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Here Come the Robot Doctors
ChatGPT, the generative AI juggernaut, is getting a lot smarter when it comes to healthcare. Why it matters: A lot of clinical diagnoses and decisions could someday be made by machines, rather than by human doctors.
Driving the news: ChatGPT recently passed all three parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, although just barely, as part of a recent research experiment. As the researchers note, second-year medical students often spend hundreds of hours preparing for Part 1, while Part 3 usually is taken by medical school graduates.
The big surprise was that ChatGPT could perform so well without ever having been trained on a medical dataset. One caveat is that researchers excluded a set of “indeterminate” answers, as it appears that ChatGPT was programmed to avoid providing what could be construed as medical advice.
Between the lines: Generative AI remains in the early innings, so for now it’ll augment medical work rather than replace it. The bottom line: Plenty of people rely on “Dr. Google” for their medical information needs. In the future, they may turn to “Dr. ChatGPT.”
Pentagon: No Back Pay to Troops Discharged for Refusing COVID Vaccine
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The Pentagon on Tuesday shut down speculation it’s considering back pay for service members it discharged for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, distancing itself from an already politically hazardous issue that has become even more prejudicial for the military with Republican control of Congress.
“Right now, we are not pursuing, as a matter of policy, back pay for those who refused the vaccine,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for the Defense Department, told reporters in response to one of several questions about the issue. He spoke a week after the Pentagon formally rescinded the policy that required all troops to receive the shots with very few exemptions, in line with new legislation signed into law on Dec. 23 that forced the change.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in announcing the congressionally mandated repeal was unapologetic for the policy, saying in a memo on Jan. 10 that he is “deeply proud for the Department’s work to combat the coronavirus disease,” which he said “will leave a lasting legacy in the many lives we saved.”
He cited the orders from Congress that he change the policy, said no further service members would be discharged for refusing the vaccine, and announced that any troops under existing investigation or judicial process would be cleared.
Gov. Ron DeSantis Proposes Permanent Ban on COVID Mandates in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing legislation to permanently ban COVID-19 health measures aimed at mitigating the virus in the state.
The legislation would prohibit vaccine and mask requirements in schools, masking requirements at businesses and so-called vaccine passports showing proof of vaccination. It would also bar employers from hiring or firing employees based on whether they have been vaccinated, and would prohibit the firing or de-licensing of medical professionals who might disagree on COVID protocols.
“When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s linchpin,” DeSantis said in a press release. “These measures will ensure Florida remains this way and will provide landmark protections for free speech for medical practitioners.”
Freedom of Thought Is a Human Right
In his 2019 Stanford address, Tim Cook warned about the threat to our “freedom to be human” from technology that looks to get inside our heads and rearrange the furniture. His “freedom to be human” is, essentially, our fundamental right to freedom of thought — an absolute right that has been mostly overlooked until now. The importance of Tim Cook’s speech was the recognition that Silicon Valley itself could never have come into existence in the current climate. Technology that undermines freedom of thought ultimately undermines innovation, and that is not good for anyone.
This will be the year we take back control of our minds and regain our freedom to think for ourselves. From persuasive design to behavioral micro-targeting through emotion recognition technology, predictive policing and neuropolitics, in the past decade the goal of much new and emerging technology has been about curating what Shoshana Zuboff calls “human futures,” exploiting our data to judge and control what we think and feel and ultimately how we behave.
However, we are now at a tipping point, and in 2023 we will start to see shifts in both the regulatory landscape and in the direction of tech innovation that reinforce and protect our right to freedom of thought in the digital age.
Elko County Health Board to Consider Banning COVID, Flu Vaccines
Las Vegas Review-Journal reported:
The Elko County Board of Health is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss and consider placing a moratorium on COVID-19 and flu vaccines in the county.
The board also will consider discontinuing local advertising for COVID-19 and flu vaccines, pending “further investigation and results of the Florida Supreme Court case to investigate the wrongdoing related to COVID-19 vaccines,” the agenda says.
Jon Karr, an Elko County Board of Health commissioner, does not see the agenda items moving forward, as the commissioners do not have the right to issue a moratorium or control advertising in the county.
China’s Economy, Population Trends Highlight Continued COVID Disruptions
U.S. News & World Report reported:
China is experiencing lasting problems with its economy and its first population decline in decades as COVID-19 proves to be an enduring issue with widespread repercussions. The country’s economy grew just 3% in 2022 — the slowest rate it has reported in nearly four decades.
The country’s “zero-COVID” policy that involved frequent lockdowns rattled the economy and prompted outrage among residents. China eased the policy in early December. While the relaxed measures were welcome for many, the massive COVID-19 surge that followed drove people off the streets and out of offices and shops.
