Why We Cannot Have Nice Info Things
June 9, 2018
With every good invention there comes a time when somebody figures out how to use it for the porn industry. The examples include the inventions of the Internet, animation, comic books, writing, drawing, plumbing, electricity, printing, movies, videogames, and the list goes on. Now we can add AI algorithms to the list. Quartz shares how innocent AI algorithms became used for porn in the article, “Google Gave The World Powerful AI Tools, And The World Made Porn.”
Google released its internal tool TensorFlow to the public in 2015. This changed the way AI tools would forever be developed. TensorFlow is a powerful tool that can turn anyone with a little know how into an AI developer. For a while, academics were the only ones using TensorFlow, then the Reddit community got hold of it. What did Reddit do with it? They used TensorFlow to make porn and lots of it!
Reddit user deep fakes built a video editing app that allowed users to seamlessly put people’s faces on porn actors’ bodies. It escalated from there. Blaming Google for bringing a new dimension to porn is like saying the entire Internet is bad. Yes, the Internet has a figurative and literal dark side), but the benefits outweigh the negatives. Also Google is not liable for the porn:
“Since the software can run locally on a computer, large tech companies relinquish control of what’s done with it after it leaves their servers. The creed of open source, or at least how it’s been viewed in modern software development, also dictates that these companies are freed of guilt or liability from what others do with the software. In that way, it’s like a gun or a cigarette.”
But there are ethical concerns:
“The tools that Google offers today are not the keys to creating Skynet or some other super intelligent being, but they can still do real harm. Google and others like Microsoft, which also offers an open-source AI framework, have been vocal about the ethical development of artificial intelligence that would not cause harm, and their on-staff scientists have signed pledges and started research groups dedicated to the topic. But the companies don’t offer any guidance or mandates for those who download their free software. The TensorFlow website shows how to get the software running, but no disclaimers on how to use the software ethically or instructions on how to make sure your dataset isn’t biased.”
There is a right to be concerned, but at the same time there is not. Should this be monitored? Of course, especially if it will do harm to others. But if it is self-contained and no innocents are being hurt, it is arguable to leave them alone too. We all know, however, that harm will come from this. It is the same story in a new medium.
Whitney Grace, June 9, 2018
Musicians And Small Business Can Influence Google Search
June 8, 2018
One of the problems with being a musicians is building and growing a fan base. The only way to grow a fan base is to get your name out there. Other than playing gigs, distributing music online is the best way, then musicians face the problem of getting their content to appear in search results. Search Engine Journal reports that, “Google Allows Musicians To Post Directly To Search Results” that could be a new benefit for the budding superstar.
Using the Google Posts, musicians and small businesses can publish short updates that will appear at the top of Google search results. This feature was first developed for musicians in pop and electronic dance music genres, but now it is widely available to all musicians and it is accessible through the Knowledge Panel.
Here is how it works:
“Updates from musicians will appear within their respective Knowledge Panel, which typically shows up when the artist’s name is searched for specifically. Musicians will be able to publish text, images, videos, and GIFs. A blue checkmark will indicate when the updates are from a verified musician. This feature is now live in Google search results worldwide.”
Being at the top of Google search results is a boon for small businesses and budding musicians. It will attract more customers and people to a growing fan base.
Whitney Grace, June 8, 2018
Will Google Bring Order to Its Many Services?
June 8, 2018
Once upon a time we used to live without Google. Now we can’t live without it. We use Google for everything from email to entertainment, but are we really using all of Google’s services and apps? Apparently not! According to Pandroid’s article there are: “100+ Google Apps That You Didn’t Know Exist” we are not using and we should be using them.
I learned:
“You might be surprised to learn that Google has 160 Android Apps on the Google Play Store, many of which you probably never knew existed. We compiled a full (yet compact) list, sorting the results by rating volume (ascending) to help surface the lesser known apps.”
When it comes to apps we automatically think about the Apple iPhones and any Android apps are pre-installed or only meant for internal use. That is a wrong assumption. Android phones have a wide assortment of apps that range from fun to useful.
The first on the list is called Voice Actress and assists users who have difficulty with a touch screen. The last app on the list is YouTube, which we all know what that is (If you do not, then I suggest heading back under your rock and making a channel about living under one). There are map apps, text to speech apps, photo editing, an app to make short cartoons, Google Hangouts, foreign language assistance, and many more. These apps all center on Google, but who knew that Google had so many useful and useless services? We all do now!
Whitney Grace, June 8, 2018
Deindexing SEO Delivers Revenue Results
June 7, 2018
SEO is still an important aspect of the Google algorithm and other search engine crawlers. In my opinion, tweaking Web pages can result in a boost for content in some queries. I have a hunch that Google’s system then ignores subsequent tweaks. The Web master then has an opportunity to buy Google advertising, and the content becomes more findable. But that’s just an opinion.
