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22/07/2023

US and like-minded countries including India need to work together to shape course of AI: Dr Arati Prabhakar | India News - Times of India

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WASHINGTON: The US and like-minded countries including India need to work together to shape the course of artificial intelligence and make sure that it is used responsibly, Dr Arati Prabhakar, the Science Advisor to President Joe Biden, has said.Her remarks on Friday came as the Biden administration roped in several IT giants like Google and Microsoft to manage the risks of the new AI tools even as they compete over the potential of artificial intelligence (AI).
“The work that we are doing includes working with companies to hold them accountable and there's some important progress on that today," Indian-American engineer Prabhakar told PTI in an interview.
"We're also working on executive actions that we can take within existing law, and the President is considering an executive order that we think can really boost our ability to deal with AI's harms and also start using it for good,” she said.
She said the administration will also continue to work with Congress on bipartisan legislation as they start putting it forward.
"Then critically and underpinning all of this is the work that we're doing globally with our international partners and allies, including with India,” Prabhakar said.
Prabhakar, 64, who is serving as the 12th director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Science Advisor to the President since October 3, 2022, said artificial intelligence is a global technology.
"It's everywhere. Everyone is participating and it's really affecting, it's going to affect everyone's lives and we want to make sure that like-minded countries work together to shape the course of AI,” she said in response to a question.
AI, she said, was one of the important topics of discussion when President Joe Biden met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here last month.
“I think that's very much on the minds of our global leaders when they meet with President Biden. That's what happened with Prime Minister Modi and many others," she said.
Prabhakar said she had the opportunity to be at Congress when Prime Minister Modi spoke and then at the State Dinner and then again at the luncheon that the Vice President and the Secretary of State hosted.
"Artificial intelligence came up repeatedly in those conversations. In fact, the prime minister made a wonderful joke when he addressed Congress and he said he thought AI stood for America, India, which is another way of interpreting it," Prabhakar said.
"But I think really the theme of many of the conversations that have happened is exactly what you're saying is we're going to have to link arms and be clear about how to achieve safe AI so all of our citizens can benefit from it,” Prabhakar said.
Prabhakar, who spent half of her professional life in Silicon Valley and has her regular home in Palo Alto, said she senses the excitement about AI in Silicon Valley.
“What I would say is go build amazing applications for artificial intelligence because that is part of how we're going to go forward and make sure while you're doing it, to build AI that is safe and trustworthy so that it really does lift us up in the end,” she said.
On Friday, Biden announced voluntary commitments that the administration has worked on with seven leading AI companies.
These companies include Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and some of the smaller AI companies. A number of tech companies, some of the biggest leaders in AI, are signing up for some commitments on safety, security and trust.
Biden in brief remarks said: “We must be clear-eyed and vigilant about the threats emerging from emerging technologies that can pose — don't have to but can pose — to our democracy and our values."
“This is a serious responsibility; we have to get it right,” he said, flanked by the executives from the companies. “And there's enormous, enormous potential upside as well.”
Prabhakar said it was an important step that the administration had been able to achieve by holding these companies to account because it's the first time that the industry has started to come together and take responsibility.
“Then we're going to be working on what we need to do as an executive branch, and that will include figuring out how do we manage as AI makes voice cloning, makes fraud easier. As cybercrime becomes easier, some of these harms start advancing. How do we mitigate those harms within the laws and regulations that we already have?” she said.
“And then how do we start using AI for public purposes? How do we use it to deal with the climate crisis that we're confronting? How do we use it to improve health outcomes for everyone here in America and around the world? So we're seeing both the bright and the dark side and we're actively working on both pieces,” she said.
Describing AI as the most powerful technology of this time, she said the president has been clear that how it is used is going to "express their values". But that's true as well around the world.
“We know every part of the world is trying to use AI to create a future that expresses their values. I think we can disagree about lots of things in this country and around the world, but the one thing I think we would all of us would agree on is that we don't want to live in a future that's driven by technology, that's shaped by authoritarian regimes,” Prabhakar said.
“That's is why I think it is so important for like-minded countries, for democratic countries to come together and make sure that we're working together to use AI in ways that express our values,” said the top American scientific official.
Prabhakar's family immigrated from Delhi to the United States when she was three years old – first to Chicago and then settling when she was age 10 in Lubbock, Texas, where she went on to get her electrical engineering degree from Texas Tech University.
She was the first woman to earn a PhD in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology, where she also earned an MS in electrical engineering. She started her career in the legislative branch as a Congressional Fellow at the Office of Technology Assessment.
Prabhakar also served as director of The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2012 to 2017.
Prabhakar was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), taking the helm at age 34 as the first woman to lead the agency.
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Uncategorized US and like-minded countries including India need to work together to shape course of AI: Dr Arati Prabhakar | India News – Times of India July 22, 2023 admin WASHINGTON: The US and like-minded countries including India need to work together to shape the course of artificial intellig...

