https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/08/using-machine-learning-to-detect-keystrokes.html

Researchers have trained a ML model to detect keystrokes by sound with 95% accuracy.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/07/norway-meta-fine-user-privacy-breach-targeted-ads

Country’s data protection regulator said firm cannot harvest user information such as physical locations for showing targeted ads

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/08/the-need-for-trustworthy-ai.html

If you ask Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant AI system, whether Amazon is a monopoly, it responds by saying it doesn’t know. It doesn’t take much to make it lambaste the other tech giants, but it’s silent about its own corporate parent’s misdeeds.

When Alexa responds in this way, it’s obvious that it is putting its developer’s interests ahead of yours. Usually, though, it’s not so obvious whom an AI system is serving. To avoid being exploited by these systems, people will need to learn to approach AI skeptically.

https://therecord.media/norway-investigates-cyberattack-affecting-government-ministries

The Norwegian police are investigating a cyberattack uncovered earlier this month that affected the IT systems used by a dozen government ministries.

Norway’s Office of the Prime Minister, as well as its foreign, defense, and justice ministries, were not affected by the hack because they use a different IT platform, said Erik Hope, head of the government agency in charge of providing security and services to the ministries, during a press briefing on Monday.

…

According to Hope, the hackers exploited a now-patched vulnerability in the platform of one of the government’s suppliers. The government’s security specialists identified the attack following “unusual” traffic on the supplier’s platform. Hope declined to provide more details until the investigation is over.

The attack didn’t disrupt the government’s operation. As a result of the hack, employees of several Norwegian ministries couldn’t access some shared services on their mobile phones, including email, but they could still use work devices without issue, Norwegian cybersecurity officials said.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/10/programs-to-detect-ai-discriminate-against-non-native-english-speakers-shows-study

Tests on seven popular AI text detectors found that articles written by people who did not speak English as a first language were often wrongly flagged as AI-generated, a bias that could have a serious impact on students, academics and job applicants.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/07/self-driving-cars-are-surveillance-cameras-on-wheels.html

Police are already using self-driving car footage as video evidence

https://www.nrk.no/vestland/haukeland-sykehus-skal-bruke-kunstig-intelligens-for-a-utrede-epilepsi_-som-forste-i-verden.-1.16463224

Kunstig intelligens utreder epilepsi kjappere og bedre enn de beste legene, viser ny forskning. Et verdensledende tidsskrift sier den norske forskningen innleder en ny æra.

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/06/23/amazon-prime-dark-patterns-lawsuit/

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sued Amazon, alleging the nation’s dominant online retailer intentionally duped millions of consumers into signing up for its mainstay Prime program and “sabotaged” their attempts to cancel.

The agency claims Amazon violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act by using so-called dark patterns, or deceptive design tactics meant to steer users toward a specific choice, to push consumers to enroll in Prime without their consent.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/04/21/parrots-talking-video-calls/

Parrots learn to make video calls to chat with other parrots, then develop friendships, Northeastern University researchers say

https://www.quantamagazine.org/secret-messages-can-hide-in-ai-generated-media-20230518/

In steganography, an ordinary message masks the presence of a secret communication. Humans can never do it perfectly, but a new study shows it’s possible for machines.