The US and its allies should reject calls for a global ban on AI-powered autonomous weapons systems, according to an official report commissioned for the American President and Congress. It says that artificial intelligence will “compress decision time frames” and require military responses humans cannot make quickly enough alone. And it warns Russia and China would be… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
The only way to control tech giants like Facebook may be for governments to gang up
It used to be that the most influential media companies in Canada had to keep at least one eye on the Canadian public interest whether they wanted to or not. Broadcasters are regulated through the Broadcasting Act, and while newspapers face less oversight, a restriction on foreign ownership means there is always the potential that… Read more »
How will ‘chipageddon’ affect you?
For the most part they go unseen but computer chips are at the heart of all the digital products that surround us – and when supplies run short, it can halt manufacturing. There was a hint of the problem last year when gamers struggled to buy new graphics cards, Apple had to stagger the release of its… Read more »
Digital privacy law is being updated for the first time in decades, and it’s imperative we get it right
Canadian legislators in the House of Commons recently introduced Bill C-11 to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act. Bill C-11 embodies the principles of Canada’s Digital Charter, which envisions the internet as a tool for both innovation and the public good. Over the past year, Canadians — just like much of the world — have increasingly lived… Read more »
Ottawa to impose ‘fair share’ of tax on digital giants including Netflix, Amazon and Airbnb
That Netflix tax is coming after all. The federal government is taking aim at digital giants including Netflix, Amazon and Airbnb, insisting they pay HST or GST on sales to Canadian consumers, a move that experts warn could raise prices. Everything from app-store purchases to streaming subscriptions to items purchased on Amazon could be hit under the… Read more »
Canadian professor’s website helps Russia spread disinformation, says U.S. State Department
As U.S. authorities guard against dirty tricks from foreign adversaries in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election, an unlikely source has come under new scrutiny as a major conduit of Russian-linked disinformation: a Montreal-based website run by a retired University of Ottawa professor. The platform, Global Research, features a Canadian domain name and offers an ever-expanding… Read more »
Iowa caucus: Chaos at key vote as results delayed
Results from voting in Iowa, the first round in the contest to pick a Democratic candidate to face President Donald Trump, have been plunged into chaos by apparent technology issues. The state’s Democratic party said the holdup was a “reporting issue”, adding that it expected to “have numbers to report later today [Tuesday]”. Source: BBC… Read more »
Brexit ad blitz data firm paid by Vote Leave broke privacy laws, watchdogs find
A joint investigation by watchdogs in Canada and British Columbia has found that Cambridge Analytica-linked data firm, Aggregate IQ, broke privacy laws in Facebook ad-targeting work it undertook for the official Vote Leave Brexit campaign in the UK’s 2016 EU referendum. A quick reminder: Vote Leave was the official leave campaign in the referendum on the UK’s membership… Read more »
What is CrowdStrike and why is it part of the Trump whistleblower complaint?
The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which has been at the center of false conspiracy theories since 2016, is once again in focus after a White House transcript published on Wednesday revealed President Donald Trump brought it up in his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.In a complaint released on Thursday by the intelligence community, a whistleblower expressed confusion about… Read more »
YouTube shuts down 210 channels posting about Hong Kong
Google announced Thursday that it had disabled 210 YouTube channels that were uploading videos “in a coordinated manner” about the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.The announcement came three days after Twitter and Facebook announced they had shut down a network of hundreds of accounts that were posting content aimed at undermining pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Some of the accounts… Read more »
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