Daily Archives: November 29, 2020

For Tories, the choice between votes in the ‘red wall’ and ‘liberal south’ is an illusion – The Guardian

Posted: November 29, 2020 at 6:24 am

It has become common in recent weeks to say that the Conservatives face a clear, unavoidable choice: the red wall versus Notting Hill, north versus south, the just about managing versus affluent Britain. They can be the party for blue-collar, working-class voters in the north, or the party for dinner-party liberals in the south.

The problem is, this choice is out of date. Though the Conservatives are ascendent in the red wall, some of those liberal-leaning seats have been out of reach for the party since 2017. Formerly Tory seats such as Brighton Kemptown, Cardiff North or Battersea now have Labour majorities of more than 5,000. In the south, Labour holds three-quarters of the seats it won from the Conservatives in 2017, and there were swings towards Labour in most of them in 2019, despite the partys unpopularity nationwide. Kensington is just about a Conservative seat, but it is an outlier: the Tories hold no other seat in the country like it, and their vote share has declined there in the past two elections.

The real seats that matter in the south, the real electoral landscape facing the Conservatives, are different: affluent and middle class, but less diverse, less liberal, and older. These are the battlegrounds where Labour could make headway at the next election: Swindon, Southampton Itchen, Milton Keynes, Reading West. It is this balance between holding on to places such as Swindon and Southampton on the one hand, and retaining the red wall on the other, which is now key for the Conservatives.

Rachel Wolf has written that the party must make a choice between the two. But this is precisely the opposite of what the Conservatives did in 2019, their biggest election win since 1987. Instead they carried both groups, with a focus on public services, Jeremy Corbyn and a Brexit message that appealed more to peoples boredom with the process than a values battle between leave and remain. The path to power is to win both, just as the Conservatives did then, and as Blair did three times.

Now as then, it is possible to bridge the two. Voters might speak differently, or take different cues from different leaders, but they have much in common. On crime, there is a shared desire for a tough approach. There is consensus on immigration: polling by my firm, JL Partners, shows 61% of swing Conservative voters in the south want immigration to be reduced, not at all far off the 68% of defectors to the Conservatives in the red wall. The prime ministers stated aim to level up feels relevant in both parts of the country, too. And a focus on improving public services the NHS, schools, and social care resonates strongly.

In a recent piece on this subject, Nick Timothy said some Conservative MPs wanted to pander to prosperous and liberal voters motivated by issues like international aid. That description of voters might be true in seats such as Battersea and Brighton Kemptown, but not in the southern seats that matter to the Conservatives. Among swing Tory voters in the south and defectors in the north, more than 80% agree that the government should always put the needs of the British people ahead of others.

Voters in the red wall are not horrified by pro-environment policies such as those outlined by the prime minister last week, but support them. The link to high-quality jobs is understood, and even the ban on diesel and petrol car sales prompts nods rather than anger: such a sweeping policy that applies to everyone is interpreted by voters as fair.

There are other misunderstandings. As I have written before, the culture war approach does not grip the red wall in the way many commentators make out. Both the northern and southern demographics want their leaders to be patriotic, but do not care for fights over statues, the BBC or gender pronouns. A recent call by a group of Tory MPs to speak out against elite bourgeois liberals would be one of the worst ways to attract these voters; this is not the US, and people would much rather politicians focus on the things that matter to them.

For the Conservatives, winning both of these two groups, rather than one or the other, is not only possible, but necessary. Some will argue that their majority provides room to lose seats such as Swindon and Southampton Itchen. Such logic is extremely dangerous, and rarely wins elections. First, it is hard to see how some seats in the red wall will not return to Labour they are the most marginal seats now, and the voters who are last in are usually the first out.

Second, the red wall is not a homogenous block of solely working-class voters. It is entirely plausible that Labour could close the gap in the most marginal red wall seats by winning back Liberal Democrat voters and making inroads with more affluent voters. Those who defected to the Conservatives in these seats in 2019 are also a little less working class than many suppose. The British Election Study shows that more than a third of them are university graduates, and only four in 10 are blue-collar workers. Any strategy that only appeals to the middle classes or only appeals to the working classes is flawed from the get-go.

The noises out of No 10 since Dominic Cummings departure suggest bold environmental policies rather than culture wars. Alongside a message that focuses on immigration and crime, as well as investment in public services and competent management of the economy, this puts No 10 on the verge of the best electoral offering it has had in the past 12 months.

It makes little sense to see British politics in the 2020s as a zero-sum game, a trade-off between two opposing blocs of voters. Reality is more complicated than that. The southern seats that matter to the Conservatives are not the likes of Battersea and Brighton Kemptown, but Swindon and Southampton Itchen. Both they and the red wall can be won together, not through culture war but by being gritty as well as green, by being patriotic as well as prudent. And not only is bridging the two groups possible, it is essential if the Conservatives want to keep winning.