The received wisdom is that the key to great SEO is to generate great content, which is the crawlers then index. Robin Rozhon shares that technical SEO has a big impact on your Web site, especially if it is large. In his article, “Crawling & Indexing: Technical SEO Basics That Drive Revenue (Case Study)” Rozhon discusses to maximize technical SEO, including deindexing benefits.
Rozhan ran an experiment where they deindexed over 400,000 of their 500,000 Web sites and 80% of their URLs, because search engines indexed them as duplicate category URLs. Their organic traffic highly increased. Before you deindex your Web sites, check into Google Analytics to determine how well the pages are doing.
Also to determine what pages to deindex collect data about the URLs and find out what the parameters are along with other data. Use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, log files, and other data about the URL to understand its performance.
Facets and filters are another important contribution to URLs:
“Faceted navigation is another common troublemaker on ecommerce websites we have been dealing with.Every combination of facets and filters creates a unique URL. This is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, because it creates tons of great landing pages but also tons of super specific landing pages no one cares about.”
They also have pros and cons:
I learned this about “facets”:
- Facets are discoverable crawlable and indexable by search engines;
- Wait! Facets are not discoverable if multiple items from the same facet are selected (e.g. Adidas and Nike t-shirts).
- Facets contain self-referencing canonical tags;
And what about filters?
- Filters are not discoverable;
- Filters contain a “noindex’ tag;
- Filters use url parameters that are configured in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.
As a librarian, I believe that old school ideas have found their way into the zippy modern approach to indexing via humans and semi smart software.
In the end, consolidate pages and remove any dead weight to drive traffic to the juicy content and increase sales. Why did they not say that to begin with, instead of putting us through the technical jargon?
Whitney Grace, June 7, 2018
Doxxing Explained
June 7, 2018
For those unfamiliar with the practice of “doxxing,” Stuff has shared a clear introduction on the topic peppered with links to more information—“What is Doxxing, and Why Is It So Scary?” Reporter Jasmine McNealy describes the technique of discovering personal information available online and using it against one’s target. She also emphasizes how dangerous these attacks can be. McNealy writes:
“It’s not surprising that information has value – particularly information related to people’s identities, interests and habits. This is, after all, the age of big data, social media and targeted advertising. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is just one of many events in which regular people found out just how much personal information is available out on the internet. People also found out how little power they had over their information. Generally, people want, and think they have, control over who knows what about them. Individual identity is in part performance: People decide and change who they are and how they act in different places, around different groups. This is particularly true online, where many sites and services allow users to be anonymous or pseudonymous or to hide their information from other users’ searches. Often, of course, each site itself has some private information about users, like an email address, for delivering service-related notices. But online platforms seem to offer users a measure of control over their identity and personal information.”
That control, however, is less absolute than these platforms would have their users believe. The write-up describes why this is so, and concludes by emphasizing McNealy’s central point—doxxing turns online information into a dangerous weapon.
Cynthia Murrell, June 7, 2018
AI Speed Bumps Needed
June 6, 2018
The most far-reaching problem with AI is its potential for machine learning to pick up, and implement, the wrong lessons. Technology Review draws our attention to a new service that tests algorithms for bias in, “This Company Audits Algorithms to See How Biased They Are.” Founded by Cathy O’Neal, the mathematician and social scientist behind the book Weapons of Math Destruction, the small company is called O’Neil Risk Consulting and Algorithmic Auditing (ORCAA). In analyzing an algorithm for fairness, the company considers many factors, from the programmers themselves to the data generated. O’Neil offers these assessments as a way for companies to certify their algorithms bias-free, which she suggests makes for a strong marketing tool.
Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns we are already becoming too reliant on AI in its post, “Math Can’t Solve Everything: Questions We Need to Be Asking Before Deciding an Algorithm is the Answer.” In introducing their list, Staff Attorney Jamie Lee Williams and Product Manager Lena Gunn emphasize:
“Across the globe, algorithms are quietly but increasingly being relied upon to make important decisions that impact our lives. This includes determining the number of hours of in-home medical care patients will receive, whether a child is so at risk that child protective services should investigate, if a teacher adds value to a classroom or should be fired, and whether or not someone should continue receiving welfare benefits. The use of algorithmic decision-making is typically well-intentioned, but it can result in serious unintended consequences. In the hype of trying to figure out if and how they can use an algorithm, organizations often skip over one of the most important questions: will the introduction of the algorithm reduce or reinforce inequity in the system?”
The article urges organizations to take these five questions into account: Will this algorithm influence decisions with the potential to negatively impact people’s lives? Can the available data actually lead to a good outcome? Is the algorithm fair? How will the results (really) be used by humans? And, will people affected by these decisions have any influence over the system? For each entry, the post explains why, and how, to employ each of these questions, complete with examples of AI bias that have occurred already. It all comes down to this—as Williams and Gunn write, “We must not use algorithms to avoid making difficult policy decisions or to shirk our responsibility to care for one another.”
