Daily Archives: January 10, 2024

US wants private sector AI exempt from Human Rights laws. EU pushes back.

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The Council of Europe, an international human rights body with 46 member countries, set up the Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the beginning of 2022 to develop the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law.

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The most consequential pending issue regards the scope of the convention. In June, Euractiv revealed how the United States, which is participating as an observer country, was pushing for exempting companies by default, leaving it up to the signatory countries to decide whether to ‘opt-in’ the private sector.

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“The Union should not agree with the alternative proposal(s) that limit the scope of the convention to activities within the lifecycle of artificial intelligence systems by or on behalf of a Party or allow application to the private sector only via an additional protocol or voluntary declarations by the Parties (opt-in),” reads an information note from the Commission, obtained by Euractiv.

The document notes that these proposals would limit the treaty’s scope by default, “thus diminishing its value and sending a wrong political message that human rights in the private field do not merit the same protection.”

The EU executive notes how this approach would contradict international law that requires the respect of human rights by private entities

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During the AI Act discussion, one hot debate was around a national security exemption France has been pushing for in the context of the AI convention.

In this regard, the Commission is pushing for an explicit exclusion of AI systems exclusively developed for national security, military and defence purposes in a manner that is consistent with the EU’s AI law.

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Brussels does not seem to have any appetite for the AI treaty to go beyond the AI Act, even on matters where there is not necessarily a conflict, and the convention could have been more ambitious.

A complete overlap of the international treaty with the EU regulation is not a given since the former is meant to protect human rights, while the latter is merely intended to harmonise the EU market rules following a traditional product safety blueprint.

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Similarly, since the AI Act bans specific applications like social scoring deemed to pose an unacceptable risk, the Commission is pushing for extending these prohibitions at the international level via a moratorium or a ban as this would “increase the added value of the convention”.

The only significant exception where the EU executive seems keen to go beyond the AI Act (but still in line with Union law) is in supporting a provision that protects whistle-blowers in the implementation of the convention – one that the UK, Canada and Estonia have opposed.

Source: EU prepares to push back on private sector carve-out from international AI treaty – Euractiv

Airlines United and Alaska find loose bolts on Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after window blowout

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Alaska Airlines and United found loose parts on multiple 737 Max 9 aircraft, they have said, referring to the Boeing model grounded after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines-operated plane mid-flight over the weekend.

The industry publication Air Current reported that United found discrepant bolts on other parts on at least five panels that were being inspected following the accident. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing declined to comment.

“Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug. For example, bolts that needed additional tightening. These findings will be remedied by our tech ops team to safely return the aircraft to service,” United said in a statement.

A cabin panel on a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max blew out on Friday at 16,000ft, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing shortly after its takeoff from Portland, Oregon. No serious injuries were reported.

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On Monday evening, Alaska Airlines released a statement indicating that maintenance technicians had found issues when inspecting their 737 Max 9 fleet. “Initial reports from our technicians indicate some loose hardware was visible on some aircraft,” the statement said.

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Source: Airlines United and Alaska find loose bolts on Boeing 737 Max 9 planes | Air transport | The Guardian

HP sued (again) for blocking third-party ink from printers via security updates

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HP has used its “Dynamic Security” firmware updates to “create a monopoly” of replacement printer ink cartridges, a lawsuit filed against the company on January 5 claims. The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action certification, represents yet another form of litigation against HP for bricking printers when they try to use ink that doesn’t bear an HP logo.

The lawsuit (PDF), which was filed in US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, names 11 plaintiffs and seeks an injunction against HP requiring the company to disable its printer firmware updates from preventing the use of non-HP branded ink. The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages greater than $5,000,000 and a trial by jury.

The lawsuit focuses on HP printer firmware updates issued in late 2022 and early 2023 that left users seeing this message on their printers when they tried to print with non-HP ink:

The lawsuit cites this pop-up message users saw.
Enlarge / The lawsuit cites this pop-up message users saw.
grhhull/Reddit

HP was wrong to issue a firmware update affecting printer functionality, and users were not notified that accepting firmware updates “could damage any features of the printer,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit also questions HP’s practice of encouraging people to register their printers and then quietly releasing updates that change the printers’ functionality. Additionally, the lawsuit highlights the fact that the use of non-HP ink cartridges doesn’t break HP’s printer warranty.

The filing reads:

… it is not practical or economically rational to purchase a new printer in order to avoid purchasing HP replacement ink cartridges. Therefore, once consumers purchase their printers, the Dynamic Security firmware updates lock them into purchasing HP-branded ink.