James Johnson is a former Downing Street pollster who worked under Theresa May and now runs JL Partners

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For Tories, the choice between votes in the 'red wall' and 'liberal south' is an illusion - The Guardian

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Organized Crime Has a New Tool in Its Belts – Artificial Intelligence – OCCRP

Posted: at 6:24 am

As new technologies offer a world of opportunities and benefits in many sectors, so too do they offer new avenues and for organized crime. It was true at the advent of the internet, and its true for the growing field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to a new joint reportby Europol and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Center.

In the past social engineering scams had to be somewhat tailored to specific targets or audiences, through artificial intelligence they can be deployed en masse. (Source: Pixabay.com)At its simplest, artificial intelligences are human designed systems that, within a defined set of rules can absorb data, recognize patterns, and duplicate or alter them. In effect they are learning so that they can automate more and more complex tasks which in the past required human input.

However, the promise of more efficient automation and autonomy is inseparablefrom the different schemes that malicious actors are capable of, the document warned. Criminals and organized crime groups (OCGs) have been swiftly integrating new technologies into their modi operandi.

AI is particularly useful in the increasingly digitised world of organized crime that has unfolded due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

AI-supported or AI-enhanced cyberattack techniques that have been studied are proof that criminals are already taking steps to broaden the use of AI, the report said.

One such example is procedurally generated fishing emails designed to bypass spam filters.

Despite the proliferation of new and powerful technologies, a cybercriminal's greatest asset is still his marks propensity for human error and the most common types of cyber scams are still based around so-called social engineering, i.e taking advantage of empathy, trust or naivete.

While in the past social engineering scams had to be somewhat tailored to specific targets or audiences, through artificial intelligence they can be deployed en masse and use machine learning to tailor themselves to new audiences.

Unfortunately, criminals already have enough experience and sample texts to build their operations on, the report said. An innovative scammer can introduce AI systems to automate and speed up the detection rate at which the victims fall in or out of the scam. This allows them to focus only on those potential victims who are easy to deceive. Whatever false pretense a scammer chooses to persuade the target to participate in, an ML algorithm would be able to anticipate a targets most common replies to the chosen pretense, the report explained.

Most terrifying of all however, is the concept of the so-called deepfakes. Through deepfakes, with little source material, machine learning can be used to generate incredibly realistic human faces or voices and impose them into any video.

The technology has been lauded as a powerful weapon in todays disinformation wars, whereby one can no longer rely on what one sees or hears. the report said. One side effect of the use of deepfakes for disinformation is the diminished trust of citizens in authorityand information media.

Flooded with increasingly AI-generated spam and fake news that build on bigoted text, fake videos, and a plethora of conspiracy theories, people might feel that a considerable amount of information, including videos, simply cannot be trusted. The result is a phenomenon termed as information apocalypse or reality apathy.

One of the most infamous uses of deepfake technology has been to superimpose the faces of unsuspecting women onto pornographic videos.

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Zak Kirkup must unite a fractured WA Liberal Party and that may not even be his biggest task – ABC News

Posted: at 6:24 am

In some ways, the new WA Liberal leadership team will serve as a counter to some of the biggest criticisms levelled against the party.

Ever since the party was annihilated at the 2017 election, the Liberals have been accused of lacking energy, young talent and fresh ideas a party full of relics from the Barnett years, according to critics.

But the Opposition can now counter that by pointing to a 33-year-old leader in Zak Kirkup a rookie by political standards, in his first term of Parliament, who even critics would acknowledge isn't lacking in drive and determination.

Also repeatedly criticised for having a 'women problem', with female representation in the partyroom sorely lacking, the Liberals can also point to new deputy leader Libby Mettam another relative newcomer to politics, having won her seat in 2014.

But despite those advantages, the new leadership has some giant hurdles to overcome with an election just around the corner, after Mr Kirkup was elected unopposed following Dean Nalder's withdrawal from the contest.

Labor is already sharpening its knives, describing Mr Kirkup as being on his "L-plates".

That is a line of attack that could be highly damaging, as WA continues to stare down a once-in-a-generation global pandemic.

"You have a failed minister and an untried new member of parliament," Deputy Premier Roger Cook said of the two contenders before Mr Nalder pulled out.

"A pandemic requires a government that is experienced."

The bar, though, will not be set too high for Mr Kirkup, given how grave the fears of Liberal MPs have been for some time.

Currently, the party holds just 13 of the 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and that number could further plummet, according to some polls, with a host of marginal seats in danger.

With that in mind, simply holding ground might be seen by Liberals as something of a win and could ensure the party keeps Mr Kirkup on as opposition leader after March 13.

Still, Mr Kirkup insists he is in it to win it.

"Anyone who is standing to be leader should make sure that we are here to fight in every one of the 59 seats in the Lower House," he said.

But the fact that one of the most vulnerable Liberal seats is Mr Kirkup's own is a significant complicating factor.

