Articles Posted in Artificial Intelligence

What becomes of old (popular) Twitch channels, is Walmart getting into the virtual currency game, could 5G mean safer self-driving vehicles, and more …

Posted June 25, 2019

Be Careful that Bot Doesn’t Come Back to Bite You

Much like humans, bots come in all shapes and sizes. In social media networks, these bots can like what you post and even increase your followers. Companies use bots for all types of things—from booking a ride to giving makeup tutorials. Some bots can even solve your legal problems. Besides saving time and money, bots have the potential to reduce errors and increase a business’s customer base. But what happens when bots spy on users and share personal information? Or when they make racial slurs and offensive comments?

Posted May 7, 2019

What Will Be the Endgame for Copyright in AI-Generated Works?

(Note, this post has spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.)

Perhaps one of the most mesmerizing scenes in Avengers: Endgame is where all the MCU superheroes (including those on Titan) come through Dr. Strange’s portals to enter the battle against Thanos. In Avengers: Infinity War, Dr. Strange didn’t use these portals to send Iron Man and the others on Titan back to Earth before everyone got dusted, but that alternative storyline certainly may have been one that fans would have enjoyed. Understandably, one enormous limiting factor to alternative storylines is cost—especially when $600-800 million was spent to create the two movies as they are. Future advances in artificial intelligence technologies may change that. Indeed, a number of large tech companies are already interested in creating interactive content to personalize storytelling (e.g., Black Mirror’s “Bandersnatch” episode), and recent developments in machine learning algorithms (including those fueling the creation of photorealistic images) may bring us closer to that reality sooner than later. If so, under what circumstances will companies own and get to collect on the copyright?

Posted May 1, 2019

The Bias in the Machine: Facial Recognition Has Arrived, but Its Flaws Remain

by Michael S. Horikawa

Michael S. Horikawa

When it comes to photos destined for the web, I’d rather be behind the camera than in front of it. However, on a recent trip to Tokyo I was reminded that photos of me, and specifically my face, are often being captured and processed by systems that are increasingly being embedded in our modern life.

Posted April 2, 2019

Deepfake News: While Technology Sprints, the Law Slowly Creeps Along

In another case of the law trying to keep pace with evolving technology, legislators are introducing bills to punish those who attempt to create false images that purport to be real. Targeting the rise of automated computer-generated imagery that has become increasingly accessible to the public, on February 14, 2019, California Assemblyman Marc Berman introduced a bill to create a criminal cause of action for making or distributing a “deepfake.” Deepfakes are multimedia, often audiovisual recordings, that seem real but that are generated by computers, often utilizing artificial intelligence-enhanced algorithms.

Posted March 21, 2019

Facial Recognition Technology May Soon Gain Some New Wrinkles

No one knows your face as well as your iPhone does. All the unique variances of your face that make it yours and yours alone, these are all data points that your iPhone uses to unlock your phone using a face in place of a thumbprint. This same data that the iPhone collects can be used by the underlying tech—facial recognition technology—in a vast array of applications, from border control to photo tagging to law enforcement. But is this data (the measurement of the space between the eyes, the texture of the skin, etc.) open data? Or do individuals have a right to protection of an image of their face?

Posted February 19, 2019

AI, Robot – Our Final Invention?

In his 2013 book, Our Final Invention, documentary filmmaker James Barrat explores the perils and promises of artificial intelligence (AI). The book’s ominous subtitle, Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, echoes similar dire sentiments regarding the ultimate consequences of mankind’s quest for fully functioning AI, including from celebrated theorists such as Stephen Hawking (“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”) and Claude Shannon (“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans.”).

Posted January 9, 2019

News of Note for the Internet-Minded – 1/9/19 – Mostly Tales of Human Bias and Misbehavior

Thieves loot some Ethereum; chat apps and the IoT attract unwanted attention; AI detects viruses … and password sharing; and more …