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Governor Gavin Newsom just vetoed a bill banning fully driverless AV trucks.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/24/california-governor-vetoes-bill-to-ban-driverless-av-trucks/
California governor vetoes bill to ban driverless AV trucks Rebecca Bellan@rebeccabellan, 24 Sep 2023
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Friday that would have required a human safety operator to be present any time a self-driving truck operated on public roads in the state.”
https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB316/id/2789644
I'm very concerned that the risks associated with driverless trucks have not been fully vetted, e.g.,Timothy McVeigh.
For those of you who weren't born yet, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, using a rental truck full of an improvised fertilizer bomb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh
It's not clear whether forcing AV's to also have human drivers ('featherbedders'?) would have stopped a McVeigh-type attack, but it would have thrown up an additional barrier.
California (and most other states) have severe penalties for driving while 'impaired'—e.g., under the influence of alcohol or marijuana. Truck drivers have substantial additional requirements in training, licensing and records keeping—e.g., number of continuous hours on the roads, etc.
How do you even test an AI driver for ‘impairment’? Do you use a ‘hackalyzer’? Does the AI have to get out of the vehicle and walk a straight line? Is AI impairment even decidable?
How does a patrol car even ‘pull over’ an AV?
At least for the moment, AI's have no 4th and 5th amendment rights, so there are no civil rights to violate when asking “Ihre Papiere, bitte?”, but apparently there are no mechanisms to actually check the credentials of AI truck drivers before they enter the Yerba Buena Tunnel or the Holland Tunnel?
Many tunnels don't want RV's with propane tanks, but zombie AV's are OK?
Starlink now offers high-speed Internet for vehicles, including trucks. Yet Elon Musk was roundly criticized for prohibiting Ukraine's use of Starlink for AV weapons. Perhaps Elon's worries about weaponized AV's shouldn't be dismissed out of hand?
https://tuckstruck.net/truck-and-kit/geekery/starlink-mobile-roaming/
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-ukraine-starlink-russia-air-force-fde93d9a69d7dbd1326022ecfdbc53c2
Elon Musk's refusal to have Starlink support Ukraine attack in Crimea raises questions for Pentagon
Tara Copp, Updated 3:42 PM PDT, 11 Sep 2023
I hate to sound like a Luddite, but I don't think that these breathless AV aficionados have completely thought all of these risks through.
Laura Dobberstein, The Register, 29 Sep 2023
Japan’s Transport Safety Board on Thursday judged that a cargo ship that spilled 1,000 tons of fuel oil into a pristine marine environment off the coast of Mauritius in 2020 was traveling off course in search of a cell phone signal.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/signal_search_caused_oil_spill/
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880919/uk-passes-massive-online-safety-bill
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/26/metro/mbta-green-line-extension-new-slow-zones/
Rare ‘zero-day’ exploit used in failed hacking attempt that researchers say was probably conducted by the Egyptian government
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/09/23/predator-egypt-hack-spyware-iphone/
[Monty Solomon noted this: Hackers steal $200M from crypto company Mixin https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/25/hackers-steal-200-million-from-crypto-company-mixin/
As Sam Bankman-Fried heads to trial, many digital-asset players remain in survival mode.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/28/23893269/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-trial-evidence-crypto
OpenAI Employee Discovers Eliza Effect, Gets Emotional
ChatGPT's new text-to-voice feature has one OpenAI's head of safety systems feeling heard & warm, while other experiments with AI therapy have been a disaster.
Designing a program in such a way that it can truly convince someone that another human is on the other side of the screen has been a goal of AI developers since the concept took its first steps toward reality. Research company OpenAI recently announced that its flagship product ChatGPT would be getting eyes, ears, and a voice in its quest to appear more human. Now, an AI safety engineer at OpenAI says she got “quite emotional” after using the chatbot’s voice mode to have an impromptu therapy session.
https://gizmodo.com/openai-employee-discovers-eliza-effect-gets-emotional-1850877739
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/artificial-intelligence-extinction-risk-1.6859118
Artificial intelligence is becoming a major part of our world and has the potential to change work forever, but is it a threat or an opportunity? The National brings together people using AI to improve their work or workplace and others who see it as a hazard to their jobs.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2267202115683
AI will soon be able to cover public meetings. But should it? <#>
“Is it ready for primetime, ready to be released to the masses? Absolutely not…But can it be done? Can you design an AI system that attends a city meeting and generates a story? Yeah, I did it.”
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/06/ai-will-soon-be-able-to-cover-public-meetings-but-should-it/
Lucas Laursen, IEEE Spectrum, 27 Sep 2023, via ACM TechNews, 29 Sep 2023
A group of Nigerian hacker-activists aims to collect and share data to increase public awareness of pollution caused by oil spills. The Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI) is organizing a low-cost air pollution monitoring network, and last year the group began installing the first of 15 air quality sensors in and around the city of Port Harcourt. The sensors monitor particulate matter, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure to test for air pollution and hopefully determine its origin. MAJI has deployed two community networks to provide Internet access. MAJI's Okoro Onyekachi said the organization releases its data through a Web portal, radio, and social and print media in the hope of having a greater impact on polluters.
Security experts worry a group of English-speaking hackers has allied itself with forces responsible for the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/22/mgm-hack-laid-to-star-fraud/
There are countless reports that there are millions of open information security jobs.
My take on the situation is that the numbers being touted are way, way off.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66913551
“Reality Labs—which as the name suggests is Meta's virtual and augmented reality branch—has lost a staggering $21 billion since last year.”
Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press, 27 Sep 2023, via ACM TechNews, 29 Sep 2023
New York State has prohibited facial recognition in schools, following last month's report by the state's Office of Information Technology Services acknowledging that the risks of the technology's use may outweigh its security benefits. The analysis cited facial recognition's “potentially higher rate of false positives for people of color, non-binary and transgender people, women, the elderly, and children.” The report added that biotechnology would not prevent students from entering schools “unless an administrator or staff member first noticed that the student was in crisis, had made some sort of threat, or indicated in some other way that they could be a threat to school security.” Decisions on digital fingerprinting and other biometric solutions are left up to local districts, per New York Education Commissioner Betty Rosa's directive.
“… they had planned to use the grants to fund projects on noncontroversial topics such as nutritional guidelines…”—Sorry, too late!
See for example: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/18/gigantic-power-of-meat-industry-blocking-green-alternatives-study-finds
Nothing is non-political any more…
The obvious question to ask is what happens to a driver who wasn't using a Google app and drove off the collapsed bridge and died? The only third party who could be held responsible is the municipality that failed to block off the access in a way that no car could get through. And that would still hold true regardless of what method of navigation the person was using. A couple of large blocks of concrete would do the job.
Can't really fault Google here.
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