The trend comes as China reported a decline in its population for 2022. The National Bureau of Statistics reported Tuesday that the country’s population rang in at 1.41 billion people in 2022 — 850,000 fewer people than in 2021. It’s a massive change for a country that previously implemented a one-child policy to control its population growth.
Websites Selling Abortion Pills Are Sharing Sensitive Data With Google
Online pharmacies that sell abortion pills are sharing sensitive data with Google and other third parties, which may allow law enforcement to prosecute those who use the medications to end their pregnancies, a ProPublica analysis has found.
Using a tool created by the Markup, a nonprofit tech-journalism newsroom, ProPublica ran checks on 11 online pharmacies that sell abortion medication to reveal the web tracking technology they use. Late last year and in early January, ProPublica found web trackers on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that provide pills by mail: Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy and Online Abortion Pill Rx.
These third-party trackers, including a Google Analytics tool and advertising technologies, collect a host of details about users and feed them to tech behemoth Google, its parent company, Alphabet, and other third parties, such as the online chat provider LiveChat.
Businesses and Schools Are Facing Pressure to Drop TikTok, Too
TikTok skeptics have notched a series of wins in their push to get the app blocked from government devices in recent weeks, with roughly two dozen states instituting bans. Critics of the platform now are eyeing new targets in their political crackdown: businesses that partner with TikTok and schools that allow its use on campus.
Meanwhile, federal and state officials are increasingly pushing to limit student and staff access in schools, in part to comply with state restrictions on public institutions.
In Washington, a group of House Republicans led by Rep. Brian Babin(R-Tex.) last week introduced a bill to block federal funding to universities unless they ban the use of TikTok on its devices. Around the country, some schools are moving ahead with their own restrictions.
The University of Texas at Austin, Auburn University in Alabama and the University of Oklahoma have all blocked students and faculty from accessing the app on the school’s WiFi network, among others. The University of Georgia has banned the use of the app on devices it owns.
Brian Stelter Talks ‘Disinformation’ at World Economic Forum
Former CNN anchor Brian Stelter hosted a panel on the “clear and present danger of disinformation” during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The former primetime host recently landed a fellowship at Harvard University. His panel event at the World Economic Forum, which supports the notion that private and public actors should routinely cooperate for desired political and social ends, asked prominent lawmakers and members of the media about the possibility of controlling purported misinformation online.
European Commission Vice President Vera Jourová described a “very broad exercise” in monitoring disinformation within the European Union and said that 90% of the requests for removals on Facebook come from government agencies.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said there is a “healthy concern” in the United States that European censorship goes “too far.”
Stelter countered that many Democrats have pressured social media companies over the past six years to “be stronger in content moderation.” Moulton responded that many lawmakers are uncomfortable when they see critical posts online but expressed a willingness to consider more censorship in cases such as vaccine misinformation.
Report Says 500 Advertisers Paused Spending at Twitter, Daily Revenue Plunges 40%
Questions are swirling about the health of Twitter Inc.’s ad business. Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has faced an exodus of executives and advertisers. Nearly three months as ‘Chief Twit,’ Musk’s social media platform might be experiencing a significant decline in daily ad revenue and hundreds of top advertisers paused spending.
The Information reported that a senior Twitter manager told staff on Tuesday that more than 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers have paused spending since Musk bought the company on October 27.
Musk reduced the company’s headcount by thousands of employees to supplement sliding ad revenue and quickly pushed a paid verification subscription for users. However, Axios reported under Musk’s leadership, the social media company has secured content sponsorship deals with three dozen news outlets, media companies and sports leagues.
Twitter makes most of its money through advertising and now user subscriptions. It remains to be seen if Musk’s radical overhaul of the social media platform will be successful.
Apple Faces Third Class-Action Lawsuit Over Data Collection After Gizmodo Story
No one who understands how tech products work will be surprised to learn that Apple collects analytics data about how you use your iPhone. But a lot of people were surprised to learn that Apple collects that data even when the company’s own privacy settings promise not to. So surprised, in fact, that they filed lawsuits. Now Apple is facing a third class-action lawsuit over the issue, this time in New York state, marking the third legal action against the company over this data dilemma. The case asks for a cool $5 million in damages.
At some point, Apple will defend its privacy practices in court. But so far, the company refuses to defend itself to Gizmodo, or any other media outlet. We’ve asked Apple about the problem on six separate occasions since Gizmodo exclusively reported on the problem last November. Apple didn’t respond, and still hasn’t said anything publicly about the issue. The text of the third lawsuit is nearly identical to that of the second.
