The UK government has a plan to digitise and then destroy old wills – a move like that which helped spark the Windrush crisis. CC-licensed photo by Ken Mayer on Flickr.
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A selection of 9 links for you. Just one more! I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. Observations and links welcome.
Police to be able to run face recognition searches on 50m driving licence holders • The Guardian
Daniel Boffey:
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The police will be able to run facial recognition searches on a database containing images of Britain’s 50 million driving licence holders under a law change being quietly introduced by the government.
Should the police wish to put a name to an image collected on CCTV, or shared on social media, the legislation would provide them with the powers to search driving licence records for a match.
The move, contained in a single clause in a new criminal justice bill, could put every driver in the country in a permanent police lineup, according to privacy campaigners.
Facial recognition searches match the biometric measurements of an identified photograph, such as that contained on driving licences, to those of an image picked up elsewhere.
The intention to allow the police or the National Crime Agency (NCA) to exploit the UK’s driving licence records is not explicitly referenced in the bill or in its explanatory notes, raising criticism from leading academics that the government is “sneaking it under the radar”.
Once the criminal justice bill is enacted, the home secretary, James Cleverly, must establish “driver information regulations” to enable the searches, but he will need only to consult police bodies, according to the bill.
Critics claim facial recognition technology poses a threat to the rights of individuals to privacy, freedom of expression, non-discrimination and freedom of assembly and association.
Police are increasingly using live facial recognition, which compares a live camera feed of faces against a database of known identities, at major public events such as protests.
Prof Peter Fussey, a former independent reviewer of the Met’s use of facial recognition, said there was insufficient oversight of the use of facial recognition systems, with ministers worryingly silent over studies that showed the technology was prone to falsely identifying black and Asian faces.
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The Tories: famously the party that wants to keep the government out of people’s lives.
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Tesla recalls over two million cars due to Autopilot concerns • Consumer Reports
Keith Barry:
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A preliminary evaluation of Autopilot after the software update was installed on CR’s [Consumer Report’s] Tesla Model S suggests that the fix is insufficient, a CR safety expert says, explaining that it’s still too easy for drivers to misuse the feature.
“Although we welcome some of the changes that Tesla made as part of the most recent software update, including warning text that’s easier to read, the new software doesn’t go far enough to prevent misuse or address the root causes of driver inattention,” says Kelly Funkhouser, associate director of vehicle technology at CR’s Auto Test Center.
For example, we were still able to engage and use Autopilot after covering the in-car driver monitoring system camera. “Drivers can still use Autopilot if they’re looking away from the road, using their phone, or otherwise distracted,” says Funkhouser. “We know that drivers who have the ability to misuse a system such as Autopilot will do so unless the software prevents it,” she says. Our top-rated ADA [active driver assistance] systems use driver-monitoring cameras to prevent this kind of foreseeable misuse.
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Remains to be seen if this fix will be satisfactory for the US’s NHTSA, which ordered the recall/update.
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Why is the US is producing more oil than ever? • The Atlantic
Rogé Karma, on the US producing about a fifth of world oil production in 2023:
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By boosting domestic oil supply, the Biden administration seems to be contributing to the very problem it claims to want to solve.
The reality is more complicated. “Pushing for reductions in U.S. oil production is like squeezing a balloon—the production will ‘pop out’ somewhere else,” writes Samantha Gross, an energy-and-climate expert at the Brookings Institution. The world’s energy needs are growing rapidly, which means oil companies are going to supply it regardless of what the White House does.
If the US were to cut back tomorrow, prices would rise. In the short term, this would lead to less consumption and lower emissions. But those high prices would only entice producers in other countries to step in, as many did in the months after Russia’s invasion. For that reason, reductions in US oil production could actually result in higher overall emissions. The US has one of the least emissions-intensive oil industries on the planet. Shifting production to countries with looser standards would likely be worse for the climate.
