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Category: government – Page 89

Clearview AI Is Enroute to Win an US Patent for Facial Recognition Technology

The government wants to have a “search engine for faces,” but the experts are wary.

If you haven’t heard of Clearview AI then you should, as the company’s facial recognition technology has likely already spotted you. Clearview’s software goes through public images from social media to help law enforcement identify wanted individuals by matching their public images with those found in government databases or surveillance footage. Now, the company just got permission to be awarded a U.S. federal patent, according to Politico.

The firm is not without its fair share of controversy. It has long faced opposition from privacy advocates and civil rights groups. The first says it makes use of citizens’ faces without their knowledge or consent. The latter warns of the fact that facial recognition technology is notoriously prone to racially-based errors, misidentifying women and minorities much more frequently than white men and sometimes leading to false arrests.

Clearview AI will get a US patent for its facial recognition tech

Clearview AI is about to get formal acknowledgment for its controversial facial recognition technology. Politico reports Clearview has received a US Patent and Trademark Office “notice of allowance” indicating officials will approve a filing for its system, which scans faces across public internet data to find people from government lists and security camera footage. The company just has to pay administrative fees to secure the patent.

In a Politico interview, Clearview founder Hoan Ton-That claimed this was the first facial recognition patent involving “large-scale internet data.” The firm sells its tool to government clients (including law enforcement) hoping to accelerate searches.

As you might imagine, there’s a concern the USPTO is effectively blessing Clearview’s technology and giving the company a chance to grow despite widespread objections to its technology’s very existence. Critics are concerned Clearview is building image databases without targets’ knowledge or permission, and multiple governments (including Australia and the UK) believe the facial recognition violates data laws. The tech could theoretically be used to stifle political dissent or, in private use, to stalk other people. That’s not including worries about possible gender and race biases for facial recognition as a whole.

Pegasus maker probes reports its spyware targeted US diplomats

The Israeli spyware maker in the Pegasus surveillance scandal said Friday it was investigating reports the firm’s technology was used to target iPhones of some US diplomats in Africa.

Apple has begun alerting people whose phones were hacked by NSO’s spyware, which essentially turns handsets into pocket spying devices and sparked controversy this year after reportedly being used on activists, journalists and politicians.

“On top of the independent investigation, NSO will cooperate with any relevant government authority and present the full information we will have,” the firm said in a statement.

South African crowd-solving startup Zindi building a community of data scientists and using AI to solve real-world problems

Zindi is all about using AI to solve real-world problems for companies and individuals. And the South Africa-based crowd-solving startup has done that over the last three years they have been in existence.

Just last year a team of data scientists under Zindi used machine learning to improve air quality monitoring in Kampala as another group helped Zimnat, an insurance company in Zimbabwe, predict customer behavior — especially on who was likely to leave and the possible interventions that would make them stay. Zimnat was able to retain its customers by offering custom-made services to those who would have otherwise discontinued.

These are some of the solutions that have been realized to counter the data-centered challenges that companies, NGOs and government institutions submit to Zindi.

Can Europe Dominate In Innovation Despite US Big Tech Lead?

The US tech industry seems to be unstoppable. In fact, it is the most valuable tech industry in the world. According to CompTIA, in 2022, the US tech market will represent 33% of the global market share — or approximately $1.8 trillion. The European technology industry is a dwarf in comparison to America’s FAMANGs– Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Netflix, which are worth approximately $6 trillion. Europe’s tech companies as a whole are worth about 30% of any one of the Big 4 American firms. SAP, by far the largest European technology corporation, is worth around 14% of Amazon or Microsoft. Only SAP makes it into the Fortune 500 in the Technology sector. But why are we seeing this trend? What makes the US tech market so much more valuable than counterparts in European markets. Federal research labs and Government grants accelerated core research across the US that helped to create new technology companies which are still household names today: HP, IBM and Google’s Alphabet all have their roots in government sector funding. Full Story:

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), Uganda

Biodiversity conservation, public health and improved livelihoods — dr gladys kalema-zikusoka, founder and CEO, conservation through public health.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, is the Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH — https://ctph.org/), a 16-year old non-profit organization, based in Uganda, that promotes conservation by improving the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa, and she has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the critically endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa.

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka is also on the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) of the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/groups/scientific-advisory-group-on-the-…ago)/about)

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka trained as a veterinarian at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College. Between 1996 and 2000, she set up the first Veterinary Unit at the Uganda Wildlife Authority. From 2000 to 2003, she completed a zoological medicine residency and masters in specialized veterinary medicine at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Zoological Park.

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka became an Ashoka Fellow in 2007 for merging Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources for both people and animals.

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Liberals Yet to Account for $600 Billion in Public Spending During the Pandemic. Don’t Expect That to Change

Here’s a quick reminder that one of the expected results of the current pandemic is the slow, controlled, but inevitable destruction of the Canadian economy as government assets are secretly pulled out of circulation and redistributed to international bankers and their wealthiest clients.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is asking Parliament to approve billions in new spending during a brief four-week sitting in Ottawa, but is facing questions because it has not released a full accounting of how it spent more than $600Bln last year.

DoD Announces the Establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synch

Today, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in close collaboration with the Director of National Intelligence, directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security to establish within the Office of the USD(I&S) the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) as the successor to the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The AOIMSG will synchronize efforts across the Department and the broader U.S. government to detect, identify and attribute objects of interests in Special Use Airspace (SUA), and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security. To provide oversight of the AOIMSG, the Deputy Secretary also directed the USD(I&S) to lead an Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC) to be comprised of DoD and Intelligence Community membership, and to offer a venue for U.S. government interagency representation.

Incursions by any airborne object into our SUA pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges. DOD takes reports of incursions – by any airborne object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one. This decision is the result of planning efforts and collaboration conducted by OUSD(I&S) and other DoD elements at the direction of Deputy Secretary Hicks, to address the challenges associated with assessing UAP occurring on or near DOD training ranges and installations highlighted in the DNI preliminary assessment report submitted to Congress in June 2021. The report also identified the need to make improvements in processes, policies, technologies, and training to improve our ability to understand UAP.

In coming weeks, the Department will issue implementing guidance, which will contain further details on the AOIMSG Director, organizational structure, authorities, and resourcing.

Canada’s first cases of the omicron coronavirus variant confirmed in Ottawa

“It is not known at this time whether the variant is more transmissible, or more dangerous to the health of those who catch it, than other coronavirus variants.”

There are two confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Ottawa, the Ontario government announced Sunday.

“Today, the province of Ontario has confirmed two cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Ottawa, both of which were reported in individuals with recent travel from Nigeria. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation,” the statement said.

Seoul, First Local Gov’t to Start New-Concept Public Service with “Metaverse Platform”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) is the first local government in Korea to establish a metaverse platform, which has emerged as a contactless communication channel in the post-pandemic era, to start providing a new-concept public service by using the platform in its administration.

The SMG plans to establish “Metaverse Seoul” (tentatively named), a high-performance platform, by the end of next year, and create a metaverse ecosystem for all areas of its municipal administration, such as economic, cultural, tourism, educational and civic service, in three stages from next year.

Starting with the pilot program of a Bosingak Belfry virtual bell ringing event at the end of this year, the SMG will consecutively provide various business support facilities and services, including the Virtual Mayor’s Office, Seoul FinTech Lab, Invest Seoul and Seoul Campus Town, on its metaverse platform.

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