Cynthia Murrell, June 6, 2018
Want Info about a Small Town? Hit the Library
June 6, 2018
For many, libraries are obsolete, deader than a Peruvian mummy. This is true for some, but if you live in a small town then libraries are far from dead. Big news outlets cover global issues, so they skip over small town stories. Small towns, however, still have news and the residents want to read it. Where do they go to get information when local newspapers dried up? They go to the local library. The Atlantic shares the story, “The Libraries Bringing Small-Town News Back To Life” and how the US’s smaller cities still rely on libraries as information centers.
Libraries have seen their budgets slashed, branches closed down, and the librarian profession has been traded for para-professionals. Yet people still go to libraries and even trust librarians over journalists and other news sources. Why? Librarians also understand the importance of accurate information and their sources.
Librarians have picked up the slack where local news sources fail or disappeared. In some towns, being a news source has increased participation at libraries. The write up stated:
“Various types of community building are happening across the nation. In some cities, libraries are partnering with established news sources, teaming up in Dallas to train high schoolers in news gathering or hosting a satellite studio in Boston for the public radio station WGBH. In San Antonio, the main library offers space to an independent video news site that trains students and runs a C-SPAN-style operation in America’s seventh-biggest city. (That site was the only video outlet covering a mayoral debate last year in which the incumbent mayor’s comments on poverty became a national story—and may have contributed to her electoral defeat.)”
Where once libraries use to store information, they are turning into the information source. They are also reinforcing important information literacy skills, which are in desperate need as fake news and instant search weakens people’s judgment skills.
Whitney Grace, June 6, 2018
Short Honk: Does Amazon Have Facebook Data?
June 5, 2018
I read “Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends.” The write up mentions Amazon as a company given “access to vast amounts of its users’ personal information.” So the answer appears to be “Yes.” I assume that the NYT report is “real” news. What can Amazon do with that data? Check out the Amazon analysis in this week’s DarkCyber.
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2018
AI Datasets the Key to Better Smart Software
June 5, 2018
The potential for bias in artificial intelligence is a topic on practically every tech junkie’s lips these days. As the world depends more and more on machine learning, we are seeing more clearly the limits and flaws this system possesses. Namely, it’s potential for bias. We learned of this and of solutions in a recent Venture Beat story, “Datasheets Could Be The Solution to Biased AI.”
According to the story:
“Given that many machine learning and deep learning model development efforts use public datasets such as ImageNet or COCO — or private datasets produced by others — it’s important to be able to convey the context, biases, and other material aspects of a training dataset to those interested in using it.”
These datasets are proving to be incredibly valuable and an incredible way to remove the bias from AI. For example, datasets have been used to detect abnormalities in CT scans using artificial intelligence. In fact, they detect the problematic areas at incredible speeds. According to the story: “Qure.ai seeks to speed up the process by leveraging artificial intelligence to screen CT scans in under 10 seconds to find any abnormalities.” Wow, that’s an incredible leap. When AI is given an appropriate foundation like that, the potential for success is off the charts.
Patrick Roland, June 5, 2018
DarkCyber for June 5, 2018: Amazon and Its LE and Intelligence Services
June 5, 2018
The DarkCyber for June 5, 2018, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress or on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/273170550.
This week’s DarkCyber presents an extract from Stephen E Arnold’s lectures at the Prague Telestrategies ISS conference. The conference is designed for security, intelligence, and law enforcement professionals in Europe.
Stephen’s two lectures provided attendees with a snapshot of the services Amazon’s streaming data marketplace offer to customers, developers, and entrepreneurs.
Stephen said:
The Amazon platform is positioned to provide a robust, innovative way to anonymize digital currency transactions and perform the type of analyses needed to deal with bad actors and the activities.
The information was gleaned from Amazon conference lectures, Amazon’s Web logs and documentation, and open source documents.
For example, one public document stated:
“… A law enforcement agency may be a customer and may desire to receive global Bitcoin transactions, correlated by country, with USP data to determine source IP addresses and shipping addresses that correlate to Bitcoin addresses.”
Coupled with Amazon’s facial recognition service “Rekognition” and Amazon’s wide array of technical capabilities, Amazon is able to provide specialized content processing and data services.
Stephen stated:
Instead of learning how to use many different specialized systems, the Amazon approach offers a unified capability available with a Kindle-style interface. This is a potential game changer for LE, intel, and security service providers.
In this week’s DarkCyber video, Stephen provides an eight minute summary of his research, including the mechanisms by which new functions can be added to or integrated with the system.
A for fee lecture about what Stephen calls “Amazon’s intelligence services” is available on a for fee basis. For information, write darkcyber333 at yandex dot com.
Kenny Toth, June 5, 2018
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