Month: June 2022

A Google software engineer believes an AI has become sentient. If he’s right, how would we know?

Has google created a sentient being?

This week we heard about a google software engineer who claims the company has achieved an AI chatbot with feelings and is able to express them in conversation.

Google has dismissed these claims and suspended the engineer – in what seems like a plot for a Hollywood cyberpunk blockbuster.

Despite this the idea that an artificially intelligent robot machine created by one of the largest companies in the world has feelings is tantalising…

But is this even a thing? Can AI have feelings? What even is AI? What is consciousness and should we be worried about this? And if an AI chat bot has become sentient, how would we even know?

To chat about this I’m joined by Dr Oscar Davis – Lecturer in Philosophy and History, Bond University – who has written an excellent article on this subject in the Conversation.

Dr Emma Lee – Associate Professor, Indigenous Leadership, Swinburne University of Technology. Emma is a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania, Australia.

Article source: First Nations people shouldn’t have to wait for a referendum to get a Voice to Parliament

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Many Australians are looking forward to an Indigenous Voice to parliament. But as we wait for a referendum to enshrine this into our Constitution some are asking: why can’t the government do it now?

The recently elected Albanese government has pledged to a full commitment to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The Uluru Statement calls for a First Nations voice to inform parliament to be enshrined in the Australian constitution – so it cannot be removed by any government of the day.

To do that, the constitution must be amended, and that can only be done by referendum. But with of over 40 referendums held since federation, only eight have passed.

So rather than waiting for a referendum to enshrine the Indigenous Voice to parliament, could the majority Labor government do it now?

I’m joined by Dr Emma Lee – Associate Professor in Indigenous Leadership at Swinburne University – and who was part of the National Co-Design Group for Indigenous Voice.

Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys using facial recognition technology in stores: Three major retailers in Australia are using facial recognition technology, often without shoppers realising.

https://www.choice.com.au/consumers-and-data/data-collection-and-use/how-your-data-is-used/articles/kmart-bunnings-and-the-good-guys-using-facial-recognition-technology-in-store

How safe is your face?

A recent report by Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group CHOICE has revealed that Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys are all using facial recognition technology in their stores, mostly without shoppers realising.

But what is Facial Recognition Technology and how does it work?

Many of us use facial recognition everyday to quickly unlock our phone, log in to apps, and make purchases – we know that Government agencies use it to identify terrorists or other criminals and indeed has become a widespread and routine policing tool in America.

However, privacy advocates are concerned about the creeping use of facial recognition tools without widespread public discussion or adequate rules to monitor its rapid progression into the retail sphere.

And the Australian public is mostly oblivious of what’s happening to the capture and use of their personal biometric data. Bunnings say its usage discourages poor behaviour, and as an anti-theft tool. But how?

What happens to the information? Who looks after the data? Who can access it? What are the legal ramifications of capturing and storing our biometric data? Especially when that information is taken without our knowledge or consent… Should we be able to own our own biometric data? What are the associated privacy issues?

Who owns my face?

So many questions…

So, to help us through the quagmire, I’m joined by Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker – who is a Nyungar technologist and digital rights activist currently serving on the board of Electronic Frontiers Australia.

Kat is a Nyungar technologist, writer, digital rights activist currently living on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. My work explores the intersection of activism, science-fiction, and technology in imagining radical futures and ushering them into existence. https://kgt.dev/

Find out more at the EFA Website.

A recent report by Australia’s leading consumer group CHOICE has revealed that Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys are all using facial recognition technology in their stores, mostly without shoppers realising.

But what is Facial Recognition Technology and how does it work?

Many of us use it to unlock our phone, log in to apps, and make purchases – and we know that Government agencies are using it to identify terrorists or other bad guys – and indeed facial recognition has become a widespread and routine policing tool in the US.

However, privacy advocates are concerned about the creeping use of facial recognition tools without widespread public discussion or sufficient rules to monitor its rapid progression into the retail sphere.

And the Australian public is mostly oblivious of what’s happening to the capture and use of their personal biometric data.

Bunnings say its usage discourages poor behaviour and is an anti-theft tool. But how?

What happens to the information? Who looks after the data? Who can access it? What are the legal ramifications of capturing and storing our biometric data? Especially when that information is taken without our knowledge or consent…

Should we be able to own our own biometric data? What are the associated privacy issues?

To discuss this I’m joined by Amy Pereira – senior Policy Advisor from Choice…

Guns in America.

Since the birth of a nation, in truth and folklore, the gun is deeply embedded in American culture. And most of us, even in Australia are aware of the much cited Second Amendment to the US Constitution – which reads:

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Arguably a simple, basic amendment to protect the people from its government…

But this right to bear arms has resulted in a country saturated with guns, where going to primary school, the shops, a gig may result in you being fatally shot by a fellow citizen.

It’s a country where the widespread adoption of “stand your ground” laws explicitly allow people to use guns as a first resort for self-defence in the face of a threat.

It’s a country of carnage, where – according to the Gun Violence Archive – so far in 2022 – there have been over 18,000 gun violence deaths – and over 230 mass shootings.

And on May 24^th in Uvalde, Texas – a teenage gunman shot his grandmother, then armed with an Automatic Rifle and wearing body armour stormed a local primary school, killing 19 children and two teachers.

The shooter had legally purchased two Automatic Rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at a local gun shop days before the massacre.

The Automatic Rifle is often seen as a metaphor  of core American values — freedom, might, self-reliance – an embodiment of the second amendment right to bear arms.

It is astonishing to research this subject. It is gobsmacking to look at the stats and figures, the charts, graphs and maps across the US showing gun usage and killings – including stats like gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children; that there are more guns than people; where almost every person lives in a household with a gun; that in 2020 alone, Americans purchased 17 million guns – and US gun manufacturers produced 11 million firearms…

It is just astounding.

It seems that in a society where Americans are in an arms race with themselves, the constitutional right to bear arms is a murderous feedback loop. That to feel safe from each other, you need a firearm because everyone else has the same fear and they also have firearms…

But with most Americans keen for gun control measures – like background checks or a ban on military-grade weapons – their politicians seem reluctant for any change. Why?

What is it about the US that gun-law-reform may never happen?

Can the militia ever be well-regulated?

To discuss this, I’m joined by Dr Emma Shortis – Lecturer in the Social and Global Studies Centre at RMIT University, whose recent article in the Conversation: “American exceptionalism: the poison that cannot protect its children from violent death” – cogently examines US gun culture. It is an excellent read piece on the issue…

Dr Emma Shortis is a Lecturer in the Social and Global Studies Centre at RMIT University.
American exceptionalism: the poison that cannot protect its children from violent death

https://theconversation.com/american-exceptionalism-the-poison-that-cannot-protect-its-children-from-violent-death-184045