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FTC Readies Children’s Privacy Case Against Amazon
The Federal Trade Commission is planning to move forward soon with a case against Amazon over alleged privacy violations stemming from the use of children’s data with the company’s Alexa voice assistant, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The antitrust and consumer protection agency has been investigating Amazon on a number of fronts for several years, including for possible violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which could potentially allow the agency to collect large civil monetary penalties.
Before it brings a case, the FTC must first refer a complaint to the consumer protection branch at the civil division of the Justice Department, which it is expected to do soon, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter. The exact timing of the referral is not known, and the agency’s plans are subject to change until a case is filed.
An AI Researcher Who Has Been Warning About the Technology for Over 20 Years Says We Should ‘Shut It All Down,’ and Issue an ‘Indefinite and Worldwide’ Ban
An AI researcher who has warned about the dangers of the technology since the early 2000s said we should “shut it all down,” in an alarming op-ed published by Time on Wednesday.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, a researcher and author who has been working on Artificial General Intelligence since 2001, wrote the article in response to an open letter from many big names in the tech world, which called for a moratorium on AI development for six months.
The letter, signed by 1,125 people including Elon Musk and Apple‘s co-founder Steve Wozniak, requested a pause on training AI tech more powerful than OpenAI’s recently launched GPT-4.
Yudkowsy’s article, titled “Pausing AI Developments Isn’t Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down,” said he refrained from signing the letter because it understated the “seriousness of the situation,” and asked for “too little to solve it.” Yudkowsky instead suggested a ban that is “indefinite and worldwide” with no exceptions for governments or militaries.
AI Pause Gives ‘Bad Guys’ Time to Catch up, Bill Ackman Says: ‘I Don’t Think We Have a Choice’
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is warning that a push by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and other tech and artificial intelligence experts to pause the development of AI systems for six months gives the “bad guys” time to catch up.
Ackman, who founded Pershing Square Capital Management, made the remark after more than 1,000 people signed a letter arguing that safety protocols need to be developed by independent overseers to guide the future of AI systems.
The letter asks AI developers to “immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” GPT-4 is the latest deep learning model from OpenAI, which says it “exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.”
Ted Cruz, Elizabeth Warren and More Unlikely Senators Propose Bill to Break up Google and Meta
A powerful and bizarre coalition of Senators has teamed up on a bill that could strike down the digital ad dominance of Google and Meta, though the proposed legislation never mentions those companies by name. The AMERICA Act could radically transform advertising technology, the financial backbone of the internet.
The bill would kneecap Google and Meta, the two biggest players in digital advertising by far, but its provisions seem designed to affect almost every big tech company from Apple to Amazon, too. Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
The only thing longer than the name of the bill is the stunningly bipartisan list of Senators supporting it: Democrats Amy Klobuchar, Richard Blumenthal, and Elizabeth Warren, and Republicans Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Eric Schmitt, Josh Hawley, John Kennedy Lindsey Graham, J.D. Vance, and Lee. As one observer put it on Twitter, it’s a list of cosponsors “who wouldn’t hold the elevator for each other.” Look at all these little Senators getting along. Isn’t that nice?
Italy Bans ChatGPT and Says It Will Investigate OpenAI
Italy temporarily blocked access to ChatGPT on Friday, and the country’s data privacy regulator said it would begin an investigation into the company behind the popular chatbot, OpenAI.
In a news release, the Italian Data Protection Authority ordered the immediate ban on ChatGPT in the country and listed its concerns with the chatbot. Most importantly, the Italian privacy regulator stated that there is no legal basis that justifies the collection and mass storage of personal data OpenAI uses to train the AI.
Furthermore, the regulator added that OpenAI provides scant information to users whose data it collects. The regulator alleges OpenAI is violating the European Union’s privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. As noted by Politico, the ban won’t be permanent and is only in place until the Italian regulator determines whether OpenAI has complied with GDPR.
The Italian privacy regulator was also unhappy with OpenAI’s lack of any age verification filter ChatGPT, even though the service is meant to be used by people 13 years of age and older. It stated that ChatGPT exposes minors to unsuitable answers for their degree of development and self-awareness.