He holds the seat of Dawesville by just over 300 votes and it is an electorate Labor will inevitably target, meaning Mr Kirkup will have to spend significant time defending his own territory.

That would be time he would be unable to spend campaigning in other seats, but Mr Kirkup has maintained he can find that balance.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think the people of Mandurah had my back," he said ahead of the partyroom meeting.

Both Mr Kirkup and Mr Nalder spoke of the need to unite the party, which during Ms Harvey's leadership was plagued by unhappy MPs who felt they had been sidelined.

Just how strong those divisions are was made abundantly clear in the minutes before the vote, when two retiring MPs former leader Mike Nahan and South Perth MP John McGrath called out what they saw as the excessive influence of powerbroker Peter Collier.

Did you know we offer a local version of the ABC News homepage? Watch below to see how you can set yours, and get more WA stories.

(Hint: You'll have to go back to the home page to do this)

Dr Nahan publicly called for both Mr Collier and Nedlands MP Bill Marmion to resign, while Mr McGrath said the events of Tuesday showed powerbrokers ran the party.

Healing those wounds and finding a way to unite ahead of the election campaign will be a crucial early task for Mr Kirkup.

So, too, will be convincing the public that Mr Kirkup has the experience to lead and ensuring colleagues believe he has the political nous to succeed.

Some MPs were left questioning the latter point after the Dawesville MP labelled Premier Mark McGowan "a princess" earlier this year.

But perhaps the biggest task will be making sure voters know who he is.

For more than a year now, Mr Kirkup has counted down the days until the election on his Twitter account and, this morning, that ticked down to 109 days.

It means he has just over three months to gain some name recognition in public and show himself to be a viable alternative to an historically popular premier.

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Hong Kong liberal studies to be renamed and reformed more China content, less focus on current affairs – Hong Kong Free Press

Posted: at 6:24 am

The teaching of liberal studies in Hong Kong schools will be changed to include more content about mainland China and less on current affairs while pupils will also be taught separately about national security issues, education chiefs say.

Following Chief Executive Carrie Lams Policy Address on Wednesday, the Education Bureau announced Thursday that the subject would be renamed, along with a series of other changes including halving the number of teaching hours devoted to it.

Introduced in 2009, liberal studies is one of the four core subjects in the senior secondary curriculum. It is aimed at developing critical thinking and enhancing social awareness.

But Lam and other pro-Beijing politicians say aspects of the education system helped fuel last years pro-democracy mass protests. Lam claimed in May that some people are feeding schoolchildren false and biased information and it was important to protect students from being poisoned.

Under the new plan, the curriculum will be reduced and grading changed to a pass/fail system. Liberal studies will still be a compulsory core subject but students will no longer have to conduct an associated project known as Independent Enquiry Study.

A list of suitable textbooks would be provided to schools after the bureau has screened them. According to Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung, the contents would now only include mature topics and the subject was not for news discussion.

Pupils would also have to join a study tour to mainland China as a part of the curriculum, but the tour would not be graded. Liberal studies would include more content on national education, but Yeung denied this meant the overall subject had become national education.

Details of the changes would be discussed with the Curriculum Development Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.

A now-resigned lawmaker for the education sector, Ip Kin-yuen, slammed the proposed changes for ignoring the report of the Task Force on Review of School Curriculum, which was released two months ago.

Why is there no study or evidence to support the proposal? Ip said. This is done so casually, there isnt even a document is the Education Bureau actually doing professional educational work? Or are they actually destroying the profession?

Ip said liberal studies had become the scapegoat for last years social unrest. They have to hide the responsibility of the governments misadministration for causing such uproar in society, he said.

As the subjects name suggests, liberal studies should be able to open up boundaries Through discussions, students can explore in-depth topics such as personal development and globalisation, Ip added. Theres no way that they should rule out [the discussion of] news.

In her policy address, Lam said the previous deviation from the subjects objective must be rectified so students could analyse contemporary issues in a rational manner and learn about the development of our nation, the Constitution, the Basic Law, the rule of law and so forth.

Earlier this year, the education bureau implemented a voluntary screening scheme for liberal studies textbooks, sparking concerns of self-censorship as publishers amended the textbooks. The phrase separation of powers was deleted and warnings added before content about civil disobedience.

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Artificial Intelligence Usage on the Rise – Rockland County Times

Posted: at 6:24 am

Steven Kemler Says AI is increasingly effective and in demand

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have captured our imaginations for decades, but until more recently, had limited practical application. Steven Kemler, an entrepreneurial business leader and Managing Director of the Stone Arch Group, says that with recent increases in available data and computing power, AI already impacts our lives on many levels and that going forward, self-teaching algorithms will play an increasingly important role in bothin society and in business.

