego Latella Dec. 18, 2024

Dec. 18, 2024

Mi e' arrivato ieri: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/background_paper_bias_in_… Buona Giornata Diego =================== Dott. Diego Latella - Formerly Senior Researcher with CNR/ISTI (retired) WARNING! My new email address is: DIEGO.LATELLA(a)ACTIONES.EU mailto:DIEGO.LATELLA@ACTIONES.EU My current addresses (Diego.Latella(a)isti.cnr.it mailto:Diego.Latella@isti.cnr.it and Diego.Latella(a)cnr.it mailto:Diego.Latella@cnr.it) will be deactivated. So, please, use "Diego.Latella(a)actiones.eu mailto:Diego.Latella@actiones.eu" if you want to reach me by email.

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TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is likely bigger than Greece’s, study finds
by Alberto Cammozzo Dec. 17, 2024

Dec. 17, 2024

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/12/tiktok-carbon-footprint> TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform’s environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year. Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, place TikTok’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region. TikTok has 1 billion users worldwide and Greenly’s findings placed its carbon footprint just above Instagram’s – even though Instagram has nearly double TikTok’s user base. The reason behind this lies in the unique addictiveness of TikTok’s platform. The average Instagram user spends 30.6 minutes on the app a day. Meanwhile, the average TikTok user spends 45.5 minutes scrolling. “The whole algorithm is built around the massification of videos,” explained Alexis Normand, the chief executive of Greenly. “Addictiveness also has consequences in terms of incentivizing people to generate more and more [of a carbon] footprint on an individual basis.” Given that the US, UK and France make up just under 15% of TikTok’s global user base, the platform’s overall carbon footprint is likely around 50m metric tonnes of CO2e. And since these data center calculations do not include other smaller sources of TikTok’s emissions, such as the emissions associated with office spaces and employee commuting, this is likely an underestimation. For context, Greece’s annual carbon emissions for 2023 were 51.67m metric tonnes of CO2e. TikTok’s users also have the second-highest emissions per minute of use on social media according to Greenly’s analysis, just after YouTube. One minute on TikTok will burn 2.921 grams of CO2e, on average, while one minute on YouTube will burn 2.923 grams. One minute on Instagram burns 2.912 grams. The small differences add up. Due to the sheer amount of content on the platform, as well as longer average scroll times, TikTok users have the highest yearly emissions. The average TikTok user will burn 48.49kg of CO2e on the app in one year, according to Greenly’s analysis. In second place comes YouTube, with an average user burning 40.17kg of CO2e. Instagram users will burn just 32.52kg of CO2e. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, that’s the difference between driving a gas car driving 123 miles (TikTok), 102 miles (YouTube) and 82.8 miles (Instagram). The study examined the carbon footprint associated with each user per minute by incorporating the emissions associated with data centers, which made up about 99% of the footprint, and the emissions associated with charging devices after using the platforms. TikTok’s emissions are the most opaque of the social media platforms. Tech giants such as Meta and Google release detailed reports to the Carbon Disclosure Project every year, even posting their findings to their respective websites. TikTok has no publicly available emissions data. Other social media companies, while also reporting sky-high emissions, have made commitments to power their data centers with clean energy. The quality of these commitments varies widely. An investigation by the Guardian showed that four of the five top tech companies were using offset-like renewable energy credits (Recs) to underreport their emissions data by approximately 662%. TikTok has made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. The company has a plan called “Project Clover”, implemented in 2023, that is tasked with meeting this goal while enhancing overall data security. However, only one renewable data center has been built to date: a €12bn facility in Norway that runs on 100% renewable energy. It is unclear whether or not these reporting practices and commitments will persist under new ownership – a US appeals court has upheld a law that will require Chinese firm ByteDance to sell the platform to a non-Chinese entity by 19 January 2025, though the firm is trying to delay this until a recently friendlier Trump administration is inaugurated. If the platform is bought by a US company, rules passed this year would require the firm to publicly disclose its emissions if they are “material” to investors, though Trump will probably reverse this. TikTok did not respond to request for comment.

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Re: [nexa] New Policy Study: Time to build a European digital ecosystem
by alessandro marzocchi Dec. 17, 2024

Dec. 17, 2024

Grazie Alessandro, domando: non sarebbe necessario aggiungere all'elenco il GDPR? Cordiali auguri. Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi) Il giorno mer 11 dic 2024 alle ore 13:06 <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> ha scritto: > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 13:05:54 +0100 > From: Alessandro Brolpito <abrolpito(a)gmail.com> > To: "J.C. DE MARTIN" <juancarlos.demartin(a)polito.it> > Cc: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: Re: [nexa] New Policy Study: Time to build a European digital > ecosystem > Buongiorno, > In allegato il quadro normativo per il digitale in Europa, dovrebbe essere > completo. > Alessandro > ------------------------------ > > End of nexa Digest, Vol 188, Issue 37 > ************************************* >

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Segnalazione "Conversazione sulla Sovranità Digitale"
by Antonio Vetro' Dec. 17, 2024

Dec. 17, 2024

Segnalo che il prossimo martedì 17 Dicembre, alle ore 17.30, si terrà (presso la Sala Ciminiera del Politecnico di Torino, Corso Castelfidardo 34/D - V piano) un evento dal titolo "La Conversazione sulla Sovranità Digitale: che cos'è e quali sono le principali minacce al cyberspazio delle democrazie". Intervengono: Roberto BALDONI – già Direttore Generale Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale ACN e Professore onorario Sapienza – Autore del saggio: “Charting Digital Sovereignty: A Survival Playbook - How to assess and to improve the level of digital sovereignty of a country” Pietro BENASSI – già Consigliere diplomatico del Primo Ministro e Ambasciatore alla Rappresentanza Europea a Bruxelles Maurizio MOLINARI – Editorialista e già Direttore di Repubblica e La Stampa. Autore del libro “La Nuova Guerra contro le democrazie” In allegato il volantino con ulteriori informazioni. Un caro saluto, Antonio

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