HP is proud of its strategy of locking in printer customers. Last month, HP CFO Marie Myers praised the company’s movement from transactional models to forcing customers into continuous buys through offerings like Instant Ink, HP’s monthly ink subscription program.

“We absolutely see when you move a customer from that pure transactional model … whether it’s [to] Instant Ink, plus adding on that paper, we sort of see a 20 percent uplift on the value of that customer because you’re locking that person, committing to a longer-term relationship,” Myers said, as quoted by The Register.

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The lawsuit accuses HP of raising prices on its ink “in the same time period” that it issued its late 2022 and early 2023 firmware updates, which “create[d] a monopoly in the aftermarket for replacement cartridges, permitting [HP] to raise prices without fear of being undercut by competitors.

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HP’s decision to use firmware updates to brick printers using non-HP ink has landed it in litigation numerous times since Dynamic Security debuted in 2016. While the recently filed case is still in its early stages, it’s another example of how disgruntled users have become with HP seizing control over the type of ink that customers insert into hardware they own.

For example, HP agreed to pay $1.5 million in 2019 to settle a class-action case in California about Dynamic Security.

Overseas, HP paid European customers $1.35 million for Dynamic Security. It also paid a 10,000,000-euro fine to the Italian Antitrust Authority in 2020 over the practice and agreed to pay approximately AUD$50 each to Australian customers in 2018.

In addition to the lawsuit filed earlier this month, HP is facing a lawsuit filed in California in 2020 over an alleged failure to disclose information about Dynamic Security. As noted by Reuters, in December, a Northern District of California judge ruled (PDF) that the lawsuit may not result in monetary rewards, but plaintiffs may seek an injunction against the practice.

HP has also been fighting a lawsuit complaining about some of its printers refusing to scan and/or fax without HP ink loaded into the device, even though ink isn’t required to scan or fax a document. (This is something other printer companies are guilty of, too).

Despite already enduring payouts regarding Dynamic Security and calls for HP printers to be ousted from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, HP seems committed to using firmware updates to try to control how people use their own printers.

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Source: HP sued (again) for blocking third-party ink from printers, accused of monopoly | Ars Technica

Text-to-3D model startup Luma raises $43M in latest round

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Luma, a generative AI startup building software that transforms text descriptions to corresponding 3D models, just raised $43 million (£34 million) in a series-B funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz, Nvidia, and others.

Founded in 2021 by CEO Amit Jain, a former systems engineer working on computer vision at Apple, and CTO Alex Yu, a graduate student from the University of California, Berkeley, Luma AI develops machine-learning software that goes a step beyond what we’ve seen from most existing generative neural networks.

Unlike text-to-image models that emit flat bitmaps of digital art, Luma uses AI to create from photos, videos, or text descriptions three-dimensional models of objects that can be downloaded, manipulated, edited, and rendered as needed.

The upstart, based in Palo Alto, California, has already launched this technology as an app called Genie – available via the web, as the Luma iOS app, and via Discord – which is capable of converting images and video into 3D scenes or producing 3D models of user-described objects. These machine-made models can be previewed on screen and exported to art packages like Blender, popular game engines like Unreal or Unity, and other tools for further use.

Screenshot of Luma's Genie creating a vulture holding a cup of coffee

Screenshot of Genie’s attempt at creating a vulture holding a cup of coffee for us … This was generated from the simple prompt: a vulture with a cup of coffee. Click to enlarge

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Luma says it uses various proprietary computer vision techniques, from image segmentation to meshing, to generate these 3D models from footage and descriptions. The models could well end up being used in video games, virtual reality applications, simulations, or robotics testing.

Some folks may find this technology rather useful if they have an idea for something involving 3D graphics or a 3D scene, and lack the artist talent or skill to create the necessary models.

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We toyed with the system and found Genie’s output looked kinda cute but may not be for everyone at this stage; the examples given by the upstart looked better than what we could come up with, perhaps because they were produced via the startup’s paid-for API while we were using the freebie version.

That paid-for interface costs a dollar a pop to construct a model or scene from supplied assets. The biz even makes the point that this is cheaper and faster than relying on a human designer. If you can out-draw Genie, you don’t have anything to worry about right now.

