Concerns Over AI and Transparency
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a central theme in several reports this week, particularly concerning its use in law enforcement and the creative industries. A report on police reports notes that AI can draft them in minutes using body camera audio transcripts, but this raises concerns about potential errors or “hallucinations” that could jeopardize a prosecution or lead to a false arrest. California is now the second state, after Utah, to require that AI-assisted police reports be transparently marked as such. The law also mandates that law enforcement agencies keep an audit trail of who used the AI and retain the initial AI-generated draft.
In the creative world, a new UK initiative called Books By People has launched an “Organic Literature” stamp to help readers identify books written by humans. The move comes amid rising tensions between creative industries and AI companies, particularly after a recent case where a company agreed to pay authors who accused it of using their pirated works to train its chatbot.
AI is also being used in the business world, with a practice known as “surveillance pricing,” where consumer data is used to set individualized prices to maximize profit. Companies collect data through various means, including account registrations, email sign-ups, and web pixels that track digital signals. This can enable them to charge each consumer a personalized price, sometimes varying by hundreds of dollars. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a study in January on this practice, which found that retailers use AI to determine a customer’s “price sensitivity” by analyzing online behaviors like browsing time and mouse movements. This type of pricing is not new, but the name has changed over time from “price discrimination” or “dynamic pricing”. In response to growing concerns, U.S. state legislators have introduced numerous bills to regulate algorithmic pricing.
Public Policy and Social Issues
An “alarming rise in stigma” against people with mental health problems has been reported in England, with new research from the charity Mind indicating that the number of people who are frightened of living near those with mental health issues has nearly doubled. According to a survey by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, 14% of people were frightened of those with poor mental health in their neighborhoods, an increase from 8% in 2017. The survey also found a significant drop in the number of people who believe that individuals with severe mental illness can fully recover, a figure that fell from 67% in 2019 to 53%.
A new definition of obesity could classify nearly 70% of adults in the U.S. as obese, up from 43% under the traditional Body Mass Index (BMI) definition. The new definition, which has yet to be adopted, incorporates measures like waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, and can include individuals with a “normal” BMI but with excess abdominal fat.
A major federation of unions, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), has launched a “workers first initiative on AI” to address the negative effects of AI on workers. The initiative aims for stronger collective bargaining and new regulations to protect workers from AI-powered surveillance and layoffs. The AFL-CIO’s push for “commonsense guardrail policies” has faced challenges, including the veto of a California bill that would have required human oversight for AI-enabled firings.
Global Affairs and Human Rights
Journalists at the Pentagon are pushing back against new government-imposed reporting rules that would make them vulnerable to expulsion for reporting on information not approved by the Defense Secretary. In a show of solidarity, dozens of reporters turned in their badges and exited the building. The U.S. government has called the new rules “common sense,” but news outlets were nearly unanimous in their rejection of them.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the M23 rebel group have agreed to create an international body to oversee a ceasefire that has not yet been implemented. The deal, which was signed in Doha, includes equal representation from the Congolese government and M23, with Qatar, the U.S., and the African Union as observers. The agreement is considered a “pivotal step” toward peace, although fighting continues and both sides have accused each other of breaking the terms.
Other News from Around the World:
- EV Sales: Global electric vehicle (EV) sales reached a record 2.1 million units in September, with Chinese-made cars accounting for 62% of the global total.
- CO2 Emissions: A report from the UN weather agency found that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit a record high in 2024, with growth rates tripling since the 1960s.
- Passport Power: The U.S. passport has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in 20 years on the Henley Passport Index, now ranking 12th. The decline is attributed to a lack of visa reciprocity with countries like Brazil. Australia’s passport is ranked 7th.
- Satellites: Researchers using off-the-shelf equipment were able to intercept unencrypted communications from geostationary satellites, including voice calls, text messages, and internal business data from banks and military organizations. This highlights a pervasive lack of standardized encryption protocols.