News — At The Edge — 6/2

• Future ahead — integrated blockchains & AI takeover — seems inevitable.
• Straddling the future — oversight of weaponized data — is a minefield.

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Future ahead

How to get blockchains to talk to each other —

“[Blockchains] keep multiplying, but…don’t seem headed toward any kind of higher-order…[so] key to moving…forward lies in figuring out how to make…individual systems work together….

If a blockchain system could respond to an attack by transferring its crypto-assets…to a different distributed ledger, that might help avoid a crisis….

[So] today’s blockchain developers should borrow…the internet protocol suite called the datagram, which is a common unit of information that can move across different networks….

[One] company is developing what it calls a ‘token bridge’ that will let…Ethereum-based tokens back up their assets on another blockchain…without duplicating the actual monetary supply…[with] agreement amongst themselves and deciding whether to respond to a certain transaction on one of the chains by executing a corresponding one on the other….

[Since] today’s competing protocols are often backed by billions of dollars of investment…[can] succeed, meaning the future will be ruled by numerous blockchains…and interoperability…key to mainstream adoption…[and] like the internet…could be just as transformative.” https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611187/how-to-get-blockchains-to-talk-to-each-other/

Machines playing God: How A.I. will overcome humans | Max Tegmark (5 min. video) —

AI needs thousands of pictures in order to correctly identify a dog from a cat, whereas human babies and toddlers only need to see each [once]….But AI won’t be that way forever…because it hasn’t learned how to self-replicate its own intelligence.

However, once AI learns how to master AGI — or Artificial General Intelligence — it will be able to upgrade itself, thereby being able to blow right past us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9eLpRbRk4c

Straddling the future

Zuckerberg set up fraudulent scheme to ‘weaponize’ data, court case alleges —

“A company suing Facebook…[claims it] ‘weaponized’…access to data from any user’s network of friends…at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica scandal…[based] upon extensive confidential emails and messages between…senior executives including [Zuckerberg]….

‘Facebook’s claims…[it’s] an editor for first amendment purposes…free to censor and alter the content…[but] is in tension with…[claims to] Congress to be neutral platform’….

[Plaintiff] claims internal emails…reveal a cynical and abusive system…to exploit access to users’ private information, alongside a raft of anti-competitive behaviors…[and] misled the public and Congress about Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal by portraying it as a victim of a third party that had abused its rules….

[Facebook] cut off data to force rivals out of business, or coerce owners of apps Facebook coveted into selling at below the market price, even though they were not breaking any terms of their contracts….

[A] Facebook employee turned whistleblower who has testified…[says] senior executives were aware of abuses…back in 2011–12 and he was warned not to look into the issue.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/24/mark-zuckerberg-set-up-fraudulent-scheme-weaponise-data-facebook-court-case-alleges

To truly protect citizens, lawmakers need to restructure their regulatory oversight of big tech —

“[Thinking] existing regulatory tools can reign in our digital behemoths is…magical thinking…[because] the use and abuse of data is…the defining feature of just about every company…[in] age of machine learning and autonomous systems**….**

[GDPR’s] a lot of ambiguous costly-to-interpret words and procedures on paper that are outmatched by rapidly evolving [technologies]…[and] relies heavily on the outmoded technology of user choice and consent….[It’s] an illusion of choice…[like] take-it-or-leave-it click-to-agree documents.

There’s also the problem of actually tracking whether companies are complying. It is likely that the regulation of online activity requires yet more technology, such as blockchain and AI-powered monitoring systems_…_[but] governments lack the technological resources needed….

[Issue] is not: ‘what should the rules be…[but] how can we can innovate new ways to regulate effectively’….

[Perhaps] ‘a market for licensed private regulators…[for] achieving regulatory targets…[and] innovating more cost-effective ways to do that…[with] principles of data protection, based on core values, such as privacy and user control.

Private entities, profit and non-profit, could apply to a government oversight agency for a license to provide data regulatory services to companies…[using] big-data analysis, and machine learning…[and] communicate simple options to people…on pain of losing their license….

There could be many such regulators…offering packages of data management attributes…[for] people who want to be invisible online, to those who want their every move documented….

The key here is competition: for-profit and non-profit private regulators compete to attract money and brains the problem of how to regulate complex systems.” https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/28/to-truly-protect-citizens-lawmakers-need-to-restructure-their-regulatory-oversight-of-big-tech/

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May you live long and prosper!Doc Huston