22/07/2023

Biden: In a first for US military, President Joe Biden picks female admiral to lead navy - Times of India

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WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has chosen Admiral Lisa Franchettito lead the navy, a senior administration official said on Friday. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to be a US military service chief.Biden’s decision to tap Franchetti, an admiral with broad command and executive experience, goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief, but he is selecting an officer whom insiders had considered the top choice for the job. Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the navy, would become the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Defence secretary Lloyd Austin recommended that Biden select Adm. Samuel Paparo, the current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, but instead, the official said, Biden is nominating Paparo to lead US IndoPacific Command. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Biden chose Franchetti based on the broad scope of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge in budgeting and running the department. The official said Biden understands the historic nature of the nomination and believes that Franchetti will be an inspiration to sailors, both men and women.
Franchetti’s nomination will join the list of hundreds of military moves that are being held up by aRepublican senator. She is slated to serve as the acting chief beginning next month when Admiral Michael Gilday retires. Several woman have served as military service secretaries as political appointees, but never as their top uniformed officer. A woman, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, is the commandant of the Coast Guard, but she is not a member of the Joint Staff.!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {
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Uncategorized Biden: In a first for US military, President Joe Biden picks female admiral to lead navy – Times of India July 22, 2023 admin WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has chosen Admiral Lisa Franchettito lead the navy, a senior administration official said on Friday. If confirmed, she would b...

21/07/2023

Report: New report warns that tacit blasphemy law is operating in the UK - Times of India

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LONDON: A new report by a UK think tank has warned that there is a tacit blasphemy law operating in the UK even though blasphemy is legal in Britain.Anti-blasphemy laws still exist in many countries, most notably in Pakistan where blasphemy can be punishable by death. However, blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008.
The Henry Jackson Society has identified “extreme anti-blasphemy action” as a growing risk to the tenets of the UK’s liberal democratic system, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The report “Britain’s New Blasphemy Police? Understanding Islamist Anti-Blasphemy Action in the UK” found that some individuals and organisations in the UK, especially those with links to Pakistan, particularly to the Sunni Barelvi sect, hold extreme anti-blasphemous views and are prepared to resort to violence to defend Islam.
“Two organisations found to be frequently linked to anti-blasphemy action in the UK are Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and elements of the Khatme Nabuwwat movement,” the report said, pointing out anti-blasphemy preachers from Pakistan and Bangladesh have been allowed to preach in Britain at institutions linked to anti-blasphemy action.
It calls for the UK government to consider proscribing certain organisations in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The report, written by Charlotte Littlewood, refers to the incident in Batley in 2021 where a teacher was suspended and forced into hiding over a caricature; the incident in Wakefield where a 14-year-old autistic non-Muslim boy dropped the Quran and got suspended from school and his family received death threats, leading his mother to vow to make her son research Islam; the film “Lady of Heaven” which was cancelled by cinemas following large-scale protests by Muslims; a book, “The Jewel of Medina”, that got pulled because of threats to the publishing house; and the murder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Asad Shah in Glasgow in 2016.
The report criticises “some local councillors’” responses to anti-blasphemy incidents, saying “they have at times seemingly supported the anti-blasphemy action taken”.
It calls for more robust immigration screening on preachers, for an investigation into the instigators of the protests in Batley and Wakefield to identify links to extremists abroad, and for the department of education to “prioritise the safety of staff and pupils and the ability to teach without censorship”.
“Accepting a tacit anti-blasphemy law is antithetical to our democratic values whilst also a threat to national security,” the report concludes.
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Uncategorized Report: New report warns that tacit blasphemy law is operating in the UK – Times of India July 22, 2023 admin LONDON: A new report by a UK think tank has warned that there is a tacit blasphemy law operating in the UK even though blasphemy is legal in Britain. Anti-blasphemy laws stil...

21/07/2023

Trump: Donald Trump secret documents trial to start May 20 next year - Times of India

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WASHINGTON: The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s trial on his mishandling of classified documents case has set a trial date for May 20, according to a court order on Friday.
The ruling from US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who sits in Fort Pierce, Florida, places Trump's criminal trial less than six months ahead of the November 2024 US presidential election. Trump is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination in the race.
Federal prosecutors working for US Special Counsel Jack Smith at a hearing on Tuesday had asked Cannon to schedule the trial for December, while Trump's lawyers said there was no need to set a date yet.
The trial had initially been scheduled for August 14 - a date that both the defense and prosecution opposed because they said they needed more time to prepare.
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Uncategorized Trump: Donald Trump secret documents trial to start May 20 next year – Times of India July 21, 2023 admin WASHINGTON: The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s trial on his mishandling of classified documents case has set a trial date for May 20, according to a c...

21/07/2023

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White House - Times of India

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WASHINGTON: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by President Joe Biden's administration.
The White House said Friday that it has secured voluntary commitments from seven US companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of commercial AI systems, though they don't detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.
A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.
The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and startups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing “carried out in part by independent experts” to guard against major risks, such as to biosecurity and cybersecurity, the White House said in a statement.
The companies have also committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems and to using digital watermarking to help distinguish between real and AI-generated images known as deepfakes.
They will also publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, the White House said.
The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology.
Some advocates for AI regulations said Biden's move is a start but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.
“History would indicate that many tech companies do not actually walk the walk on a voluntary pledge to act responsibly and support strong regulations,” said a statement from James Steyer, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will introduce legislation to regulate AI. He has held a number of briefings with government officials to educate senators about an issue that's attracted bipartisan interest.
A number of technology executives have called for regulation, and several went to the White House in May to speak with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials.
But some experts and upstart competitors worry that the type of regulation being floated could be a boon for deep-pocketed first-movers led by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft as smaller players are elbowed out by the high cost of making their AI systems known as large language models adhere to regulatory strictures.
The software trade group BSA, which includes Microsoft as a member, said Friday that it welcomed the Biden administration's efforts to set rules for high-risk AI systems.
“Enterprise software companies look forward to working with the administration and Congress to enact legislation that addresses the risks associated with artificial intelligence and promote its benefits,” the group said in a statement.
A number of countries have been looking at ways to regulate AI, including European Union lawmakers who have been negotiating sweeping AI rules for the 27-nation bloc.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the United Nations is “the ideal place” to adopt global standards and appointed a board that will report back on options for global AI governance by the end of the year.
The United Nations chief also said he welcomed calls from some countries for the creation of a new U.N. body to support global efforts to govern AI, inspired by such models as the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The White House said Friday that it has already consulted on the voluntary commitments with a number of countries.
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Uncategorized Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White House – Times of India July 21, 2023 admin WASHINGTON: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed t...

21/07/2023

Salwan Momika: Who is Salwan Momika, the Quran burner sparking international tensions between Sweden and Muslim nations | World News - Times of India

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Iraq on Thursday expelled the Swedish ambassador to protest against a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm.
The Iraq government's action came after protesters, angered by Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika who threatened to burn a copy of the Quran, stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, overrunning the diplomatic compound and starting a fire.
Hours later, Iraq’s prime minister cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Islamic holy book.
Although Salwan Momika ultimately refrained from setting the holy book on fire.
Here are 10 points about Salwan Momika, the man behind the diplomatic row between Sweden and Muslim nations:
- He is a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee who arrived in Sweden in April 2018 and received refugee status in April 2021.
- He is a former militia leader in Iraq who was affiliated with a pro-Iran group called the Popular Mobilization Forces.
- He describes himself as an atheist and enlightened politician, thinker and author on his page.
- He burned a Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque on June 28, 2023, the first day of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday.
- He also put slices of ham on the Quran and stomped on it with his foot, while saying “Allah Akbar” several times in mockery.
-His June protest drew condemnations from around the world, including from Turkey which has yet to ratify Sweden's Nato membership.
- He had applied for permission to carry out his act with the Swedish authorities and was granted the right by a judge based on Sweden's principles of free speech.
-On July 20, Momika staged another protest in Stockholm, stomping on and kicking a copy of the Muslim holy book outside Iraq's embassy -- although he refrained from burning it.
- He said his motive was to protest against Islam and to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.
- His act has sparked outrage among many Muslims and triggered protests in several countries.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Uncategorized Salwan Momika: Who is Salwan Momika, the Quran burner sparking international tensions between Sweden and Muslim nations | World News – Times of India July 21, 2023 admin Iraq on Thursday expelled the Swedish ambassador to protest against a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm. T...

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