But the deeper explanation for the Biden administration’s actions has to do with the politics of climate change. Put simply, pursuing a decarbonization agenda requires Biden to maintain political support, and there is no surer way to lose political support than by presiding over high gas prices. Biden’s approval rating has tracked gas prices for most of his presidency (although he hasn’t yet benefited from recent improvements), and the drop in prices in the months leading up to the 2022 midterms may have contributed to Democrats’ unexpectedly strong performance in those elections. Plus, when the price of energy goes up, the price of everything else tends to rise as well, sparking further inflation.
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Well, OK. Though sometimes it takes a real external shock to force a change in behaviour. The 1973 oil shock changed behaviours. In the intervening 50 years, we’ve gotten used to surplus when all the requirements are for less.
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YouTube is the last bastion of unbiased journalism in India • Rest of World
Sonia Faleiro:
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[Ravish] Kumar is one of several high-profile Indian journalists who have left mainstream media organizations over the past few years and turned to YouTube and other social media platforms instead. These journalists see their own channels as the only way to continue their work in a country where the government is hounding noncompliant media out of their jobs. Ahead of the general election expected to take place in April or May 2024, in which Modi is standing for a third term, social media may be the last space to share unbiased news. “The idea is to report the news the old-school way,” Faye D’Souza, a former executive editor at the media company Times Network, told Rest of World. “To calmly tell people what is going on.”
But going solo is punishing work in a country that the World Press Freedom Index now ranks 161st out of 180. A YouTube channel or Instagram account does not offer the same protections as working for a mainstream media company: There is little financial security, legal support, or physical protection. Alone in their own homes, several of India’s best-known journalists told Rest of World they are fearful for their future. They spoke of online threats and warnings over the phone, of being frozen out by friends and family; of fears their equipment could be seized, their homes raided, or they could be thrown into jail.
For many, the NDTV takeover that inspired Kumar’s resignation was a nail in the coffin for journalism in India. Akash Banerjee, who hosts the political satire channel The DeshBhakt (The Patriot) on YouTube, said he had lawyers in place. “Because I know the knock on my door is inevitable. The government has a way of getting to you.”
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Bloomberg: Vision Pro production moving at full speed, February launch planned • 9to5Mac
Chance Miller:
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Bloomberg reports that Apple is ramping up production of its impending Vision Pro headset. The current goal is for the first units to be ready by the end of January, with a retail launch planned for February.
Mark Gurman writes that Vision Pro production is “running at full speed” in Apple’s factories in China, and has been for several weeks:
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Production of the new headset is running at full speed at facilities in China and has been for several weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The goal is for customer-bound units to be ready by the end of January, with the retail debut planned for the following month, the people said.
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The report does note, however, that “last-minute production hiccups or other snags” could still impact Apple’s timeline. Still, the company has a clear goal in mind and is currently on track to meet that goal.
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Yes, of course the Bloomberg story contains a caveat. That February date is interesting: pep up the end of the January-March quarter by selling some of the most expensive items it’s ever made, perhaps.
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Reliving my memories in Apple Vision Pro almost brought me to tears • Inverse
Raymond Wong:
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I noted in my viewing session last time that the 3D has just the right amount of depth, not too strong or too weak — or because you can look at them in an “Immersive” view where the border of the video becomes glowy and dream-like to give it characteristics of a memory. Either way, spatial videos feel alive. The dream-like memory border sells that feeling pretty well.
In one spatial video, my mom and I were having dim sum at a restaurant, and I was explaining to her what the Apple Vision Pro is and what it does. It was recorded last weekend, so the memory was fresh in my mind. Rewatching the video inside of the Vision Pro, it was as if we were transported back to the restaurant, sitting across from each other over a table of dishes. I kept tilting my head a lot, almost in disbelief at how surreal it was to see my mom talking, laughing, and eating in spatial video.
My mom was who got me interested in technology, and I don’t think I would have a career writing about new consumer tech if not for her interest in it. To me, these convos are very precious, so to see them replayed with a sense of presence really tugged at my heartstrings. At one point, I fought back a few tiny tears, if only because there were three Apple reps sitting next to me.
