by BGF | Sep 24, 2018 | News
Reported by MIT Technology Review, Bruce Schneier expresses his fear of losing lives to cyber disasters.
Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He was honored Business Leader in Cybersecurity in 2015 by Boston Global Forum.
According to Gartner, there will be over 11 billion internet-connected devices (excluding smartphones and computers) in circulation worldwide this year, which has doubled compared to a few years ago, and it is expected there will be billions more come online. The connectivity has made a great use in our daily life but also brought about a nightmare to cybersecurity since it has been proven that all of these smart devices can be hacked. Speaking to MIT Technology Review, Bruce Schneier called for urgent action by the government to address this problem.
Today, cars, medical devices and even household appliances are connected with computers. What used to be computer security alone has now become “everything security”, said Schneir. Moreover, people seem to have already attached themselves to devices like phones and search engines and synced them with other services such as power systems or transportation networks. “If it goes down, to a very real extent society grinds to a halt, because we are so dependent on it at every level, computers are deeply embedded in our lives” stressed Schneir. Recently, cybersecurity incidents are mostly involving data, privacy violation and manipulation, there have been no loss of life casualties, but it is possible. Medical records stolen or car’s bluetooth connection hacked are some of his examples of the danger cybersecurity incidents can pose. Loss of human life will be inevitable if people do not have better computer security systems.
In the interview, he also recommended measures to improve safety. Governments need to take action in collaboration with other firms to develop internet-connected devices with standards, and liability laws.
His approach to tackle this issue is similar to what MDI initiative’s aim to do—establish a set of ethical standards.
by BGF | Sep 24, 2018 | News
A roundtable on Global Governance for Information Integrity hosted by the WLA – Club de Madrid will take place on the 27th of September addressing the information’s disruption on social media.
There has been an increasing concern about the spread of fake news through social media, in addition, people are using social networks to manipulate citizens’ opinion as well as spreading hate speech, one-sidedness. To protect the growth of democratic societies, it is essential for policy makers to come up with the solution for the problem.
Hence, WLA- CdM has gathered scholars, citizens, politician and other leaders to join the roundtable on Global Governance for Information Integrity in Riga, together with the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the support of NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence.
On September 27, a day ahead of the Riga Security Conference (28th-29th September), WLA- CdM will host a discussion on the issue of information integrity.
by BGF | Sep 11, 2018 | Event Updates, Michael Dukakis Institute
THE AIWS CONFERENCE
AI-Government and AI Arms Races and Norms
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TIME: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Thursday, September 20th, 2018
VENUE: Harvard University Faculty Club – 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
MODERATOR:
Governor Michael Dukakis, Chairman of Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute, former Governor of Massachusetts
AGENDA
Speakers:
- Prof. Nazli Choucri, Member of BGF’s Board of Thinkers, Cyber-politics Director of MDI, Professor of Political Science at MIT
- Prof. Marc Rotenberg, Member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, President of EPIC
- Prof. Joseph Nye, Member of BGF’s Board of Thinkers, University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University
- Mr. Nam Pham, Assistant Secretary for Business Development & International Trade, State of Massachusetts
- Prof. Matthias Scheutz, Member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory at Tufts University
- Mr. Walter Langelaar, Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow 2018-2019, Co-founder of SAM–the AI Politician
- Ms. Sarah Cotterill, Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow, Secretary of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, Harvard Fellow
- Ms. Beatriz Merino, Member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, former Prime Minister of Peru, Harvard Fellow (video)
- Mr. Eliot Weinman, Member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, Founder/Conference Chair, AI World, Executive Editor, AI Trends
- Mr. Kazuo Yano, Member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee, Chief Engineering of Hitachi Ltd. (video)
⇒ Read Full Bios of Speakers
Discussants:
- Ms. Titi Akinsanmi, Berkman Klein Center Fellow, Harvard University
