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Future Tense Newsletter: Questions of Responsibility

Greetings, Future Tensers,

Throughout this month’s Futurography course on cyberwar, we’ve seen that it can be difficult to determine who’s responsible for hacks and other Internet-based misdeeds. As Josephine Wolff explains, this uncertainty, which is known as the “attribution problem,” complicates the ways that we respond to cyber attacks. In a Facebook live chat I conducted last week, cybersecurity expert Robert Morgus pointed out that the attribution problem also complicates what does and does not count as an act of cyberwar.

A different question of responsibility comes up with police body and dashboard cameras, especially as these technologies grow increasingly ubiquitous. Catherine Crump and Matthew Segal argued that courts should insist that officers present footage of their encounters with civilians wherever possible. Of course, even the most well-intended innovations are rarely unambiguously good: Investigating an app that helps day laborers record their working conditions, Julia Ticona warns that it may introduce new challenges if it leads “to cultural changes in what counts as sufficient evidence of abuse.”

Here are some of the other stories that we read over the past week while activating our power-laced shoes:

  • Broadband: As diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba improve, Google will work to expand Internet access on the island.
  • Social media: Twitter users have been complaining about the site’s new algorithmic timeline since it was announced, but it turns out that a lot of people actually like the new feature.
  • Artificial intelligence: The triumph of Google’s AlphaGo project offers an important lesson about the futility of trying to control A.I. through outdated regulatory approaches.
  • Malware: Research indicates that malicious parties are tricking users into installing malware by “typosquatting” on commonly mistyped URLs such as Netflix.om. Be sure to source your sites!

Events:

  • Join New America, Future Tense, and Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society on Thursday, March 24, at 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C., for a discussion about incubating artificial intelligence. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Updating my OS,

Jacob Brogan

for Future Tense 


http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/03/23/future_tense_newsletter_for_march_23_2016.html
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