Self-aware of EyeSight and the possibility that they might be able to see my tears, I asked if they could see my eyes on the Vision Pro’s outside display. I was told they couldn’t. Pre-release software, you know? I obviously couldn’t confirm that myself as the person wearing Vision Pro. At a certain distance and window size, spatial videos can look life-sized. But even when I “pushed” the video window farther away (enabled by looking at the bar at the bottom of the window and then pushing it farther from me), seeing my mom in 3D made me emotional. I even laid back on the sofa and placed the virtual video on the ceiling.
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Another account of using this stuff, and even allowing for the fact that Apple must be choosing these folk carefully, it’s evident that spatial video is something special.
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Ministry of Justice plan to destroy historical wills is ‘insane’, say experts • The Guardian
Robert Booth:
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“Sheer vandalism” and “insane”. This is how leading historians have described government plans to destroy millions of historical wills to save on storage costs.
The Ministry of Justice is consulting on digitising and then throwing away about 100m paper originals of the last wills and testaments of British people dating back more than 150 years in an effort to save £4.5m a year.
But Tom Holland, the classical and medieval historian and co-host of The Rest is History podcast, said the proposal to empty shelves at the Birmingham archive was “obviously insane”. Sir Richard Evans, historian of modern Germany and modern Europe, said “to destroy the original documents is just sheer vandalism in the name of bureaucratic efficiency”.
Ministers believe digitisation will speed up access to the papers, but the proposal has provoked a backlash among historians and archivists who took to X to decry it as “bananas” and “a seriously bad idea”.
The government is proposing to keep the originals of some wills of “famous people” – likely including those of Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Diana, Princess of Wales – but others would be destroyed after 25 years and only a digital copy would be kept.
It is feared that wills of ordinary people, some of whom may become historically significant in the future, risk being lost. Wills are considered essential documents, particularly for social historians and genealogists, as they capture what people considered important at the time and reveal unknown family links.
The proposal comes amid growing concern at the fragility of digital archives, after a cyber-attack on the British Library left the online catalogue and digitised documents unavailable to users since late October. The apparent vulnerability was also revealed this month when the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the former prime minister Boris Johnson both claimed they could no longer access WhatsApp messages sought by the UK Covid-19 public inquiry.
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Short memories in government: the Windrush scandal followed the destruction of hundreds of landing cards.
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Apple loses attempt to halt Apple Watch sales ban – The Verge
Emma Roth:
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Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban [starting December 26] on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. In a filing on Wednesday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple’s motion to stay the ban while awaiting an appeal.
…The ban is only in effect in the US, and third-party retailers such as Best Buy will still be able to sell the pair of watches until their supplies run out. Although Apple’s attempt to stop the ban has failed, it still has a chance to undo the decision if President Joe Biden vetoes it. However, as my colleague Victoria Song points out, Apple getting a presidential veto “would be like lightning striking the same place twice.”
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Ben Thompson made the good point on his Dithering podcast that Biden might not want to be seen acting to help out a “big tech” company against a smaller one. It’s not as if Apple is short of money to pay Massimo, which won the patent argument at the ITC; nor that Apple hasn’t been shy of asserting its patents when it can. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
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AI machine cannot be called an inventor, rules UK supreme court • FT
George Hammond:
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The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that a machine cannot be named on a patent as the inventor of new products or ideas, in a landmark decision that tackles the issue of who — or what — can claim credit for innovative creations.
The country’s highest court unanimously rejected a challenge, which has been working its way through the courts since 2018, that would have seen artificial intelligence tools designated as inventors. Wednesday’s decision puts an end to the case in the UK.
The case goes to the heart of questions about what rights and protections machines deserve. Those questions have grown increasingly complex as a result of rapid developments in the technology this year, which have included AI matching or outperforming humans on a range of tasks.
The advances are challenging existing legal frameworks in the UK and elsewhere, designed to strictly uphold the rights of human inventors.
Handing down the Supreme Court’s judgment on Wednesday, Lord Kitchin said: “We conclude that an ‘inventor’ must be a natural person. Only a person can devise an invention.”
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Though the US Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on this, that’s the same direction that it’s going in. Certainly makes sense: we’re humans! We’re the ones! This should forestall things until aliens get here and start showing off their tricks.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
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