Four short links: 8 September 2017
CryptoCurrency Fails, AI Interchange, Big Data Surveillance, and Foragers vs. Farmers
- Cryptographic Vulnerabilities in IOTA — The cryptocurrency space is heating up—Protocol Labs raised $200M for Filecoin, Bancor raised $150M, and Tezos raised $232M. […] [T]he due diligence required to make sound investments in the technology isn’t keeping up with the pace of the hype. Don’t. Roll. Your. Own. Crypto!
- Microsoft and Facebook Launch AI Interoperability — Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) format, a standard for representing deep learning models that enables models to be transferred between frameworks.
- Big Data Surveillance: The Case of Policing — based on observations and interviews with the Los Angeles Police Department, the author finds: First, discretionary assessments of risk are supplemented and quantified using risk scores. Second, data are used for predictive, rather than reactive or explanatory, purposes. Third, the proliferation of automatic alert systems makes it possible to systematically surveil an unprecedentedly large number of people. Fourth, the threshold for inclusion in law enforcement databases is lower, now including individuals who have not had direct police contact. Fifth, previously separate data systems are merged, facilitating the spread of surveillance into a wide range of institutions.
- Forager vs. Farmer (Robin Hanson) — a safe, playful, talky collective isn’t always the best way to deal with things. I think Robin Hanson is saying it’s OK to punch Nazis but not OK to punch a coworker—EVEN IF THEY SUGGEST WRITING THE NEW SYSTEM IN {some language that has recently been mentioned on Hacker News}.
