Personal Data

Amid rising questions about the fairness and legality of using publicly available information to train AI models, Japan affirmed that machine learning engineers can use any data they find.

The largest dataset for training text-to-image generators was assembled by volunteers for roughly $10,000. Now it’s implicated in fights over whether copyrighted works can be used for training.

A new regulatory body created by the European Union promises to peer inside the black boxes that drive social media recommendations. The European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) will study the algorithms that identify, categorize...

Governments are repurposing Covid-focused face recognition systems as tools of repression. Russia’s internal security forces are using Moscow’s visual surveillance system, initially meant to help enforce pandemic-era restrictions, to crack down on anti-government...

The United States government published guidelines designed to help organizations limit harm from AI. The National Institute for Standards and Technology, which recommends technological standards in a variety of industries, released the initial version of its AI Risk Management Framework.

Models that generate text and images are raising thorny questions about the ownership of both their training data and their output. The companies that provide popular tools for generating text and images are fighting a barrage of lawsuits. TechCrunch surveyed the docket.

A top supplier of stock images will compensate artists who contribute training data to its image-generation service.

China’s internet watchdog issued new rules that govern synthetic media. Legislation from the Cyberspace Administration of China limits the use of AI to create or edit text, audio, video, images, and 3D digital renderings. The law took effect on January 10.

The important question of how companies and organizations use our data has received a lot of attention in the technology and policy communities. An equally important question that deserves more focus in 2023 is how...

AI-driven signs are deciding what to display based on data harvested from passersby. Companies that sell advertising in public spaces use face analysis and personal data to match ads with potential viewers in real time.

Artists are rebelling against AI-driven imitation. DeviantArt, an online community where artists display and sell their work and marketplace for digital art, launched DreamUp, a text-to-image generator that aims to help artists thwart attempts to imitate their styles or works.

United States colleges tracked activists using a natural language processing system intended to monitor their mental health.

As the United States (along with several other countries) gears up for general elections, AI is helping campaigns attract voters with increasing sophistication.

Amid rising social tension in the United States over reproductive freedom, a company that analyzes location data on abortion clinics stopped distributing its findings after a critical press report.

I believe that natural language processing in 2022 will re-embrace symbolic reasoning, harmonizing it with the statistical operation of modern neural networks. Let me explain what I mean by this.