This category deals with everything in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, ethics, virtual reality and others.
Apparently Microsoft’s new ChatGPT AI is having a nervous breakdown. It started sending ‘unhinged’ messages to people, according to the Independent newspaper. Looking further into the matter, it seems that it hurled insults at people who were attempting to hack it or to get it to spit out its code secrets. For example, in conversations…
It’s difficult to say for certain what the latest tech trends for 2023 will be as the future is always subject to change, however some general tech trends that are likely to continue gaining momentum in the coming years include: if an autonomous weapon system is not able to distinguish between combatants and civilians, it…
In our assessment at Virtual Activism, in general, technology trends that are likely to continue gaining momentum in the coming years include the increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the growing prevalence of the Internet of Things, and the ongoing shift towards cloud computing. Additionally, virtual and augmented reality, 5G networks, and blockchain…
The impact of Pegasus on fundamental rights and democratic processes Pegasus is a sophisticated surveillance software developed by the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group. The software is capable of gaining access to and monitoring a wide range of information on a target’s smartphone, including text messages, emails, location data, and even live microphone and…
Every year, we post about games to play and workshops to attend to understand the intersection between human rights, ethics, and emerging technologies. Here are a few: 1- Workshop: Defending human rights in the age of artificial intelligence: this is a free and open workshop organized by UNESCO and UNITAR. The course break down complex…
As someone who teaches user experience, among other things, this session at MozFest 22 was particularly interesting for me. What I knew as persuasive design, addictive design, and emotional design, all of which I found unethical, are now called ‘dark patterns’. Dark Patterns refer to interface design tactics in digital products to persuade one into…
Another session I attended at Mozfest 22 was Fostering Global South engagement in AI and data governance: Building a community and research agenda. The session was organized by Jhalak M. Kakkar, Centre for Communication Governance, and Prateek Sibal, UNESCO. The use of AI and Big Data-based systems is challenging data protection and privacy principles, developed…
One of MozFest 22’s themes was about “decolonising AI”. What does the term really mean? As MozFest put it, worldviews, practices and algorithms embedded in the knowledge of the Global Majority, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Black, Indigenous, and people who have been racialized as ‘ethnic minorities’ – and have largely been kept apart…