In 1997,Deep Blue, developed by IBM, became the first computer / artificial intelligence system to beat a current world chess champion (Gary Kasparov), significantly elevating interest in the practical applications of AI. These practical uses still took years to develop, with the worldwide market for AI technology not reaching $10 billion until 2016. Since then, AI market growth has accelerated significantly, reaching $50 billion in 2020 and expected to exceed $100 billion by 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Kemler says AI and machine learning are playing a leading role in technological innovation across a wide spectrum of industries from healthcare and education, to transportation and the military. Many large corporations are using machine learning and AI to more accurately target customers based on their digital footprints, and in finance, AI is being widely used to power high speed trading systems and reduce fraud.

Intelligence agencies and the military are spending heavily on AI to analyze very large data sets and detect potential threats earlier than humans would normally be able to do so, including through the use of facial recognition. AI powered facial recognition is not only helpful for security purposes but can be used to identify lockdown and quarantine-avoiders and track the movements of individuals displaying symptoms. Despite privacy concerns, evidence suggests that the public is becoming more tolerant of these surveillance tactics and other uses of AI that would previously have been considered overly invasive.

Kemler points out that we can expect research and development in AI, and the machine learning field, to lead to continued breakthroughs in health sciences, including in the prevention and treatment of viruses. According an article recently published in the Lancet, a well-respected medical journal, [there is] a strong rationale for using AI-based assistive tools for drug repurposing medications for human disease, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more insights from Steven Kemler, visit his LinkedIn and Twitter platforms.

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How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact The Future Of Tech Jobs – Utah Public Radio

Posted: at 6:24 am

Artificial intelligence may seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but its used in everything from ride-sharing apps to personalized online shopping suggestions.

A common concern with artificial intelligence, or AI, is that it will take over jobs as more tasks become automated. Char Sample, a chief research scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory, believes this is likely, but instead of robots serving you lunch, AI may have more of an impact on cybersecurity and other white-collar jobs.

The people who are blue collar jobs that work in service industry, they're probably not going to be as impacted by AI, but the jobs that are more repetitive in nature, like students who are graduating with cybersecurity degrees, some of their early jobs are running scans and auditing systems, those jobs could be replaced. Sample said.

This may have a disproportional effect on jobs in tech hubs, like Salt Lake City. However, as AI becomes increasingly prevalent, AI-related jobs, and the cities where these jobs are sourced, are expected to grow.

If we want to expand beyond AIs current capabilities, Sample thinks researchers need to be ambitious and think outside the box.

Yeah, I firmly believe we need an AI moonshot initiative. And right now, I'm seeing a lot of piecemeal, even though some of the pieces of the piecemeal are very big, they lack that comprehensive overview that says, let's look at all aspects of artificial intelligence. Sample said.

Not only could a moonshot push AI forward, but it would bring in people with diverse backgrounds to improve AI.

I'm hoping that if we were able to do such a thing, as a moonshot, we could look at it across the whole spectrum of disciplines, and gain a new understanding of how this works, and we can use it to our advantage. Sample said.

Sample spoke about Artificial Intelligence at USUs Science Unwrapped program this fall. For information on how to watch her recorded presentation, visit http://www.usu.edu/unwrapped/presentations/2020/smart-cookies-october-2020.

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Meet GPT-3. It Has Learned to Code (and Blog and Argue). – The New York Times

Posted: at 6:24 am

Before asking GPT-3 to generate new text, you can focus it on particular patterns it may have learned during its training, priming the system for certain tasks. You can feed it descriptions of smartphone apps and the matching Figma code. Or you can show it reams of human dialogue. Then, when you start typing, it will complete the sequence in a more specific way. If you prime it with dialogue, for instance, it will start chatting with you.

It has this emergent quality, said Dario Amodei, vice president for research at OpenAI. It has some ability to recognize the pattern that you gave it and complete the story, give another example.

Previous language models worked in similar ways. But GPT-3 can do things that previous models could not, like write its own computer code. And, perhaps more important, you can prime it for specific tasks using just a few examples, as opposed to the thousands of examples and several hours of additional training required by its predecessors. Researchers call this few-shot learning, and they believe GPT-3 is the first real example of what could be a powerful phenomenon.

It exhibits a capability that no one thought possible, said Ilya Sutskever, OpenAIs chief scientist and a key figure in the rise of artificial intelligence technologies over the past decade. Any layperson can take this model and provide these examples in about five minutes and get useful behavior out of it.

This is both a blessing and a curse.

OpenAI plans to sell access to GPT-3 via the internet, turning it into a widely used commercial product, and this year it made the system available to a limited number of beta testers through their web browsers. Not long after, Jerome Pesenti, who leads the Facebook A.I. lab, called GPT-3 unsafe, pointing to sexist, racist and otherwise toxic language the system generated when asked to discuss women, Black people, Jews and the Holocaust.

