RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Monday 12 February 2024 Volume 34 : Issue 06

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/34.06>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents: Backlogged; at least half included
Most Distant Space Probe Jeopardized by Glitch (Stephen Clar)
Chinese malware removed from SOHO routers after FBI issues covert
commands (Ars Technica)
Deep fakes (CNN)
Have we lost faith in technology? (BBC)
AIs sometimes consider nuclear war the best way to achieve peace
(Lauren Weinstein)
Police Turn to AI to Review Bodycam Footage (ProPublica)
The real wolf menacing the news business? AI (Jim Albrecht)
Google CEO suggests that "*hallucinating* AI misinformation is a *feature*
(WiReD)
Diving deep into OpenAI's new study on LLM's and bioweapons
(Gary Marcus vis Gabe Goldberg)
How AI is quietly changing everyday life (Politico)
FCC votes to ban AI-generated misleading robocalls, which ...
(Lauren Weinstein)
Google changes Bard to Gemini -- and links it to Google Assistant
-- but it's still a misleading idiot LLM AI (Lauren Weinstein)
The Internet of Toothbrushes (Tom Van Vleck)
No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack
(Bleeping Computer via Steve Bacher)
AI deepfakes get very real as 2024 election season begins]
(Fast Company)
Hurd in reflection (Jon Callas)
VR fail safe vs. driving (Lauren Weinstein)
Manipulated Biden Video Can Remain Online (CNN)
Re: AI maxim (Ian)
Re: ChatGPT can answer yes or no at the same time (DJC)
Re: Even after a recall, Tesla's Autopilot does dumb dangerous things
(John Levine)
A Whistleblower's tale about the Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug
(LeeHamNews via Thomas Koenig)
Re: Why the 737 MAX 9 door plug blew out (Dick Mills)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:06:32 -0500 (EST)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Most Distant Space Probe Jeopardized by Glitch
(Stephen Clark)

Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 6 Feb 2024

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have not received telemetry
data from the Voyager 1 space probe since a 14 Nov computer glitch in its
Flight Data Subsystem (FDS). They believe the problem involves corrupted
memory in the FDS, but without the telemetry data, they cannot identify the
root cause. Said Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd, "It would be the
biggest miracle if we get it back. We certainly haven't given up."

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:06:32 -0500 (EST)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Attacks in the Metaverse Are Booming. Police Start to Pay Attention
(Naomi Nix)

Naomi Nix, *The Washington Post*. 4 Feb 2024

Law enforcement is paying closer attention to reports of attacks,
harassment, and sexual assault in virtual environments. The Zero Abuse
Project received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to educate
state and local police on crimes committed in VR. There are concerns about
the psychological impact of harassment in VR, but legal precedent would need
a significant overhaul for virtual crimes to be prosecuted.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2024 15:19:06 +0000
From: Victor Miller <victorsmiller@gmail.com>
Subject: Chinese malware removed from SOHO routers after FBI issues covert
commands (Ars Technica)

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/chinese-malware-removed-from-soho-routers-after-fbi-issues-covert-commands/

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2024 22:20:30 +0000
From: Victor Miller <victorsmiller@gmail.com>
Subject: Deep fakes (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk?cid=ios_app

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2024 22:02:32 -0700
From: Matthew Kruk <mkrukg@gmail.com>
Subject: Have we lost faith in technology? (BBC)

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68057193

Relationship status: it's complicated.

When it comes to technology, never before have we been both more reliant,
and more wary.

Society is more connected, but also more lonely; more productive, but also
more burnt-out; we have more privacy tools, but arguably less privacy.

There's no doubt that some tech innovation has been universally great. The
formula for a new antibiotic that killed a previously lethal hospital
superbug was invented by an AI tool.

Machines that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air could be a huge help
in the fight against climate change. Video games and movies are more
immersive and entertaining because of better screens and better effects.

But on the other hand, tech-related scandals dominate headlines. Stories
about data breaches, cyber attacks and horrific online abuse are regularly
on the news.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2024 10:01:59 -0800
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: AIs sometimes consider nuclear war the best way to achieve peace

The comparisons to the 1970 film "Colossus: The Forbin Project" are
painfully obvious. -L

Escalation Risks from Language Models in Military and Diplomatic
Decision-Making

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.03408.pdf

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2024 22:05:20 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Police Turn to AI to Review Bodycam Footage
(ProPublica)

Body camera video equivalent to 25 million copies of “Barbie” is collected
but rarely reviewed. Some cities are looking to new technology to examine
this stockpile of footage to identify problematic officers and patterns of
behavior.

....

Christopher J. Schneider, a professor at Canada’s Brandon University who
studies the impact of emerging technology on social perceptions of police,
said the lack of disclosure makes him skeptical that AI tools will fix the
problems in modern policing.

Even if police departments buy the software and find problematic officers or
patterns of behavior, those findings might be kept from the public just as
many internal investigations are.

Because it’s confidential,” he said, “the public are not going to know which
officers are bad or have been disciplined or not been disciplined.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/police-body-cameras-video-ai-law-enforcement

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:22:55 -0800
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: The real wolf menacing the news business? AI.
(Jim Albrecht)

[By a laid off senior ex-Googler]

The author, Jim Albrecht, was senior director of news ecosystem products at
Google until he was laid off last year as part of a purge of the team. -L

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/06/ai-news-business-links-google-chatgpt/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2024 11:51:07 -0800
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Google CEO suggests that "*hallucinating* AI misinformation is a
*feature*

https://www.wired.com/story/google-prepares-for-a-future-where-search-isnt-king/

[Tongue-twister? Google Gargoyle Gargles Goggles. Giggle? PGN]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2024 15:10:06 -0500
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: Diving deep into OpenAI's new study on LLM's
and bioweapons

When looked at carefully, OpenAI's new study on GPT-4 and bioweapons is
deeply worrisome What they didn't quite tell you, and why it might matter, a
lot

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/when-looked-at-carefully-openais

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2024 06:57:20 -0800
From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1@verizon.net>
Subject: How AI is quietly changing everyday life (Politico)

A growing share of businesses, schools, and medical professionals have
quietly embraced generative AI, and there’s really no going back. It is
being used to screen job candidates, tutor kids, buy a home and dole out
medical advice.

The Biden administration is trying to marshal federal agencies
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/27/white-house-ai-executive-order-00124067
to assess what kind of rules make sense for the technology. But lawmakers in
Washington, state capitals and city halls have been slow to figure out how
to protect people’s privacy and guard against echoing the human biases baked
into much of the data AIs are trained on.

“There are things that we can use AI for that will really benefit people,
but there are lots of ways that AI can harm people and perpetuate
inequalities and discrimination that we’ve seen for our entire history,”
said Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance.

While key federal regulators have said decades-old anti-discrimination laws
and other protections can be used to police some aspects of artificial
intelligence, Congress has struggled to advance proposals
<https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/13/schumer-senate-ai-policy-00115794>
for new licensing and liability systems for AI models and requirements
focused on transparency and kids’ safety.