Deliberate Pandemics | Not Ready for Deep-Fake Tsunami | Kook Waterloo, and more
The Strengths and Limitations of Approaches to Detect Deepfake Text (Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore)
Advances in the field of machine learning have recently enabled the development of computational tools that can create convincing but artificially produced texts, also known as deepfake texts. While the automatic creation of texts could have some interesting applications, it also raises serious concerns in terms of security and misinformation.
Synthetically produced texts could ultimately also be used to mislead internet users, for instance through the large-scale generation of extremists or violent texts aimed at radicalizing individuals, fake news for disinformation campaigns, email texts for phishing attacks, or fake reviews targeting specific hotels, venues or restaurants. Collectively, this could further reduce some users’ trust in online content, while prompting other users to engage in anti-social and risky behavior.
Start Moving to Quantum-Safe Cryptography, White House Tells Feds (Alexandra Kelly, Defense One)
The Office of Management and Budget released new guidance to begin the governmentwide effort to protect digital infrastructure from quantum attacks.
When Election Deniers Concede (Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker)
In the midterms, voters rejected Stop the Steal candidates in critical swing states. Is the democracy crisis over?
Kook Waterloo (Nick Catoggio, The Dispatch)
Republican election denialism is now past its prime and will never regain the currency it had.
The Diminishing Returns of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric (Alan Cross, The Bulwark)
If the last seven years are a guide, Americans want both compassion and order when it comes to immigration, and they reject chaos and cruelty. The candidates they have been presented with, however, have largely embraced either compassion, on one hand, or chaos, cruelty, and a notion of order made subservient to chaos and cruelty, on the other. This means there is an electoral opportunity for politicians who can strike a balance between border security, respecting the rule of law, and American sovereignty while treating immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers fairly and with dignity and compassion—and those willing to seize the opportunity could solve one of the most intractable problems in American politics and culture. The results of the 2022 midterm elections underscore the point that prevailing approaches to immigration must be abandoned. It’s time for something new.
Climate Models Could Help Predict Future Disease Outbreaks (Laura Vargas-Parada, Scientific American)
Numerous studies over more than two decades have demonstrated a robust relationship between climate and the dynamics of human diseases, such as cholera, malaria and dengue. Changes in climate, including both long-term warming trends and short-term climate variability, might affect patterns of disease. Xavier Rodó, a computational ecologist and climate dynamics specialist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain, spoke to Nature about how climate modelling could be used to help prepare for future disease outbreaks—and the obstacles he has faced in implementing such systems.
How J. Edgar Hoover Went from Hero to Villain (Jack Goldsmith, The Atlantic)
Before his abuses of power were exposed, he was celebrated as a scourge of Nazis, Communists, and subversives.
Fake it ’Til You Break It (Wessie du Toit, The Critic)
The saga of Elizabeth Holmes will move one step closer to its conclusion, but with impeccable timing, a new tale of investor credulity and disastrous personal ambition has burst into the headlines.