- C.S Carmen Alanis, Magistrate of the Electoral Court of Mexico, Consul General of Mexico in Boston
- Mr. Suso Baleato, Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University Institute for Quantitative Social Science
- Mr. Anthony Bent, Staff Associate, New England School Development Council (NESDEC)
- Mr. Phillippe Le Corre, Former Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Prof. Thomas Creely, Professor at U.S. Naval War College
- Mr. Allan Cytryn, Former CTO, Goldman Sachs, Michael Dukakis Institute in New York
- Mr. John Desmond, Editor of AI Trends
- C.S. Stratos Efthymiou, Consul General of Greece in Boston
- Mr. Armando Guio, Berkman Klein Center Fellow, Harvard University
- Dr. Moritz Hennemann, Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School
- Ms. Dragana Kaurin, Berkman Klein Center Fellow, Harvard University
- Mr. Llewellyn King, Host, White House Chronicle
- Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of BGF, Director of MDI
- Mr. Dick Pirozzolo, Communication Manager of BGF
- CS. Emilio Rabasa, Mexican Consulate General in Boston
- Ms. Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Berkman Klein Center Fellow, Harvard University
- Prof. John Savage, Member of BGF’s Board of Thinkers, Cybersecurity Director of MDI, Professor of Computer Science at Brown University
- Ms. Hyunjin Seo, Berkman Klein Center Fellow, Harvard University
- Prof. David Silbersweig, Member of BGF’s Board of Thinkers, AI Director of MDI, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
- Prof. Duc Tran, Professor of Computer Science at University of Massachusetts, Boston
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Full agenda and our speakers and discussants, please download HERE
by BGF | Sep 10, 2018 | News
Recently, an Op-Ed staff editor and writer at New York Times was invited to a talk with Yuval Noah Harari, philosopher and international author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus” to discuss the vision of his latest work “21 lessons for the 21st Century” surrounding the future of humankind.
In the vision, humankind is going to let machines and robots take over and do tasks while humans live as “gods”.
Until that time, many problems have arisen in AI development; while nuclear weapons and arms races can be prevented, an AI weapon such as “killer robots” can be created secretly by a nation without the attention of others. It is difficult to tell when a new AI is being developed and whether it might cause danger. A certain level of trust needs to be built between nations on a global level.
In this interview, academic Yuval Harari engages in a broad-ranging discussion about human nature and the human condition, past, present and future. A number of his points underscore the importance of the AIWS initiative. He points out that recent advances in science suggest that humans don’t technically have full free will, that humans learn from stories, that stories don’t necessarily correspond to reality in which people suffer, that there are now techniques to “hack” the human mind and influence behavior, and that the development of AI (while offering many wonderful possibilities) sets the stage for manipulation and outcomes that are difficult to predict. Therefore, he concludes, there is a pressing need for efforts to oversee the ethical development of artificial intelligence, and that these efforts have to be global to be effective. AIWS is well positioned to continue to play a facilitating role in this important context.
Video: https://www.timestalks.com/talks/yuval-noah-harari/
by BGF | Sep 10, 2018 | News
Google released the latest AI assistant which different from its competiors such as Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana in the ability to switch simultaneously between two languages.
Nearly seven months after its announcement in February this year, the newest version of Google Assistant was launched last week with the capability to process and respond in two different languages on the fly.It is responsive to whichever language of the last message, there are currently a few languages which the assistant is programmed with: English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Italian. It is now available on Android phones and Google speakers.
According to Google AI Blog, it took years to teach the AI to be bilingual. It is extremely challenging to figure out the speech recognition step for two languages at the same time and coming up with the response for what has been heard. The application could help expand Google’s market to other country outside of U.S.
In fact, the tool could collect the voice of users and store the user’s data, which could violate people’s privacy and security. It is essential for Google to be transparent about how the data will be stored and used. Every system controlled by AI could potentially be harmful to humans. To ensure AI’s future, MDI has developed the AIWS Initiative – the AIWS 7-layer model for AI ethical standards.
