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Whereas movies of final weekend’s confrontation between Hui Muslims and police had been wiped from Chinese language social media websites, they’ve been making the rounds on the worldwide web. Authorities within the southwestern Yunnan province had deliberate to demolish a dome atop the historic Najiaying Mosque within the rural city of Nagu however had been blocked by 1000’s of native residents who shaped a protecting circle across the mosque. A whole lot of cops in riot gear surrounded the demonstrators and the standoff went on all through the weekend. The mosque’s dome was slated for destruction as a part of ongoing central authorities “Sinicization” efforts which might be papering over, and in some circumstances actually destroying, proof of the affect of different cultures and religions in China, Islam specifically. Domes on mosques are being focused due to their apparent connection to Arab tradition and changed by structure supposed to look extra historically “Chinese language” in character.
An estimated 30 folks have since been arrested, and sources talking in regards to the confrontation with CNN mentioned that the web had been shut down in choose neighborhoods across the city. Editors at China Digital Instances collected and reposted movies of the standoff earlier than they had been censored on Weibo. The movies provide priceless proof of the federal government’s crackdown on sure sorts of spiritual expression, at the same time as China’s structure ensures “freedom of spiritual perception.”
Vietnam is ratcheting up strain on TikTok to cut back “poisonous” content material and reply to its censorship calls for, lest the platform be banned altogether. To point out they imply enterprise, Vietnam’s Ministry of Data and Communications started an investigation of the corporate’s approaches to content material moderation, algorithmic amplification and consumer authentication final week. That is particularly shaky territory for TikTok. With practically 50 million customers, Vietnam is considered one of TikTok’s largest markets. And in contrast to its opponents Meta and Google, TikTok has really complied with Vietnam’s cybersecurity legislation and put its workplaces and servers contained in the nation. Which means if the native authorities don’t like what they see on the platform, or if they need the corporate handy over sure customers’ information, they’ll merely come knocking.
Pegasus, the world’s best-known surveillance software program, was used to spy on at the least 13 Armenian public officers, journalists, and civil society employees amid the continuing battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory often called Nagorno-Karabakh. A report on the joint investigation by Entry Now, Citizen Lab, Amnesty Worldwide, CyberHub-AM and technologist Ruben Muradyan asserts that that is “the primary documented proof of the usage of Pegasus spy ware in a global conflict context.” Whereas there’s no smoking gun proving that the software program, constructed by Israel-based NSO Group, was getting used to assist one aspect of the battle or the opposite, the situation and timing of the deployment definitely counsel as a lot.
This could scare everybody. Having this type of spy ware on the free in conflict and battle zones solely will increase the probability of those instruments getting used to assist and abet human rights violations and conflict crimes, because the researchers level out. What does NSO should say about all this? To this point, not a lot. I’ll maintain my ears open.
AI TYCOONS CRY WOLF
If you happen to’re worrying about AI inflicting us all to go extinct, attempt to relax. Yet one more AI panic assertion has been signed by a few of the strongest folks within the enterprise, together with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ex-Google Mind lead Geoffrey Hinton. They provide only a single doom-laden sentence: “Mitigating the chance of extinction from AI must be a worldwide precedence alongside different societal-scale dangers corresponding to pandemics and nuclear conflict.”
I don’t disagree, however is that this apocalyptic state of affairs what we must be specializing in? What in regards to the issues that AI is already inflicting for society? Do autonomous conflict drones not fear these folks? Are we okay with automated programs deciding whether or not your meals or housing prices get backed? What about facial recognition applied sciences that, research after research, are confirmed unable to precisely establish the faces of individuals with darkish pores and skin tones? These are all actual programs which might be already inflicting actual folks existential hurt.
A number of the world’s smartest laptop scientists are finding out and attempting to construct options to those issues. Right here’s a terrific listing of them. However their voices are totally absent from the narrative that these AI tycoons are spinning out.
The folks behind this assertion are overwhelmingly rich, white and dwelling in nations that aren’t at conflict, so perhaps they simply didn’t consider any of the already horrible actual world impacts of AI. However I doubt it.
As an alternative I imagine that is some severe strategic whataboutism. College of Washington linguist Emily Bender offered this suggestion:
“When the AI bros scream ‘Look a monster!’ to distract everybody from their practices (information theft, profligate vitality utilization, scaling of biases, air pollution of the knowledge ecosystem), we must always make like Scooby-Doo and take away their masks.” Good thought. For subsequent week, I’ll do some comply with up analysis on the assertion and whoever is behind the internet hosting group — the model new Middle for AI Security.
WHAT WE’RE READING
My prime studying advice for this week is that this newest version of Princeton laptop scientist Arvind Narayanan’s publication, the place he and students Seth Lazar and Jeremy Howard lower the extinction assertion right down to measurement. They write:
“The historical past of know-how thus far means that the best dangers come not from know-how itself, however from the individuals who management the know-how utilizing it to build up energy and wealth. The AI trade leaders who’ve signed this assertion are exactly the folks finest positioned to do exactly that. And in calling for laws to deal with the dangers of future rogue AI programs, they’ve proposed interventions that might additional cement their energy.”
I additionally extremely suggest this piece in WIRED by Gabriel Nicholas and my outdated colleague Aliya Bhatia, who’re doing vital analysis on the challenges of constructing AI throughout languages and the harms that emanate from English language-dominance throughout the worldwide web.
From biometrics to surveillance — when folks in energy abuse know-how, the remainder of us undergo
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