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The UK will fine technology companies who fail to protect children
Technology companies that have produced used by children will need to radically redesign their systems after the UK laid down new privacy standards. The Information Commissioner's Office's new code of conduct covers everyone from social media platforms to the makers of internet-connected toys. And failure to comply with the new rules, expected to come into force by 2021, will see hefty fines being meted out.
Robots learning our pain threshold by punching humans and seeing if they cry
The first rule of robotics is you do not talk about robotics that a robot should not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But how does a robot know when its acts or omissions are causing nearby fleshies discomfort? The obvious way is to scan for the same signals of distress that we humans do -- facial, physical, and aural -- but another, more fun, way is to just hit people over and over again and ask them how much each blow hurt. That's what professor Borut Povse over in Slovenia is doing, in a research project he describes as "impact emulation," where six test subjects are punched by a robotic arm until they can't take it anymore. It's funny, yes, but it's also novel and a somewhat ingenious way to collect data and produce more intelligent machines. Of course, whether we actually want more intelligent machines is another matter altogether. [Thanks, Anthony]
11 year olds, iPhone repositories and the power of Eeeeeeevil
So while I was gone off, enjoying the wild wonders of Arizona, seems like a big kerfuffle tumulted, disturbed, and then resolved. Mike Rose just dropped me an IM, asking whether the whole "Mikey" thing meant that the iPhone was especially susceptible to malicious influences. Was this the canary in the coal mine? Are bad things coming down the road iPhone-wise?In my opinion? Not so much. This bad patch showed more that users could be quick to respond and capable of handling flackitude than that the iPhone was a particularly vulnerable platform. Less harm was done by Mikey the 11 year old than by the whole recent QuickBooks debacle. It's a given when one computes that bad things happen. Some harm is intentional, some not. What we saw at play here, and is especially obvious in retrospect, was a quick community response. The strong network of Apple/iPhone enthusiasts got the message out and acted with precision and decisiveness. Well done, guys.