With systems like GPT-3, the problem is endemic. Everyday language is inherently biased and often hateful, particularly on the internet. Because GPT-3 learns from such language, it, too, can show bias and hate. And because it learns from internet text that associates atheism with the words cool and correct and that pairs Islam with terrorism, GPT-3 does the same thing.

This may be one reason that OpenAI has shared GPT-3 with only a small number of testers. The lab has built filters that warn that toxic language might be coming, but they are merely Band-Aids placed over a problem that no one quite knows how to solve.

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Everything Is Not Terminator: Assessment Of Artificial Intelligence Systems – Privacy – United States – Mondaq News Alerts

Posted: at 6:24 am

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Published in The Journal of Robotics, ArtificialIntelligence & Law (January-February 2021)

Many information security and privacy laws such as theCalifornia Consumer Privacy Act1 and the New York StopHacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act2 requireperiodic assessments of an organization's informationmanagement systems. Because many organizations collect, use, andstore personal information from individualsmuch of whichcould be used to embarrass or impersonate those individuals ifinappropriately accessedthese laws require organizations toregularly test and improve the security they use to protect thatinformation.

As of yet, there is no similar specific law in the United Statesdirected at artificial intelligence systems ("AIS"),requiring the organizations that rely on AIS to test its accuracy,fairness, bias, discrimination, privacy, and security.

However, existing law is broad enough to impose on manyorganizations a general obligation to assess their AIS, andlegislation has appeared requiring certain entities to conductimpact assessments on their AIS. Even without a regulatory mandate,many organizations should perform AIS assessments as a bestpractice.

This column summarizes current and pending legal requirementsbefore providing more details about the assessment process.

The Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") authorityto police "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in oraffecting commerce" through rule making and administrativeadjudication is broad enough to govern AIS, and it has a departmentthat focuses on algorithmic transparency, the Office of TechnologyResearch and Investigation.3 However, the FTC has notissued clear guidance regarding AIS uses that qualify as unfair ordeceptive acts or practices. There are general practices thatorganizations can adopt that will minimize their potential forengaging in unfair or deceptive practices, which include conductingassessments of their AIS.4 However, there is no specificFTC rule obligating organizations to assess their AIS.

There have been some legislative efforts to create such anobligation, including the Algorithmic AccountabilityAct,5 which was proposed in Congress, and a similar billproposed in New Jersey,6 both in 2019.

The federal bill would require covered entities to conduct"impact assessments" on their "high-risk" AISin order to evaluate the impacts of the AIS's design processand training data on "accuracy, fairness, bias,discrimination, privacy, and security."7

The New Jersey bill is similar, requiring an evaluation of theAIS's development process, including the design and trainingdata, for impacts on "accuracy, fairness, bias,discrimination, privacy, and security," and must includeseveral elements, including a "detailed description of thebest practices used to minimize the risks" and a"cost-benefit analysis."8 It would alsorequire covered entities to work with external third parties,independent auditors, and independent technology experts to conductthe assessments, if reasonably possible.9

Although neither of these has become law, they represent theexpected trend of emerging regulation.10

When organizations rely on AIS to make or inform decisions oractions that have legal or similarly significant effects onindividuals, it is reasonable for governments to require that thoseorganizations also conduct periodic assessments of the AIS. Forexample, state criminal justice systems have begun to adopt AISthat use algorithms to report on a defendant's risk to commitanother crime, risk to miss his or her next court date, etc.; humandecision makers then use those reports to inform theirdecisions.11

The idea is that the AIS can be a tool to inform decisionmakerspolice, prosecutors, judgesto help them makebetter, data-based decisions that eliminate biases they may haveagainst defendants based on race, gender, etc.12 This ispotentially a wonderful use for AIS, but only if the AIS actuallyremoves inappropriate and unlawful human bias rather than recreateit.

Unfortunately, the results have been mixed at best, as there isevidence suggesting that some of the AIS in the criminal justicesystem is merely replicating human bias.

In one example, an African-American teenage girl and a whiteadult male were each convicted of stealing property totaling about$80. An AIS determined that the white defendant was rated as alower recidivism risk than the teenager, even though he had a muchmore extensive criminal record, with felonies versus juvenilemisdemeanors. Two years after their arrests, the AISrecommendations were revealed to be incorrect: the male defendantwas serving an eight-year sentence for another robbery; theteenager had not committed any further crimes.13 Similarissues have been observed in AIS used in hiring,14lending,15 health care,16 and schooladmissions.17

Although some organizations are conducting AIS assessmentswithout a legal requirement, a larger segment is reluctant to adoptthe assessments as a best practice, as many for-profit companiescare more about accuracy to the original data used to train theirAIS than they do about eliminating the biases in that originaldata.18 According to Daniel Soukup, a data scientistwith Mostly AI, a start-up experimenting with controlling biases indata, "There's always another priority, it seems. . . .You're trading off revenue against making fair predictions, andI think that is a very hard sell for these institutions and theseorganizations."19

I suspect, though, that the tide will turn in the otherdirection in the near future, with or without a direct legislativeimpetus, similar to the trend in privacy rights and operations.Although most companies in the United States are not subject tobroad privacy laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act or theEuropean Union's General Data Protection Regulation, I haveobserved an increasing number of clients that want to provide theprivacy rights afforded by those laws, either because theircustomers expect them to or they want to position themselves ascompanies that care about individuals' privacy.

