Our investigation into Irish Department of Justice use of chatbots. The department hides behind disclaimers while deploying misleading chatbots. And the department is not immune to the #aihype. One of the documents received through FOI requests makes this claim: “Copilot doesn’t just connect […]

In a short piece for Tech Policy Press, Abeba Birhane and I write AI Hype Is Steering EU Policy Off Course. Stop peddling in unscientific discourse about “AGI” and “superintelligence.” Serve citizens. Don't cater to the whims of tech CEOs […]

The European Commission uses ChatGPT outputs in public documents. ICCL has filed a complaint to the European Ombudsman as this use likely violates its own guidelines and its obligation under EU treaties […]

I really want a single global setting on my phone for “never autoplay anything ever, no matter what the app settings might have been set to, god damn it”

Scientists and scholars in AI and its social impacts call on von der Leyen to retract #aihype statement. Citizens already face AI harms: discrimination, privacy-violations, psychological and environmental harms. Instead of effectively addressing these harms and stopping companies from […]

This talk from Mike Monteiro is fantastic. "We are born with hearts that want to make a mark on the world. This ability is not lost, it is taken from us." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2dFXDMwe4 h/t @tante

Presidential election in the Republic of Ireland this Friday and Irish Independent reports that deepfakes of RTE news bulletins are circulating. It is quite likely that this falls under an #AIAct prohibition […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

Along with Joe O'Brien, I will be speaking at the Joint #AI Committee of the Irish Parliament today highlighting the need to the national AI Office to be independent, calling for a national algorithms #register to be set up, and more […]

Few days ago I spoke with Brian O'Donovan @rte.ie on #AIAct implementation "There needs to be an urgency from the Government not only to set up the required governance mechanism for the regulators, but also to provide the resources so that regulators can do their jobs" […]

“Who knew giving a ton of money to #cern would lead to the #www? Who knew a Dutch free #os (#minix) would incentivise a Finnish gradute student to write #linux (the OS platform on most the cloud, half the smart phones out there)? Who knew that some small TV company (the #bbc) request for a […]

Our new investigation: Ireland's own goal Almost every department of the Irish Government and local authorities have installed Chinese surveillance systems. It is hard to travel in Ireland without being tracked by China’s Hikvision surveillance system […]

None of the nine bodies in #ireland which will receive additional powers through the #eu #AIAct to protect fundamental rights have received additional resources from the Irish government. Without #AI knowledge (technical and legal), they can't use these powers […]

In less than three weeks, #ireland should begin enforcement of prohibitions under the #AIAct. But the State admits that it does not know who the regulators will be. Ireland’s poor tech enforcement record is likely to continue with AI unless the State takes immediate action […]

ICCL Enforce urges the Irish government to urgently designate the regulators to enforce AI Act prohibitions. EU AI Act prohibitions, applied since 2 Feb, will be enforceable in less than a month. But there is still no clarity on who the regulators will be […]

Quoted in Graham Fraser's article in BBC News yesterday on WhatsApp forcing people to use GenAI.

A gem of a piece from @pboehler "The hardest lesson I've learned is that journalism doesn't matter just because we say it does." I think this lesson applies many other professions. https://www.pboehler.net/theory-of-service/

This piece from Stanley Pignal for @economist_bot is brilliant. "It [Europe] is a place blessed with walkable cities, long life expectancies and vaccinated kids who do not need to be trained to dodge school shooters." […]

Journalists please consider signing this letter that Alexander Fanta and Jean Comte have put together to address the systemic delays and broad application of exception to not provides access to documents under Regulation 1049/2001 (FOI law) […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

"The European Commission is issuing burner phones and basic laptops to some US-bound staff to avoid the risk of espionage" “They are worried about the US getting into the commission systems” The same European Commission uses Microsoft and Amazon Cloud services. Espionage risk? […]

