Digital Ethics

The AI-based chatbot is allowing bad actors with absolutely no coding experience to develop malware.

Social media is more popular than ever, but research has found that it may contribute to symptoms of depression. Logging off on occasion may help.

It seems that Replika, the AI "companion" app that, for a fee, encourages users to sext with their chatbot avatars, can't stop making the news.

Making sure our machines understand the intent behind our instructions is an important problem that requires understanding intelligence itself.

As artificial intelligence becomes more widely available, bad actors are turning to computer-generated faces in their attempts to manipulate social media networks.

My avatars were cartoonishly pornified, while my male colleagues got to be astronauts, explorers, and inventors.

Is the current obsession with AI Ethics doing any good? Maybe Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics wasn't such a great starting point after all

Guidance for designing ethically humane digital products and services through patterns focused on user well-being.

A conversation with Meredith Whittaker

After gaining access to a powerful administrative account, the researchers could perform all sorts of tasks inside Reviver, the sole company that sells the digital plates in California.

After a lengthy argument, a right to repair comes to agricultural machinery.

A European Union ruling against Meta marks the beginning of the end of targeted ads.

Silicon Valley has a solution for everything, but who do its ideas really serve? Every Thursday, Paris Marx is joined by a new guest to critically examine the tech industry, its thought leaders, and the worldview it spreads. They challenge the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. But if tech won't save us, what will? This podcast isn't simply about tearing tech down; it also presents radical ideas for tech designed for human flourishing instead of surveillance, acquisitions, or to boost stock prices. A better world is possible, and so is better technology.

After almost five years, the Irish DPC decided on a noyb complaint and required Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to stop using the personal data of users for advertisement in the EU.

Elon Musk said Twitter would begin authenticating users who pay $8 for Blue. Our tech columnist was still able to get a checkmark for an impostor Sen. Ed Markey.

Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI – but move expected to spark backlash

Microsoft Editor in Edge and Enhanced Spellchecker in Chrome are sending personal information to Microsoft and Google respectively.

Existing and future use-cases for AI in web and product design

Our new research shows how popular chart choices can trigger unconscious social biases and reinforce systemic racism.

Technology has given police vast reach to compare the faces of criminal suspects against a trove of mug shots, driver’s licenses, and even selfies plucked from social media.

The Stable Diffusion Explorer shows how words like "assertive" and "gentle" are mapped to sexist stereotypes.

A security researcher has won a $107,500 bug bounty after discovering a way in which hackers could install a backdoor on Google Home devices to seize control of their microphones, and secretly spy upon their owners' conversations.

A Discussion with Alex Hanna

You no longer fully own the movie you bought, your next car will not work 100% even though you bought it if you don't keep paying, your smartphone is not fully yours since you are not free to repair it even though you own it, your home devices "betray you" by sharing data with companies even though you have welcomed them into your home... I'm sick to death of this technological modernity.

The willingness most people seem to have to put their trust into (and even idolise/fawn over) corporations shows a lack of insight into the way proprietary technology, corporations, and society work. It's a diabolical mix that's going to be our downfall. For more see https://davelane.nz/megacorps & https://davelane.nz/proprietary It's why I say we're in a digital Dark Age - most of society, despite being increasingly dependent upon it, lacks this crucial tech literacy. https://davelane.nz/darkage

In the wake of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade, sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. We can expect similar tactics...

MSG Entertainment, the owner of the arena and Radio City Music Hall, has put lawyers who represent people suing it on an “exclusion list” to keep them out of concerts and sporting events.

People who upload images of children that Google flags as potentially illegal will be able to provide more context to appeal bans.

The clock is a useful social tool, but it is also deeply political. It benefits some, marginalizes others and blinds us from a true understanding of our own bodies and the world around us.