The EU’s draft AI Act is causing quite a stir, particular as it pertains to regulating general-purpose artificial intelligence, including guidelines for open source developers that specify procedures for accuracy, risk management, transparency, technical documentation and data governance, well as cybersecurity. The first law on AI by a major regulator anywhere, the proposed AI Act seeks to promote “trustworthy AI,” but some are critical that as written the legislation could hurt open efforts to develop AI systems. The EU is seeking industry input as the proposal heads for a vote this fall. Continue reading EU’s AI Act Could Present Dangers for Open-Source Coders

The European Union’s pending Artificial Intelligence Act — the world’s first comprehensive effort to regulate AI — is coming under scrutiny as it moves to law. The Act proposes unplugging AI deemed a risk to society. Critics say it draws too heavily on general consumer product safety rules, overlooking unique aspects of AI, and is too closely tied to EU market law. This could limit its applicability as a template for other regions evaluating AI legislation, contravening the EU’s desired first-movers status in the digital sphere. Continue reading EU’s Sweeping AI Act Takes Tough Stance on High Risk Use

In an effort to thwart misinformation, Amazon-owned live-streaming video service Twitch is cracking down on bad actors. “We do not believe that individuals who use online services to spread false, harmful information, have a place in our community,” the company stated. Twitch worked with researchers and experts to identify three characteristics that all bad actors share: an online presence dedicated to (1) persistently sharing (2) widely disproven and broadly shared (3) harmful misinformation topics, such as conspiracies that promote violence. Twitch specified that it will not take action against “one-off” statements containing misinformation. Continue reading Twitch Aims to Remove Channels That Spread Misinformation

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) U.S. Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) issued a statement on the use of facial recognition “as applied by government and the private sector,” concluding that, “when rigorously evaluated, the technology too often produces results demonstrating clear bias based on ethnic, racial, gender, and other human characteristics recognizable by computer systems.” ACM, which has 100,000 global members, urged legislators to suspend use of it by government and business entities. Continue reading ACM Calls for Temporary Ban of Facial Recognition Systems

Facebook revealed a ratings system it has been developing over the past year, assigning users a “reputation score” that estimates their trustworthiness on a scale from zero to one. The idea behind the system is to weed out bad actors, according to Facebook product manager Tessa Lyons who is in charge of the battle against fake news. Up until now, Facebook, like other tech companies, has depended on users to report problematic content, but discovered that users began to file false reports about items they said were untrue. Continue reading Facebook, Twitter Turn to Algorithms to Weed Out Bad Actors

Equifax’s two cyber breaches, which exposed about 143 million Americans’ personal information, were the work of hackers who took advantage of a flaw in Apache Struts software. The nonprofit Apache Software Foundation and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned of the bug in early March, but Equifax only alerted its end users on September 7, almost five months later. IT experts say the event highlights the challenges in keeping software current and identifying all potentially vulnerable applications. Continue reading Equifax Breaches Spur Businesses to Prioritize Cybersecurity

Hanson Robotics — which develops robot products and artificial intelligence technology to serve consumer, medical and entertainment markets — is currently looking to fill two positions: robotics product manager and software product manager. The company is seeking a robotics product manager to lead product development and manage hardware, arts and software teams. The company’s software product manager will lead software development in collaboration with the hardware, arts and executive teams. Details and contact information for each position are available on ETCentric. Continue reading Hanson Robotics Is Seeking Experienced Product Managers