It is not hard to see a similar trend developing among companiesthat rely on AIS. As consumers become more aware of the problematicissues involved in AIS decision-makingpotential bias, use ofsensitive personal information, security of that information, thesignificant effects, lack of oversight, etc.they will becomejust as demanding about AIS requirements as privacy requirements.Similar to privacy, consumer expectations will likely be pushed inthat direction by jurisdictions that adopt AIS assessmentlegislation, even if they do not live in those jurisdictions.

Organizations that are looking to perform AIS assessments now inanticipation of regulatory activity and consumer expectationsshould conduct an assessment consistent with the followingprinciples and goals:

Consistent with the New Jersey Algorithmic Accountability Act,any AIS assessment should be done by an outside party, preferablyby qualified AI counsel, who can retain a technological consultantto assist them. This performs two functions.

First, it will avoid the situation in which the developers thatcreated the AIS for the organization are also assessing it, whichcould result in a conflict of interest, as the developers have anincentive to assess the AIS in a way that is favorable to theirwork.

Second, by retaining outside AI counsel, in addition tobenefiting from the counsel's expertise, organizations are ableto claim that the resulting assessment report and any related workproduct is protected by attorney-client privilege in the event thatthere is litigation or a government investigation related to theAIS. Companies that experience or anticipate a data security breachor event retain outside information security counsel for similarreasons, as the resulting breach analysis could be discoverable ifoutside counsel is not properly retained. The results can be veryexpensive if the breach report is mishandled.

For example, Capital One recently entered into an $80 millionConsent Order with the Department of Treasury related to a dataincident following an order from a federal court that a breachreport prepared for Capital One was not properly coordinatedthrough outside counsel and therefore not protected byattorney-client privilege.20

An AIS assessment should identify, catalogue, and describe therisks of an organization's AIS.

Properly identifying these risks, among others, and describinghow the AIS impacts each will allow an organization to understandthe issues it must address to improve its AIS.21

Once the risks in the AIS are identified, the assessment shouldfocus on how the organization alerts impacted populations. This canbe in the form of a public-facing AI policy, posted and maintainedin a manner similar to an organization's privacypolicy.22 This can also be in the form of more pointedpop-up prompts, a written disclosure and consent form, automatedverbal statement in telephone interactions, etc. The appropriateform of the notice will depend on a number of factors, includingthe organization, the AIS, the at-risk populations, the nature ofthe risks involved, etc. The notice should include the relevantrights regarding AIS afforded by privacy laws and otherregulations.

After implementing appropriate notices, the organization shouldanticipate receiving comments from members of the impactedpopulations and the general public. The assessment should help theorganization implement a process that allows it to accept, respondto, and act on those comments. This may be similar to howorganizations process privacy rights requests from consumers anddata subjects, particularly when a notice addresses those rights.The assessment may recommend that certain employees be tasked withaccepting and responding to comments, the organization addoperative capabilities that address privacy rights impacting AIS orrisks identified in the assessment and objected to by comments,etc. It may be helpful to have a technological consult provideinput on how the organization can leverage its technology to assistin this process.

The assessment should help the organization remediate identifiedrisks. The nature of the remediation will depend on the nature ofthe risks, the AIS, and the organization. Any outside AIS counselconducting the assessment needs to be well-versed in the variousforms remediation can take. In some instances, properly noticingthe risk to the relevant individuals will be sufficient, per bothlegal requirements and the organization's principles. Otherrisks cannot or should not be "papered over," but ratherobligate the organization to reduce the AIS's potential toinjure.23 This may include adding more human oversight,at least temporarily, to check the AIS's output fordiscriminatory activity or bias. A technology consultant may beable to advise the organization regarding revising the code orprocedures of the AIS to address the identified risks.

Additionally, where the AIS is evidencing bias because of thedata used to train it, more appropriate historical data or evensynthetic data may be used to retrain the AIS to remove or reduceits discriminatory behavior.24

All organizations that rely on AIS to make decisions that havelegal or similarly significant effects on individuals shouldperiodically conduct assessments of their AIS. This is true for allorganizations: for-profit companies, non-profit corporations,governmental entities, educational institutions, etc. Doing so willhelp them avoid potential legal trouble in the event their AIS isinadvertently demonstrating illegal behavior and ensure the AISacts consistently with the organization's values.

Organizations that adopt assessments earlier rather than laterwill be in a better position to comply with AIS-specific regulationwhen it appears and to develop a brand as an organization thatcares about fairness.

