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SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: The Dangers of Big Tech
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The Link Between Social Media Algorithms and Online Radicalisation
Social media algorithms show violent content to boys but that’s just the start of the problem according to a leading investigative journalist
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Leading Labour MP Brands Twitter Owner Elon Musk a ‘Dangerous Narcissist’ as She Calls for Clampdown on Online Hate
Dawn Butler is running to lead the House of Commons’ committee on science and tech
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UK Riots: How the Right-Wing Press Fought to Stop Laws to Combat Online Disinformation
The story of how the Conservatives exempted their media supporters from laws against spreading dangerously false information online
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Lies and Violence: How the Southport Tragedy Turned into a Riot
The independent regulator Impress has called for new legislation to tackle the dangers of social media misinformation
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Southport Violence: ‘We All Need To Consider Our Role in the Wild West of Social Media Hypercriminality’
Key elements of misinformation about the Southport killings originated in a social media post by ‘Channel 3 News’
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‘OpenAI’s Scarlett Johansson Update Wasn’t About Bridging the Gap Between Tech and Creatives – It Was Just Sexist’
The CPT-4o update was removed just a week after going live and led to the A-lister releasing a statement
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Government Urged to Drop Data Protection Reforms Which May Make Children an Easy Target
An open letter has been sent to Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, urging her to ditch the bill which is back before the House of Lords today
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‘A Voluntary Tech Agreement Will Do Little to Defend Electoral Integrity Against the Worst Uses of AI’
The Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections is well-meaning but lacks detail and urgency, argues Emma DeSouza
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‘From Deepfakes to Assault in the Metaverse: The Urgency of Ethics in AI’
Deepfakes depicting Taylor Swift being assaulted in the stands at a NFL game demands a debate about regulating artificial intelligence, writes Patsy Stevenson
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Sweet Little Lies: The Surreptitious Spread of Police Polygraph Testing
With little public debate, and doubts about their reliability, Byline Times reveals the use of lie detectors is still increasing
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Sunak Focuses on Tiny-Chance of ‘Extinction by Robots’ While Elections Remain Wide-Open to AI Deepfakes and Disinformation — Report
While tech bosses and the PM concentrate on what could happen decades from now, artificial intelligence is already shaping our politics.
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Sexual Assault in the Metaverse
As the first police investigation into the gang-rape of a girl’s VR avatar is launched, Patsy Stevenson asks what is being done to protect women and girls in the virtual world.
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Revealed: Met Police Scans Almost Quarter of a Million Faces Using Facial Recognition Technology in 2023
This newspaper has found officers in London have been zealous users of the system, which automatically scans the faces of passers-by and matches them against a watchlist
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The Hypocrisy of the AI Summit: The UK is Doing Nothing About Political Misinformation
The Government rejected a cross party Lords recommendation that political advertising should be regulated according to factual accuracy. The former chair of the Select Committee wonders why
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‘Despite the Headlines and Handshakes, We Are No More Prepared for the Tidal Wave of AI’
Tackling the issue will require global cooperation and legislative policies – but advancing from non-binding commitments can take decades, writes Emma DeSouza
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What Can the UK Teach the World About AI Safety?
For all the PR of the AI Safety Summit, what is the UK Government actually doing to safeguard its citizens from the dangers of AI, data misuse and prejudicial algorithms?
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Inside the UK’s Frontier Artificial Intelligence Taskforce: Conflicts of Interest and the Spectre of Effective Altruism
The Citizens has been delving into the figures involved in the UK’s AI task force – can we trust them to keep us safe?
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Transparency Seems to Die a Death at the Government’s AI Summit
Why won’t the Government tell the public who’s attending – and who’s being left out in the cold?
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Chatbot Journalism: Fake Doctors, Fake Dogs, Fake EastEnders Storylines
Artificially generated nonsense is already filling the pages of Britain’s press
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Tory Party Chair Greg Hands in Apparent Data Breach Tweeting Praise for Sunak from Conservative Constituents
It’s an embarrassing gaffe for the supposed party of security.
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From Ctrl+v to ChatGPT: Generative AI Marks a Third Wave of Technological Disruption in Higher Education
Effie Webb reports on how radically the academic landscape has changed, in a short space of time, through AI and remote learning
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Over 180 Rights Groups and Tech Experts Call for UK and Worldwide Halt to Facial Recognition Surveillance
The EU is implementing a blanket ban on facial recognition surveillance by police – but the UK is ploughing ahead despite privacy fears
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Controversial Chinese Company BGI Genomics Found to have Worked with at Least 16 UK Universities
The genome sequencing company also administers China’s National Gene Bank, which is part of the state surveillance of minorities that facilitates the mass detention of Uyghurs
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Privacy Battle Rages Over Government Plans which ‘Could End’ Encrypted Messaging Apps like WhatsApp and Telegram
A global coalition is urging ministers and lords to protect end-to-end encryption in the Online Safety Bill
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EU Leads the Way on Regulating AI
Rishi Sunak may have been pitching the UK as a possible global hub for AI regulation in a recent White House visit, but the reality is that the EU is the one innovating in this field
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Fears of the Singularity
The ‘intelligence’ of an AI system is a different and more potent thing, in some key respects, than human intelligence. Where will this lead us?
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Rogue Drones and Tall Tales
Kate Devlin dispels the sudden Science Fiction panic around superintelligence, and looks at the real threats to employment and the environment from AI and machine learning
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How Important is it that this Article is Written by a Human?
Artificial intelligence has already made its way into newsrooms – what are the risks?
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Lack of Transparency over Police Forces’ Covert Use of Predictive Policing Software Raises Concerns about Human Rights Abuses
UK police forces are under scrutiny for their lack of transparency regarding the use of harmful technologies known to exacerbate racist policing
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Debate Over AI in Journalism: ‘Can Machines Replace Human Reporters?’
In a dialogue with ChatGPT, Iain Overton explores whether truth and meaning can really be left to machines
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Fighting Back Against Big Tech
Emma De Souza reports on how countries are tackling the rise in misinformation through the legal and education systems
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‘Musk’s Twitter Buy Makes No Sense – Unless It’s Part of Something Bigger’
Brexit and Trump were initially seen as jokes, but the new owner of the social media giant could pose a serious threat to democracy – and a boon for Vladimir Putin, writes David Troy
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Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter – Is a Rise in Hate Speech and Abuse Inevitable?
Adrian Goldberg speaks to Imran Ahmed of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and Heidi Cuda from the Radicalized Pod about developments at the social medial platform for the Byline Times Podcast
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More than Half of Incels Support Paedophilia, Finds New Report
Research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate has found widespread acceptance of sexual violence against children in ‘incel’ communities
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Government Refusing to Release Documents Related to Meeting Between Boris Johnson and Cambridge Analytica
The Foreign Office is withholding information about the Prime Minister’s meeting with the defunct data firm in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, Sam Bright reports
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A Force for Good? The Firm Following in the Footsteps of Cambridge Analytica
Matt Bernadini investigates Auspex – a successor to the infamous political consulting firm – which was launched with a promise to deliver more positive social change
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Boris Johnson’s Tenure is Disastrous Enough: Spare Us the Pretence that it Surprises You
Musa Okwonga lays the blame for the Prime Minister’s lawless rule squarely on the shoulders of the Conservative politicians and pundits who promoted him
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The Online Arms Race Benefits the Conservatives at the Expense of Democracy
Former Labour MP Ian Lucas explores how politics is being warped by online surveillance, data harvesting and ruthless social media campaigning – and why opposition parties need to take action to tackle this
