FutureWatch - Brain Eavesdropping

On Monday, scientists from the University of Texas, Austin, made another step in that direction. In a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the researchers described an A.I. that could translate the private thoughts of human subjects by analyzing fMRI scans, which measure the flow of blood to different regions in the brain...

In the study, it was able to turn a person’s imagined speech into actual speech and, when subjects were shown silent films, it could generate relatively accurate descriptions of what was happening onscreen. more

The Chatbot-Centric Wiretapping Lawsuit Against Old Navy

Court Refuses to Toss Out Chatbot-Centric Wiretapping Lawsuit Against Old Navy

Old Navy cannot escape a lawsuit accusing it of running afoul of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) by way of its use of a sophisticated chatbot feature on its e-commerce site. Despite Old Navy’s bid to get the case that Miguel Licea lodged against it in August 2022 dismissed in its entirety, Judge Sunshine Sykes of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California sided with the plaintiff, in part, finding that his CIPA Section 632.7 claim against Old Navy for eavesdropping can move ahead. more

ChatGPT Corporate Secrets: Not Made for Each Other

‘ChatGPT Corporate Secrets’ — doesn’t seem to be a healthy combination at all, as the clouds of data breach threats continue to loom large over the brave new world of AI chatbots...

For the uninitiated, this is not the first time that ChatGPT has created a controversy... But this time, the concern is quite grave for businesses, as ChatGPT might expose customer information and trade secrets. There have already been a few cases, enough to raise the alarm bell and send shockwaves across the tech world.

Let’s delve deeper with the story and figure out the important aspects about the Chatbot corporate espionage...

Team8, which happens to be an Israel-based venture firm, has recently published a shell-shocking report which argues that over-exposure to generative AI tools like ChatGPT can cause major problems to businesses by revealing corporate secrets and user data. more

New Algorithm to Shield Conversations from Eavesdropping AI

The thought that our gadgets are spying on us isn't a pleasant one, which is why a group of Columbia University researchers have created what they call "neural voice camouflage." 

This technology won't necessarily stop a human listener from understanding someone if they're snooping (you can give recordings a listen and view the source code at the link above). Rather, this is a system designed to stop devices equipped with microphones from transmitting automatically transcribed recordings. It's quiet – just above a whisper – but can generate sound specifically modeled to obscure speech in real time so that conversations can't be transcribed by software and acted upon or the text sent back to some remote server for processing...

According to Vondrick, the algorithm his team developed can stop a microphone-equipped AI model from interpreting speech 80 percent of the time, all without having to hear a whole recording, or knowing anything about the gadget doing the listening. more

Google Jumps into Your Nest with its Own New Nest

Google has launched a new ‘Nest Hub’ home assistant that tracks its owners’ sleep.

It comes in a range of colors, and can be ordered today. Like the existing Nest Hub, it can show photos and videos from Google’s owner services like YouTube and Google Photos, integrates with other services such as Netflix, and can be used to control the home.

But its standout feature is its new sleep tracking technology. To use it, the Nest Hub is supposed to be placed on a bedside table, so that it can monitor its owners as they sleep. 

It can not only track the amount of sleep, and how deep it is, but also other things that might disturb that sleep – as well as other people sharing the bed – such as coughing and snoring. more

Interesting points...
• Google says the recorded audio and raw Soli data stays on the device and does not get sent to Google, though extrapolated sleep event data is sent to the company’s servers.
• Sleep Sensing (Google’s name for sleep tracking) is completely opt-in and can be disabled at any time.
• This will be a paid feature.
For some people this will be helpful and worth it. For others, it is AI creepy creep.
Hackers, on your mark! ...

TSCM Nerd Corner News

• U.S. Army scientists at the CCDC Army Research Laboratory (ARL) have developed a first-of-its kind antenna that could change how ground vehicles and airborne systems communicate, transmit and receive radio frequency signals. The Army used a manufacturing process based on a special class of engineered materials known as metaferrites to make an ultra-thin wideband antenna. The antenna conforms to curved surfaces, making it ideal to integrate into unmanned aircraft systems, rotary wing aircrafts and ground vehicles. more
  
  
• Of ever-increasing concern for operating a tactical communications network is the possibility that a sophisticated adversary may detect friendly transmissions. Army researchers developed an analysis framework that enables the rigorous study of the detectability of ultraviolet communication systems... In particular, ultraviolet communication has unique propagation characteristics that not only allow for a novel non-line-of-sight optical link, but also imply that the transmissions may be harder for an adversary to detect. more
  
  
• Covert Ultrasonic Transmissions between Two Air-Gapped Computers using Speaker-to-Speaker Communication more
  
  
• Groundbreaking new material 'could allow artificial intelligence to merge with the human brain' more