The Obtain April 19, 2022: Neo-colonial AI, and growing older clocks

That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on the planet of know-how.

South Africa’s personal surveillance machine is fueling a digital apartheid

Johannesburg, the sprawling megacity as soon as residence to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, is now birthing a uniquely South African surveillance mannequin. Within the final 5 years, the town has change into host to a centralized, coordinated, completely privatized mass surveillance operation. Vumacam, the corporate constructing the nationwide CCTV community, already has over 6,600 cameras and counting, greater than 5,000 of that are concentrated in Johannesburg. The video footage it takes feeds into safety rooms across the nation, which then use all method of AI instruments like license plate recognition to trace inhabitants motion and hint people. These instruments have been enthusiastically adopted by the native safety trade, grappling with the pressures of a high-crime surroundings.

Civil rights activists fear the brand new surveillance is fueling a digital apartheid and unraveling individuals’s democratic liberties, however a rising refrain of consultants say the stakes are even greater. They argue that the influence of synthetic intelligence is repeating the patterns of colonial historical past, and right here in South Africa, the place colonial legacies abound, the unfettered deployment of AI surveillance affords only one case research in how a know-how that promised to carry societies into the longer term is threatening to ship them again to the previous. Learn the complete story.

—Karen Hao and Heidi Swart

That is the primary a part of our collection on AI colonialism, digging into how the know-how is impoverishing the communities and nations that don’t have a say in its improvement. Components 2—four are coming later within the week, and you’ll learn Karen Hao’s introductory essay right here.

How we will repair AI’s inequality downside

The financial system is being remodeled by digital applied sciences, particularly in synthetic intelligence, which might be quickly altering how we dwell and work. However this transformation poses a troubling puzzle: these applied sciences haven’t carried out a lot to develop the financial system, and earnings inequality is worsening. Productiveness progress, which economists think about important to enhancing residing requirements, has largely been sluggish since no less than the mid-2000s in lots of nations.

Why are these applied sciences failing to provide extra financial progress? Why aren’t they fueling extra widespread prosperity? To seek out a solution, some main economists and coverage consultants are wanting extra intently at how we invent and deploy AI and automation—and figuring out methods we will make higher selections. Learn the complete story.

—David Rotman

Getting older clocks intention to foretell how lengthy you’ll dwell

Age is far more than the variety of birthdays you’ve clocked. Stress, sleep, and food regimen all affect how our organs address the wear and tear and tear of on a regular basis life, which may make you age sooner or slower than individuals born on the identical day. Which means your organic age may very well be fairly completely different out of your chronological age—the variety of years you’ve been alive.

Your organic age is probably going a greater reflection of your bodily well being and even your individual mortality than your chronological age. However calculating it isn’t practically as simple, which is why scientists have spent the final decade creating instruments known as growing older clocks that assess markers in your physique to disclose your organic age and predict what number of wholesome years you have got left. Proponents of growing older clocks are already making an attempt to make use of them to indicate that anti-aging interventions could make people biologically youthful. However it’s unclear that they’re correct or dependable sufficient to make such claims. Learn the complete story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Getting older clocks emerged because the clear winner for Tech Overview’s 11th breakthrough know-how of 2022. Greater than 10,000 readers voted—should you have been one in every of them, thanks!

Quote of the day

“It’s like packing bikinis for Siberia, utilizing chopsticks to eat steak, educating an eagle the right way to swim.”

—An nameless Shanghai resident particulars the frustrations of residing within the metropolis’s excessive zero-covid lockdown whereas instances proceed to soar for The Guardian.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Russian troopers are attacking a 300-mile entrance in Ukraine
The intention is to take full management of the Donbas area within the nation’s east. (NYT $)
+ Putin’s want to beat Donbas is symbolic. (BBC) + The State Division has condemned Russian airstrikes as a “marketing campaign of terror.” (WP $)
+ The siege of Mariupol seems to be drawing to an finish. (FT $)

2 Crypto hackers are stealing ever-larger sums
And it’s primarily right down to susceptible, poorly-managed open-source code.(TR)
+ Bitcoin mining has devastated the town of Plattsburgh in New York. (TR)
+ The case for protecting money. (TR)

three Even democracies use controversial spy ware
NSO has paved the way in which for this kind of surveillance to change into terrifyingly commonplace. (New Yorker $)
+ The UK prime minister’s workplace has allegedly been hit with an NSO spy ware assault. (The Guardian)
+ The hacker-for-hire trade is now too huge to fail. (TR)

four Fb investing in Nigerian web infrastructure comes at a value
Yep, you guessed it. Consumer information. (The Guardian)
+ It’s been accused of failing to average misinformation in Africa. (The Guardian)

5 Intel claims its AI can learn college students’ feelings
Plot spoiler: it might probably’t. Not precisely, anyway.  (Protocol) 
+ Emotion AI researchers say overblown claims give their work a nasty identify. (TR)

6 How critical is Elon Musk about proudly owning Twitter, actually?
And will we be fearful? (The Atlantic $)
+ Twitter’s board is making an attempt laborious to keep away from a situation the place he buys 100% of the corporate.  (Bloomberg $)
+ Twitter’s edit button may present how the tweet initially appeared. (TechCrunch)

7 Meals within the metaverse isn’t excellent
As a result of—shocker—you may’t truly eat it! (Insider)
+ Right here’s the right way to let a metaverse die with dignity. (Polygon)

eight A former Greenback Common employee is utilizing TikTok to push for union illustration
As an alternative of listening to her considerations, the corporate fired her. However she’s not going quietly. (NYT $)
+ Amazon’s warehouse in New Jersey is the newest to get a union vote. (WP $)

9 On-line white supremacist communities are preying on youngsters
Even the anti-racist materials to fight it has been weaponized. (The Atlantic $)

10 Right here’s how you need to be texting 💬
Sorry, grammar sticklers! (WP $)

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This video of Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) talking English on the Star Wars set to assist Harrison Ford react to his strains is hilarious.
+ I’ve a grudging respect for this unpleasant-looking Is It Cake?
+ One more Wordle clone, Redactle forces you to guess the redacted phrases from Wikipedia articles.
+ The Horrible Maps Twitter account might not be terribly helpful, however it’s humorous.
+ This profile of mob chef David Ruggerio is fully mind-boggling.
+ Learn Molly and David’s candy story of assembly within the pandemic whereas he was shielding.
+ Comic Munya’s evaluation of what it’s like within the UK the second the solar comes out is spot on.

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