Quoted in BBC today. Microsoft redeploys recall. Still a privacy nightmare. Microsoft is relying on "one opt-in to rule them all" approach 1. Once you opt-in to Recall, you have to opt-out of specific apps to prevent Microsoft from capturing sensitive […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

"The European Commission’s AI Continent Action Plan is closer to fiction than reality. Steeped in hype, the EU will burn more fossil fuels, rinse and repeat the past, all in the name of leadership." My piece on Tech Policy Press […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

Last year #European Parliament Archive unit head appeared in promo videos for Anthropic when EP began using #Anthropic's #AI model. ICCL Enforce investigated. There are no contracts. No impact assessment. No bias checks. Blind faith in Constitutional AI and […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

WorldCoin case shows that regulators will not turn a blind eye to privacy washing. My piece on the Communications of the ACM. "The BayLDA decision might be the first example of privacy washing through PETs that have been assessed by regulators. It will likely not be the last. Greater use of […]

My piece for Tech Policy Press on Ireland's more data centre and more data approach to AI that is fed by Big Tech's narrative and framing. "Big Tech’s interests are not in the public interest. Let Big Tech’s policies not be the Irish government’s policies. Else, the Irish Government — like the […]

Delighted with the #privacywashing through #pets seminar at Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (LZI) co-organised with Carmela Troncoso Emiliano De Cristofaro Thorsten Strufe. We had some excellent senior researchers. We were also fortunate that young researchers who will shape […]

Ireland has designated eight authorities as the regulators to enforce the #eu #AIAct with a distributed structure involving a lead regulator (yet to be designated). More authorities may be added later. Irish Council for Civil Liberties had recommended such a structure in July 2024. We had […]

I wonder if this is a typo in the #eu #AI Act in Annex VIII Section C paragraph 5. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng Article 26(8) does not mention data protection impact assessment. Article 26 (9) does.

And what happens if the "shares" are held in AWS?

What about claims that "shares" cannot be combined?

WorldCoin Foundation claimed that contractual provisions prevent them from joining the shares. But this argument does not hold if the two entities holding the "shares" are both data processors for the WorldCoin Foundation.

Not always. If the "shares" are deemed as personal data (incl. pseudonymous), then GDPR applies.

I wonder if the the recent decision from the Bavarian DPA (BayLDA) might be the first #privacywashing through #pets that has been assessed by a data protection authority. https://www.edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2025-02/decision1594_0.pdf Secure Multiparty Computation (SMPC) is a privacy […]

I am excited to co-organise #dagstuhl seminar next month on #privacywashing through #pets and the need for a privacy evaluation framework to prevent #privacywashing. The privacy guarantees of #PETs cannot be assessed at the protocol level (e.g., cryptographic protocol). The entire system and […]

Hmmm... The person who says "this [AI training using pirated books] is what OpenAI does with GPT3, what Google does with PALM, and what Deepmind does with Chinchilla…so we will do it to[o]” Is this the same person who co-founded Mistral AI? Did Mistral AI […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

My new piece for Tech Policy Press on the EU Commission Guidelines on #AI system definition and prohibitions. "The best thing about the guidelines on the prohibitions – they can be updated. The best thing about the guidelines on the definition of an AI system – they are not legally binding." […]

The Attorney's statement, however, seems to indicate that the training was not good sufficient.

Wadsworth v. Walmart Inc at the district court in Wyoming raises interesting questions about AI literacy and training. If a similar case was brought to a court in the #EU, I wonder if the training provided in this case fulfils "sufficient level of #AI […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

Letter from civil society organizations, companies, and cybersecurity experts calling on the UK Home Office to rescind its demand that Apple create a backdoor into its end-to-end encrypted services. I have signed it. Sign-ons are open till 20 Feb […]

European Commission guidelines on the definition of AI systems fails to provide clarity. We highlight three points in the guidelines: 1. Logistic regression is within the scope of the definition 2. Contradiction between a Recital and the guidelines 3. Strange reasoning […]