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Tag: Researchers

  • Google Moving Against Second AI Ethics Researcher

    Google Moving Against Second AI Ethics Researcher

    Still mired in controversy over its firing of Dr. Timnit Gebru, Google appears to be repeating history with Margaret Mitchell, its Ethics AI lead.

    Google drew widespread condemnation from critics inside and outside the company for its firing of Dr. Gebru, one of the world’s leading AI ethics researchers. Gebru was forced out following the publication of a paper critical of some of the AI technology Google uses in its products. Google says Gebru resigned, but both Gebru and her team say she was fired after demands she retract the paper.

    The incident prompted CEO Sundar Pichai to send an email to employees, apologizing for what happened and promising the company would do better in the future.

    It would appear that promise may be short-lived, as Google is now taking action against Mitchell. Gebru tweeted the news on Tuesday.

    VentureBeat reached out to Google and received the following statement:

    Our security systems automatically lock an employee’s corporate account when they detect that the account is at risk of compromise due to credential problems or when an automated rule involving the handling of sensitive data has been triggered. In this instance, yesterday our systems detected that an account had exfiltrated thousands of files and shared them with multiple external accounts. We explained this to the employee earlier today. We are actively investigating this matter as part of standard procedures to gather additional details.

    Mitchell has been a vocal critic of Google’s handling of Gebru’s termination, tweeting the following just five hours before Gebru tweeted about the action taken against her:

    One big point of contention is the integrity of the research performed by Google’s scientists and researchers. In an email to Google’s leadership, the company’s AI researchers emphasized what’s at stake:

    Google’s short-sighted decision to fire and retaliate against a core member of the Ethical AI team makes it clear that we need swift and structural changes if this work is to continue, and if the legitimacy of the field as a whole is to persevere.

    This research must be able to contest the company’s short-term interests and immediate revenue agendas, as well as to investigate AI that is deployed by Google’s competitors with similar ethical motives.

    Unfortunately, those concerns seem to have fallen on deaf ears. That letter was sent in mid-December. In late December, however, Google told researchers to “take great care to strike a positive tone” on “sensitive topics,” such as as AI, according to an email obtained by Reuters.

    With Margaret Mitchell, the company’s Ethical AI lead, now potentially on the chopping block, Google is on the verge of losing all credibility among AI researchers.

  • Hackers Targeting COVID-19 Vaccine Companies

    Hackers Targeting COVID-19 Vaccine Companies

    Microsoft has revealed that “nation-state” actors have been targeting the companies and researchers working on COVID-19 vaccines.

    According to Microsoft, one of the groups, Strontium, originates in Russia. Two others hail from North Korea. The three groups have targeted companies and researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea and the US.

    “Among the targets, the majority are vaccine makers that have Covid-19 vaccines in various stages of clinical trials,” writes Tom Burt – Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust. “One is a clinical research organization involved in trials, and one has developed a Covid-19 test. Multiple organizations targeted have contracts with or investments from government agencies from various democratic countries for Covid-19 related work.”

    To help protect companies and researchers, Microsoft has made its AccountGuard available at no cost to COVID-19 healthcare providers.

    “Organizations are also taking steps to protect themselves. In April, we announced that we were making AccountGuard, our threat notification service, available to health care and human rights organizations working on Covid-19,” continues Burt. “Since then 195 of these organizations have enrolled in the service and we now protect 1.7 million email accounts for health care-related groups. Any health care-related organizations that wish to enroll can do so here.”

    It’s a sad state of affairs that hackers would continue to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft is to be commended for its efforts to help protect researchers.

  • Apple Expands Security Bounty Program to Include macOS

    Apple Expands Security Bounty Program to Include macOS

    Bug bounty programs are one of the most effective tools at a company’s disposal to find and fix bugs in operating systems and software. Under such a program, security researchers are paid a bounty for vulnerabilities they find and report to the company.

    In 2016, Apple opened a security bounty program for iOS and invited specific researchers to join it. However, according to an announcement on their website, the company has expanded the program to all operating systems—iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. The program is also available to all security researchers, rather than a select few.

    Payouts for bugs range from $100,000 to $1,000,000. According to Apple, “researchers must:

    • Be the first party to report the issue to Apple Product Security.
    • Provide a clear report, which includes a working exploit (detailed below).
    • Not disclose the issue publicly before Apple releases the security advisory for the report. (Generally, the advisory is released along with the associated update to resolve the issue).”

    This is a welcome announcement by Apple and should help improve security on Apple’s products even more.

  • Chicken Nugget Ingredients Revealed

    Chicken Nugget Ingredients Revealed

    Haven’t you always wanted to know what was in a chicken nugget? Obviously, there is not a “nugget” on a chicken, so what exactly are these little pieces of chicken, primarily targeted to kids, made of?

    Mississippi researchers recently found out the answer to this question. They went to several different fast food restaurants in Jackson, and selected one nugget from each place to examine. The results may disturb you.

    The first nugget consisted of 50 percent muscle (the meat that you want to eat), and the rest was a mixture of fat, blood vessels and nerves. The second nugget was approximately 40 percent muscle, with the other 60 percent being fat, cartilage and pieces of bone. So, yes nuggets are made of chicken, but is it the parts of the chicken that you want to eat?

    “We all know white chicken meat to be one of the best sources of lean protein available and encourage our patients to eat it,” said Dr. Richard D. deShazo of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “What has happened is that some companies have chosen to use an artificial mixture of chicken parts rather than low-fat chicken white meat, batter it up and fry it and still call it chicken,” deShazo continued.

    So what is deShazo’s definition of a nugget? “It is really a chicken by-product high in calories, salt, sugar and fat that is a very unhealthy choice. Even worse, it tastes great and kids love it and it is marketed to them.”

    Ashley Peterson, the vice president of scientific affairs for the National Chicken Council (NCC) argues the researcher’s findings, saying that chicken nuggets are actually good for children, and adults, to eat.

    “Chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein, especially for kids who might be picky eaters,” Peterson said. “This study evaluates only two chicken nugget samples out of the billions of chicken nuggets that are made every year. A sample size of two nuggets is simply too small to generalize to an entire category of food.”

    Peterson continues her argument by saying, “Chicken nuggets tend to have an elevated fat content because they are breaded and fried. But it’s no secret what is in a chicken nugget – most quick service restaurants have nutritional information posted in the store or on their website. And every package of chicken nuggets in the grocery store by law contains an ingredient list and a complete nutritional profile, including fat content.”

    deShazo said that the intention of their research was not to expose the chicken industry or fast food restaurants, but to encourage people to take more time to “understand basic nutritional facts”.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons