EU Lawmaker Benifei Urges the Bloc's Countries to Compromise on AI Rules
(Reuters, Sep 21, 2023)
Benifei's call comes ahead of two more rounds of talks next month to thrash out draft rules proposed by the European Commission two years ago, which aim to set a global standard for a technology with a role in almost every industry and business. The thorniest issues are biometric surveillance and copyrighted material used by ChatGPT and other generative AI. Lawmakers want a ban on AI use in biometric surveillance but EU countries led by France want exceptions for national security, defence and military purposes.
Deepfakes Make Banks Keep it Real
(Financial Times, Sep 21, 2023)
A June report by Transmit Security found that AI-generated deepfakes can be used to bypass biometric security systems, such as the facial recognition systems protecting customers’ accounts, and to create counterfeit ID documents. Chatbots could now be programmed to emulate a trusted individual or customer services representative, tricking people into handing over valuable personally identifiable information for use in other attacks.
Judges are on the Frontline of the Pushback Against AI Harms
(Euronews, Sep 21, 2023)
So, how can we protect the person being falsely identified by facial recognition technology deployed by the police or the artist who feels their intellectual property has been stolen by generative AI developers? Well, judges and prosecutors have a vital role to play; they can set powerful legal precedents in their judgements on individual cases, enabling a country to leap forward in a particular area of the law. Recent legal cases have shown that the judiciary can draw upon international human rights law, constitutional safeguards and data protection laws to safeguard against discriminatory and biased AI systems.
Biometric Payments Provide the No-Touch Transactions Customers Want
(PYMNTS, Sep 21, 2023)
Customer expectations have been retrained around convenience and speed when it comes to payments. No more is waiting 30 seconds for a card to settle acceptable — in fact, many consumers would rather not wait at all. And as these behavioral expectations become status-quo needs, it is becoming more and more important for businesses to deliver a seamless and engaging transactional experience.
Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill Review – Nowhere to Hide
(The Guardian, Sep 21, 2023)
In the past few years powerful “machine learning” and cloud computing, allied to the growth of smartphones, selfies and social media, have made a facial recognition system able to identify anyone as inevitable as the atomic bomb after the splitting of the uranium atom in 1938. Just as that breakthrough led to a cascade with an obvious endpoint, so the preconditions for facial recognition – masses of pictures online and rapidly improving algorithms for determining what makes a face unique – have been there waiting for whoever was willing to ignore the socially controversial effects.