Latest Evidence Lockdowns Were a Disaster: Child Shootings Skyrocketed in Four Liberal Cities
The government-imposed COVID lockdowns wreaked havoc on America’s youth emotionally, mentally and educationally. Now, new data shows that child gun-related fatalities and assaults skyrocketed in four major liberal cities from March 2020 to December 2021.
New data from Boston University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that during the first two years of the pandemic, fatal and non-fatal gun assaults for minors increased from a rate of 30 per 100,000 to about 62 per 100,000 during the pandemic in Philadelphia alone. Meanwhile, the rates in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles also increased.
Black children in particular bore the brunt of these tragedies. Per the study, black children were 100 times more likely than white children to be shot during this time. Based on the data, Philadelphia’s gun violence increased at a higher rate than its counterparts, PBS also reported. The authors of this study also did not include fatal shootings in Chicago, so the actual fatality rate is presumably much higher than the limited findings show.
This new information also comes after numerous studies showed other damaging consequences of the pandemic on children. For example, in December, Stanford University published a study showing that teenagers’ brains were physically altered and aged at an accelerated rate during the COVID lockdowns.
Hollywood to End COVID Safety Agreement That Enabled Pandemic-Era Return to Work
The Hollywood Reporter reported:
The COVID-19 guidelines that for the past three years kept casts and crews safe during production amid the pandemic will expire on May 12, according to the group representing top studios and streamers.
Even after the agreement expires, workers on film and television productions will still be able to use a bank of five temporary COVID-19 paid leave sick days between April 2 and December 31 if they contract COVID or if another covered COVID event occurs.
The decision also appears to end any vaccine mandates on new productions starting after May 12. “Any production which has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy for employees in Zone A prior to May 12, 2023, may continue to apply that mandatory vaccination policy for the remainder of the production (or season, in the case of a series),” the AMPTP said in its statement.
France Drops COVID Vaccine Requirement for Healthcare Workers
Healthcare workers in France no longer need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to be able to work, Health Minister François Braun has announced, in a decision that paves the way for several thousand unvaccinated staff to be able to return to work in a matter of days or weeks.
The requirement for health professionals to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 was introduced in autumn of 2021 and prompted protests from those opposed to enforced inoculations.
France’s Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) advice statement added that several other countries have already dropped their requirements and that the vaccine — though effectively protecting from serious forms of the virus — is ineffective in preventing its infection and transmission.
Those workers still available and open to returning to work in the health sector will be reinstated, following “consultation” with hospital federations and professional bodies, the government said.
Governments Used ‘Fifth-Generation Warfare’ During COVID, Robert Malone Tells National Citizen’s Inquiry
Governments used “fifth-generational warfare” techniques to modify public perception during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the reporting of media outlets shifted into propaganda, two experts testified at the National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI).
“Over the last three years, Western governments, non-governmental organizations, as well as media, pharmaceutical and financial corporations deployed a massive, globally harmonized psychological and propaganda operation,” said Dr. Robert Malone.
“With this campaign, the governments of many Western nation-states turned military grade strategies, tactics, technologies and capabilities — developed for modern military combat — against their citizens.”
Malone testified virtually during the Toronto hearing of the NCI, which describes itself as a “citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative” examining how pandemic measures put in place by all levels of government impacted Canadians in the categories of health, fundamental rights and freedoms, social well-being and economic prosperity.
Meta Wants EU Users to Apply for Permission to Opt Out of Data Collection
Meta announced that starting next Wednesday, some Facebook and Instagram users in the European Union will for the first time be able to opt out of sharing first-party data used to serve highly personalized ads, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move marks a big change from Meta’s current business model, where every video and piece of content clicked on its platforms provides a data point for its online advertisers.
People “familiar with the matter,” told the Journal that Facebook and Instagram users will soon be able to access a form that can be submitted to Meta to object to sweeping data collection. If those requests are approved, those users will only allow Meta to target ads based on broader categories of data collection, like age range or general location.
This is different from efforts by other major tech companies like Apple and Google, which prompt users to opt-in or out of highly personalized ads with the click of a button. Instead, Meta will review objection forms to evaluate reasons provided by individual users to end such data collection before it will approve any opt-outs. It’s unclear what cause Meta may have to deny requests.