Footnotes

* John Frank Weaver, a member of McLaneMiddleton's privacy and data security practice group, is amember of the Board of Editors of The Journal of Robotics,Artificial Intelligence & Law and writes its"Everything Is Not Terminator" column. Mr.Weaver has a diverse technology practice that focuses oninformation security, data privacy, and emerging technologies,including artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, anddrones.

1. Cal. Civ. Code 1798.150(granting private right of action when a business fails to"maintain reasonable security procedures and practicesappropriate to the nature of the information," withassessments necessary to identify reasonable procedures).

2. New York General Business Law, Chapter20, Article 39-F, 899-bb.2(b)(ii)(A)(3) (requiringentities to assess "the sufficiency of safeguards in place tocontrol the identified risks"), 899.2(b)(ii)(B)(1) (requiringentities to assess "risks in network and softwaredesign"), 899.2(b)(ii)(B)(2)(requiring entities to assess"risks in information processing, transmission andstorage"), and 899.2(b)(ii)(C)(1) (requiring entities toassess "risks of information storage and disposal").

3. 15 U.S.C. 45(b); 15 U.S.C. 57a.

4. John Frank Weaver, "Everything IsNot Terminator: Helping AI to Comply with the FederalTrade Commission Act," The Journal of ArtificialIntelligence & Law (Vol. 2, No. 4; July-August 2019),291-299 (other practices include: establishing a governingstructure for the AIS; establishing policies to address the useand/sale of AIS; establishing notice procedures; and ensuringthird-party agreements properly allocate liability andresponsibility).

5. Algorithmic Transparency Act of 2019,S. 1108, H.R. 2231, 116th Cong. (2019).

6. New Jersey Algorithmic AccountabilityAct, A.B. 5430, 218th Leg., 2019 Reg. Sess. (N.J. 2019).

7. Algorithmic Accountability Act of2019, supra note 5, at 2(2) and 3(b).

8. New Jersey Algorithmic AccountabilityAct, supra note 6, at 2.

9. Id., at 3.

10. For a fuller discussion of thesebills and other emerging legislation intended to govern AIS, seeYoon Chae, "U.S. AI Regulation Guide: Legislative Overview andPractical Considerations," The Journal of ArtificialIntelligence & Law (Vol. 3, No. 1; January-February 2020),17-40.

11. See Jason Tashea,"Courts Are Using AI to Sentence Criminals. That Must StopNow," Wired (April 17, 2017), https://www.wired.com/2017/04/courts-using-ai-sentence-criminals-must-stop-now/.

12. Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, SuryaMattu, & Lauren Kirchner, "Machine Bias,"ProPublica (May 23, 2016), https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing("The appeal of the [AIS's] risk scores is obvious. . . Ifcomputers could accurately predict which defendants were likely tocommit new crimes the criminal justice system could be fairer andmore selective about who is incarcerated and for howlong.").

13. Id.

14. Jeffrey Dastin, "Amazon scrapssecret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women,"Reuters (October 9, 2018), https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUKKCN1MK08G(Amazon "realized its new system was not rating candidates forsoftware developer jobs and other technical posts in agender-neutral way").

15. Dan Ennis and Tim Cook, "Bankingfrom AI lending models raises questions of culpability,regulation," Banking Dive (August 16, 2019), https://www.bankingdive.com/news/artificial-intelligence-lending-bias-model-regulation-liability/561085/#:~:text=Bill%20Foster%2C%20D%2DIL%2C,lenders%20for%20mortgage%20refinancing%20loans("African-Americans may find themselves the subject ofhigher-interest credit cards simply because a computer has inferredtheir race").

16. Shraddha Chakradhar, "Widelyused algorithm for follow-up care in hospitals is racially biased,study finds," STAT (October 24, 2019), https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/24/widely-used-algorithm-hospitals-racial-bias/("An algorithm commonly used by hospitals and other healthsystems to predict which patients are most likely to need follow-upcare classified white patients overall as being more ill than blackpatientseven when they were just as sick").

17. DJ Pangburn, "Schools are usingsoftware to help pick who gets in. What could go wrong?"Fast Company (May 17, 2019), https://www.fastcompany.com/90342596/schools-are-quietly-turning-to-ai-to-help-pick-who-gets-in-what-could-go-wrong("If future admissions decisions are based on past decisiondata, Richardson warns of creating an unintended feedback loop,limiting a school's demographic makeup, harming disadvantagedstudents, and putting a school out of sync with changingdemographics.").

18. Todd Feathers, "Fake Data CouldHelp Solve Machine Learning's Bias ProblemIf We LetIt," Slate (September 17, 2020), https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/synthetic-data-artificial-intelligence-bias.html.