Luma previously raised $20 million in a series-A round led by Amplify Partners, Nventures (Nvidia’s investment arm), and General Catalyst. Other investors included Matrix Partners, South Park Commons, and Remote First Capital. After raising a total of over $70 million so far, it has a valuation estimated between $200 million and $300 million. ®

Source: Text-to-3D model startup Luma raises $43M in latest round • The Register

Swatting a cancer hospital’s patients after hack is now a thing

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After intruders broke into Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s IT network in November and stole medical records – everything from Social Security numbers to diagnoses and lab results – miscreants threatened to turn on the patients themselves directly.

The idea being, it seems, that those patients and the media coverage from any swatting will put pressure on the US hospital to pay up and end the extortion. Other crews do similar when attacking IT service provider: they don’t just extort the suppliers, they also threaten or further extort customers of those providers.

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The cancer center, which operates more than 10 clinics in Washington’s Puget Sound region, declined to answer additional comments about the threats.

Another health network in Oklahoma — Integris Health, which operates a network of 15 hospitals and 43 clinics — last month notified patients about a similar “cyber event” in which criminals may have accessed personal data. Shortly after, some of these patients reported receiving emails from miscreants threatening to sell their information on the dark web.

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Sam Rubin, VP of Unit 42 Consulting at Palo Alto Networks, told The Register his team hadn’t seen any swatting attempts by extortion crews in 2023, though the shift in tactics seems likely.

“But I’m not surprised at all,” he added, about the reports of Seattle cancer patients potentially receiving these types of threats.

“If you look over the past couple of years, we’ve seen this continuing evolution of escalating extortion tactics,” Rubin said. “If you go back in time, it was just encryption.”

Over the past year, Unit 42 has seen cybercriminals send threatening texts to the spouse of a CEO whose organization was being extorted, Rubin added, again piling on the pressure for payment. The consulting and incident response unit has also witnessed miscreants sending flowers to a victim company’s executive team, and issuing ransom demands via printers connected to the affected firm’s network.

“We had another one where the victim organization decided not to pay, but then the ransomware actors went on to harass customers of that organization,”

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Meanwhile, ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure including hospitals become more frequent. Emsisoft reported 46 infections against US hospitals networks last year alone, up from 25 in 2022. In total, at least 141 hospitals were infected, and at least 32 of the 46 networks had data — including protected health information — stolen.

It’s bad enough that these attacks have diverted ambulances and postponed critical care for patients, and now the criminals are inflicting even more pain on people. Last year this included leaking breast cancer patients’ nudes. Swatting seems to be the next, albeit abhorrent, step.

Source: Swatting: The new normal in ransomware extortion tactics • The Register

Samsung debuts transparent MicroLED screen

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Samsung showcased its transparent MicroLED display side-by-side next to transparent OLED and transparent LCD models to really highlight the differences between the tech. Compared to the others, not only was the MicroLED panel significantly brighter, it also featured a completely frameless design and a more transparent glass panel that made it easier to see objects behind it.

A side view of what Samsung is calling the world's first transparent micro LED display.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

In person, the effect Samsung’s transparent micro OLED displays have is hard to describe, as content almost looks like a hologram as it floats in mid-air. The demo unit was freestanding and measured only about a centimeter thick, which adds even more to the illusion of a floating screen. Additionally, because of micro LEDs high pixel density, images also looked incredibly sharp.

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The bad news is that with Samsung’s current crop of non-transparent MicroLED TVs currently costing $150,000 for a 110-inch model, it’s going to be a decently long time until these new displays become anything close to affordable.

Source: Samsung debuts the world’s first transparent MicroLED screen at CES 2024

LG has a Fully Transparent TV

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LG announced a new transparent TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Gizmodo’s staff got to check it out in person, and it’s gorgeous. LG claims this is the world’s first wireless transparent OLED TV and is calling it the Signature OLED T (T for transparent).

The OLED T is merely a transparent panel that plays your content without invading your space with a large, black, obtrusive screen. LG argues that this will help create an illusion of your room looking larger than it would with a regular screen. And in our teams brief experience with the product, that’s true. The sense of openness that would come from not having a huge, dark blob in the room is one of the coolest things about this TV.

The LG OLED T is a massive 77 inches. But when it’s turned off, it simply blends with the environment and makes you forget it’s even there. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why you can place it anywhere you want, unlike a traditional TV that typically has to go in front of a wall. The OLED T can even be placed in front of a window without obstructing your view. The TV is fully wireless, so you don’t have to worry about sockets, either. The Zero Connect Box that the TV ships with also doesn’t need any wires between itself and the screen.

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As for pricing, all LG told Gizmodo was that it will be “very expensive”.

Source: LG Just Announced a Fully Transparent TV