OUR PICKSHuman Oversight of AI Systems May Not Be Effective | Banning TikTok Won’t Keep Your Data Safe | An Unseen Problem with the Electoral College, and more
· Undocumented Immigrants Are Streaming Across Our Border — How Many Are Terrorists?
Amid all those illegal entries — and those are just the ones we know about — how many are terrorists?
· Human Oversight of AI Systems May Not Be as Effective as We Think — Especially When It Comes to Warfare
There are inherent challenges to the idea of humans acting as a effective check on computer systems
· An Unseen Problem with the Electoral College – It Tells Bad Guys Where to Target Their Efforts
Technology experts are working to confront misinformation campaigns and vulnerabilities in election systems – but there are problems with the underlying structure – the Electoral College
· Notorious Iranian Hackers Have Been Targeting the Space Industry with a New Backdoor
In addition to its long-standing password spraying attacks, Microsoft says Iran-backed hacker group Peach Sandstorm—or APT 33—has developed custom malware dubbed “Tickler”
· Banning TikTok Won’t Keep Your Data Safe
Pompous billionaires, authoritarian regimes, and opaque oligarchs are hoarding our data. Only an alternative online ecosystem will stop them
· Why TikTok is a Weapon of Mass Distraction and Destruction
TikTok represents a threat and banning it was, while obviously not without controversy, the correct move from a homeland security perspective
Undocumented Immigrants Are Streaming Across Our Border — How Many Are Terrorists? (Nolan Rappaport, The Hill)
Illegal border crossings have reached the highest level in the Border Patrol’s 100-year history, averaging 2 million per year. The administration has released more than 5.4 million illegal crossers into the U.S.; in addition, there were 1.9 million reported “gotaways,” a statutory term that refers to migrants who are directly or indirectly observed making an unlawful entry but were not apprehended or turned back.
Illegal crossings have gone down in recent months, but the reduction is due primarily to assistance from the Mexican government, pursuant to a deal between the U.S. and Mexico made at the end of December 2023. The reduction isn’t likely to last, since the deal did not require the administration to stop doing the things that caused the border crisis, which will continue to be a magnet for illegal immigration. The failed Senate border bill would not have done anything about that either.
Amid all those illegal entries — and those are just the ones we know about — how many are terrorists?According to an Aug. 5, 2024, report from the House Judiciary Committee, the Border Patrol has apprehended 375 undocumented migrants on the Terrorist Watchlist since the beginning of the Biden presidency. People on the watch list are known to be or are reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities. The administration has released 99 of them into the U.S.
The watch list, however, only includes the names of migrants that American government agencies or participating international partners have had previous contact with. It isn’t a simple matter to determine whether an illegal crosser is on the watchlist; the watchlist has approximately 2.5 million names.
Human Oversight of AI Systems May Not Be as Effective as We Think — Especially When It Comes to Warfare (Mark Tsagas, The Conversation)
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more powerful – even being used in warfare – there’s an urgent need for governments, tech companies and international bodies to ensure it’s safe. And a common thread in most agreements on AI safety is a need for human oversight of the technology.
In theory, humans can operate as safeguards against misuse and potential hallucinations (where AI generates incorrect information). This could involve, for example, a human reviewing content that the technology generates (its outputs). However, there are inherent challenges to the idea of humans acting as a effective check on computer systems, as a growing body of research and several real-life examples of military use of AI demonstrate.
Across the efforts thus far to create regulations for AI, many already contain language promoting human oversight and involvement. For instance, the EU’s AI act stipulates that high-risk AI systems – for example those already in use that automatically identify people using biometric technology such as a retina scanner – need to be separately verified and confirmed by at least two humans who possess the necessary competence, training and authority. (Cont.)