19. Id.

20. In the Matter of Capital One, N.A.,Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., Consent Order (Document #2020-036),Department of Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,AA-EC-20-51 (August 5, 2020), https://www.occ.gov/static/enforcement-actions/ea2020-036.pdf;In re: Capital One Consumer Data Security BreachLitigation, MDL No. 1:19md2915 (AJT/JFA) (E.D. Va. May 26,2020).

21. For a great discussion of identifyingrisks in AIS, see Nicol Turner Lee, Paul Resnick, and Genie Barton,"Algorithmic bias detection and mitigation: Best practices andpolicies to reduce consumer harms," Brookings (May22, 2019), https://www.brookings.edu/research/algorithmic-bias-detection-and-mitigation-best-practices-and-policies-to-reduce-consumer-harms/.

22. For more discussion of public facingAI policies, see John Frank Weaver, "Everything Is NotTerminator: Public-Facing Artificial IntelligencePoliciesPart I," The Journal of ArtificialIntelligence & Law (Vol. 2, No. 1; January-February 2019),59-65; John Frank Weaver, "Everything Is NotTerminator: Public-Facing Artificial IntelligencePoliciesPart II," The Journal of ArtificialIntelligence & Law (Vol. 2, No. 2; March-April 2019),141-146.

23. For a broad overview of remediatingAIS, see James Manyika, Jake Silberg, and Brittany Presten,"What Do We Do About Biases in AI?" Harvard BusinessReview (October 25, 2019), https://hbr.org/2019/10/what-do-we-do-about-the-biases-in-ai.

24. There are numerous popular andacademic articles exploring this idea, including Todd Feathers,"Fake Data Could Help Solve Machine Learning's BiasProblemIf We Let It," Slate (September 17,2020), https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/synthetic-data-artificial-intelligence-bias.html,and Lokke Moerel, "Algorithms can reduce discrimination, butonly with proper data," IAPP (November, 16, 2018), https://iapp.org/news/a/algorithms-can-reduce-discrimination-but-only-with-proper-data/.

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

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How Artificial Intelligence overcomes major obstacles standing in the way of automating complex visual inspection tasks – Quality Magazine

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How Artificial Intelligence overcomes major obstacles standing in the way of automating complex visual inspection tasks | 2020-11-27 | Quality Magazine This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Sheremetyevo Shows How It Uses Artificial Intelligence to Effectively Plan and Execute Airport Functions and Activities – PRNewswire

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MOSCOW, Nov. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sergei Konyakhin, Director of the Production Modeling Department of JSC Sheremetyevo International Airport, gave a presentation at the Artificial Intelligence Systems 2020 on November 24 conference showing how Sheremetyevo International Airport uses artificial intelligence (AI) systems to effectively manage the airport.

The conference was part of the online forum TAdviser Summit 2020: Results of the Year and Plans for 2021. The discussion among of top managers of large companies and leading experts in the IT industry centered on issues related to the implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in the activities of Russian enterprises.

Sheremetyevo Airport has developed and implemented systems for automatic long-term and short-term planning of personnel and resources. As a result, the planning system was calibrated based on real processes and its previous weaknesses were eliminated; recommendation systems were implemented allowing dispatchers to manage resources taking into account future events; and the company was able to significantly optimize expenses.

The company is looking at developing AI systems in the near future for automatic dispatching, automation of administrative personnel functions, and providing top management with transparent reporting and detailed factor analysis.

In the long term, the use of artificial intelligence systems will help maintain high quality services for passengers, airlines and punctuality of flights while taking into account the long-term growth of passenger and cargo traffic.

Sheremetyevo is the largest airport in Russia and has the largest terminal and airfield infrastructure in the country, including six passenger terminals with a total area of more than 570,000 square meters, three runways, a cargo terminal with a capacity of 380,000 tonnes of cargo annually, and other facilities. The uninterrupted operation of all Sheremetyevo systems requires precise planning, scheduling of all processes, and efficient allocation of resources. At the same time, forecasting the production activities of the airport need to take into account a number of specific factors, including:

Sheremetyevo International Airportis among the TOP-10 airport hubs in Europe, the largest Russian airport in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. The route network comprises more than 230 destinations. In 2019, the airport served 49 million 933 thousand passengers, which is 8.9% more than in 2018. Sheremetyevo is the best airport in terms of the quality of services in Europe, the absolute world leader in punctuality of flights, the owner of the highest 5-star Skytrax rating.

You can find additional information at http://www.svo.aero

TAdviser.ru is the largest business portal in Russia on corporate informatization, a leading organizer of events in this area, a resource on which a unique knowledge base is formed in three areas:

TAdviser.ru provides convenient mechanisms for finding the right IT solution and IT supplier based on information about implementations and the experience of companies. The site's audience exceeds 1 million people. The target audience of the portal are representatives of customer companies interested in obtaining complete and objective information from an independent source, companies that provide IT solutions, as well as persons observing the development of the IT market in Russia (investors, officials, the media, the expert community, etc.).

SOURCE Sheremetyevo International Airport

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