Author: Ed Felten
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AI Nation podcast, from CITP and WHYY
I’m excited to introduce AI Nation: a podcast about AI, everyday life, and what happens when we delegate vital decisions to machines. It’s a collaboration, born at CITP, between Princeton University and WHYY, Philadelphia’s famous NPR station. The first episode drops on April 1. Tune in, and you’ll hear a variety of voices. You’ll hear…
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Enhancing the Security of Data Breach Notifications and Settlement Notices
[This post was jointly written by Ryan Amos, Mihir Kshirsagar, Ed Felten, and Arvind Narayanan.] We couldn’t help noticing that the recent Yahoo and Equifax data breach settlement notifications look a lot like phishing emails. The notifications make it hard for users to distinguish real settlement notifications from scams. For example, they direct users to…
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CITP to Launch Tech Policy Clinic; Hiring Clinic Lead
We’re excited to announce the CITP technology policy clinic, a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary project to engage students and scholars directly in the policy process. The clinic will be supported by a generous alumni gift. The technology policy clinic will adapt the law school clinic model to involve scholars at all levels in real-world policy activities related…
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Blockchain: What is it good for?
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are surrounded by world-historic levels of hype and snake oil. For people like me who take the old-fashioned view that technical claims should be backed by sound arguments and evidence, it’s easy to fall into the trap of concluding that there is no there there–and that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are fundamentally useless.…
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Singularity Skepticism 4: The Value of Avoiding Errors
[This is the fourth in a series of posts. The other posts in the series are here: 1 2 3.] In the previous post, we did a deep dive into chess ratings, as an example of a system to measure a certain type of intelligence. One of the takeaways was that the process of numerically…
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Singularity Skepticism 3: How to Measure AI Performance
[This is the third post in a series. The other posts are here: 1 2 4] On Thursday I wrote about progress in computer chess, and how a graph of Elo rating (which I called the natural measure of playing skill) versus time showed remarkably consistent linear improvement over several decades. I used this to argue…
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Singularity Skepticism 2: Why Self-Improvement Isn’t Enough
[This is the second post in a series. The other posts are here: 1 3 4] Yesterday, I wrote about the AI Singularity, and why it won’t be a literal singularity, that is, why the growth rate won’t literally become infinite. So if the Singularity won’t be a literal singularity, what will it be? Recall that…
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Why the Singularity is Not a Singularity
This is the first in a series of posts about the Singularity, that notional future time when machine intelligence explodes in capability, changing human life forever. Like many computer scientists, I’m a Singularity skeptic. In this series I’ll be trying to express the reasons for my skepticism–and workshopping ideas for an essay on the topic…
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AI and Policy Event in DC, December 8
Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) recently launched an initiative on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Public Policy. On Friday, December 8, 2017, we’ll be in Washington DC talking about AI and policy. The event is at the National Press Club, at 12:15-2:15pm on Friday, December 8. Lunch will be provided for those who…
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On Encryption, Archiving, and Accountability
“As Elites Switch to Texting, Watchdogs Fear Loss of Accountability“, says a headline in today’s New York Times. The story describes a rising concern among rule enforcers and compliance officers: Secure messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Confide are making inroads among lawmakers, corporate executives and other prominent communicators. Spooked by surveillance and wary of…
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European authorities fine Google for search tactics
This week the European Commission (EC) announced that it is fining Google $2.7 billion for anti-competitive tactics in the company’s iconic search product. In this post I’ll unpack what’s going on here. I have some background on this topic. In 2011-12, when I was Chief Technologist at the FTC, the agency did a big investigation…
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Lessons of 2016 for U.S. Election Security
The 2016 election was one of the most eventful in U.S. history. We will be debating its consequences for a long time. For those of us who pay attention to the security and reliability of elections, the 2016 election teaches some important lessons. I’ll review some of them in this post. First, though, let’s review…