Google today announced that it is open-sourcing its so-called differential privacy library, an internal tool the company uses to securely draw insights from datasets that contain the private and sensitive personal information of its users.
Differential privacy is a cryptographic approach to data science, particularly with regard to analysis, that allows someone relying on software-aided analysis to draw insights from massive datasets while protecting user privacy. It does so by mixing novel user data with artificial “white noise,” as explained by Wired’s Andy Greenberg. That way, the results of any analysis cannot be used to unmask individuals or allow a malicious third party to trace any one data point back to an identifiable source. Read More
Daily Archives: September 6, 2019
Artificial intelligence and war
The contest between China and America, the world’s two superpowers, has many dimensions, from skirmishes over steel quotas to squabbles over student visas. One of the most alarming and least understood is the race towards artificial-intelligence-enabled warfare. Both countries are investing large sums in militarised artificial intelligence (AI), from autonomous robots to software that gives generals rapid tactical advice in the heat of battle. China frets that America has an edge thanks to the breakthroughs of Western companies, such as their successes in sophisticated strategy games. America fears that China’s autocrats have free access to copious data and can enlist local tech firms on national service. Neither side wants to fall behind. As Jack Shanahan, a general who is the Pentagon’s point man for AI, put it last month, “What I don’t want to see is a future where our potential adversaries have a fully AI-enabled force and we do not.”
AI-enabled weapons may offer superhuman speed and precision (see article). But they also have the potential to upset the balance of power. Read More
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