AI Safety, Neutrality, Russians, and more...

Welcome back my Tech Curious friends. Below you can find information about the most recent tech news. So let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• Federal AI “Safety” Board

• Net Neutrality is Back

• The Russians are Coming, Oh Wait, They’re Here

• How Not to (Un)lock Your Phone

• Better Robots Means Harder CAPTCHAs

Federal AI “Safety” Board

The US government, in the absence of any national regulations regarding the use of AI, is teaming up with over 20 different organizations who are creating AI products to develop safety standards. Some of these organizations include OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.

Now, I’m not saying this is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse… but… are these really the best people to put society and proper regulations first?

Net Neutrality is Back

You can always tell when it’s an election year. Politicians act like they care about things their constituents care about. In this case, it’s Net Neutrality.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3 to 2 last week to reclassify broadband Internet as a public utility. This will also allow them to regulate it more easily. Not that it will be like opening a can of worms or anything.

Goals of this passage include:

• Improved security/protect private data

• Improved speed

• Accountability for outages better

There are more things included of course, as it is only 400 pages in its draft format. Companies will have 60 days to comply once the rules are posted.

The Russians are Coming, Oh Wait, They’re Here

Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence has noticed that a group associated with Russian Military Intelligence has been increasing attacks against government, education and transportation computers.

Using a tool called Goose Egg, it allows access to vulnerable Windows computers. The good news is that there is a patch for those vulnerable computers which has been out for a while. The problem is, not everyone patches their computers. This is why you always want to run your updates!

At this time we don’t know what the purpose of the attack is, but we know it’s rarely for fun and games.

Learn more here…

How Not to (Un)lock Your Phone

With passwords are getting easier to hack, people seem to prefer bio-metrics such as a fingerprint or facial recognition. (After all, it’s much easier to use than trying to remember and type in a 32 character password.)

However, a recent court case might change a few minds.

While this is a special case, it creates a new concerning precedent that could extend to other situations in the future. So reconsider using bio-metrics, and focus on more secure methods.

Better Robots Means Harder CAPTCHAs

It’s not your imagination. CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) are getting harder. Why? Simple: the robots… I mean AI… are getting better. Which means it’s harder to prove that you’re a human.

This means that we’re going to have to find other ways to prove that we’re human, because I often already go… “I got that right?!”

Read more here … and here.