RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Thursday 25 April 2024 Volume 34 : Issue 20

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, founder and still moderator

***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/34.20>
The current issue can also be found at
<http://www.csl.sri.com/users/risko/risks.txt>

Contents:
Tesla being operated in autonomous driving mode kills
motorcyclist in stop and go traffic (Katie Wade)
Waymo car filmed on wrong side of street for two blocks
(Ricardo Cano)
UK Smart motorway failures (BBC)
Generative AI Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
Cade Metz)
It’s the End of the Web as We Know It -- and I don't feel fine...
(The Atlantic)
You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000 (ArsTechnica)
Meta's newest AI model beats some peers. But its amped-up AI agents are
confusing Facebook users (APNews)
Deepfakes of Bollywood Stars Spark Worries of Meddling in India Election
(Reuters)
Advanced Brain Science Without Coding Expertise (Helmholtz Centers)
Group Joins Fight Over Online Disinformation (NYTimes)
Cisco ASA CVE-2024-20353 (ArsTechnica via Cliff Kilby)
Why Is Tech Going Down More? (Liv mcMahon)
Utah law Aimed at AI (Politico)
How United Airlines uses AI to make flying the friendly skies a bit easier
(TechCrunch)
AI-powered cameras installed on LA buses to ticket illegally parked cars
(LA Times)
ResearchRabbit et al. (Debora Weber-Wulff)
Hospital prices for the same emergency care vary up to 16X, study find
(ArsTechnica)
South Korean Defense Industry Under Siege by North Korean Hacker
(Presale1)
"Killed by a Traffic Engineer" (IslandPress via Prashanth Mundkur)
This camera trades pictures for AI poetry (TechCrunch)
Re: AI Made These Movies Sharper. Critics Say It Ruined Them. (EPG)
Re: Wrong button clicked, wrong divorce cannot be undone (Henry Baker_
Re: UK Post Office IT scandal (Jim Geissman)
Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2024 02:20:37 +0000
From: Howard Campbell <howard@chcampbell.com>
Subject: Tesla being operated in autonomous driving mode kills
motorcyclist in stop and go traffic (Katie Wade)

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/charges-filed-against-tesla-driver-fatal-motorcycle-accident/FFXZIGDW45CWXCMZJFD4LPLUPI/

Probable cause documents filed against Tesla driver in fatal motorcycle
accident

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — Probable cause documents were filed against the
driver of a Tesla self-driving vehicle that hit and killed a motorcyclist
in a collision the afternoon of Friday, April 19th. The collision occurred
on Eastbound State Route 522 at Fales Road.

The driver was reportedly heading home from lunch and had the Tesla on
autopilot while looking at his phone when the Tesla “lurched forward” into
the back of 28-year-old Jeffrey Nissen’s motorcycle, pinning Nissen
underneath.

Nissen was pronounced deceased on the scene.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 9:12:46 PDT
From: Peter Neumann <neumann@csl.sri.com>
Subject: Waymo car filmed on wrong side of street for two blocks
(Ricardo Cano)

Ricardo Cano, *The San Francisco Chronicle*, 24 April 2024, filmed by
bicyclists. Waymo said the car was avoiding cyclists and a possble body in
the original lane. A unicyclist got in front of the Waymo at the end of the
second block of wrong-way driving, trying to get the robocab (with one
passenger) to move back into the correct lane. [PGN-ed; the responses from
Waymo included the expected ``The safety of all road users is a top priority
.... and we look forward to learning from this unique event.''

This was in a heavily traveled area. In October, ``a Cruise robotaxi
involved in a hit-and-run accident that was caused by a human driver struck
and dragged a jaywalking pedestrian 20 feet.''

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 13:04:13 -0700
From: "Jim" <jgeissman@socal.rr.com>
Subject: UK Smart motorway failures (BBC)

The technology behind England's smart motorway network stops working on a
regular basis, the BBC has discovered.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68848418

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:15:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Generative AI Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
Cade Metz)

Cade Metz, The New York Times, 23 Apr 2024, via ACM TechNews

Generative AI technology developed by Berkeley, Calif.-based startup
Profluent is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms
with a gene editor called OpenCRISPR-1, which can edit DNA. The technology
learns from sequences of amino acids and nucleic acids, in essence analyzing
the behavior of CRISPR gene editors pulled from nature and learning how to
generate entirely new gene editors. "These AI models learn from sequences,
whether those are sequences of characters or words or computer code or amino
acids," said Profluent CEO Ali Madani (pictured). Profluent said that it was
"open sourcing" its OpenCRISPR-1 editor, though not the AI technology behind
it.

[What can possibly go wrong? Frankenmonsters? Ex-Terminator, e.g.,
irreversible disablement of people who still had a life to live? PGN]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 07:33:55 -0700
From: Steve Bacher <sebmb1@verizon.net>
Subject: It’s the End of the Web as We Know It (and I don't feel fine...)
(The Atlantic)

A great public resource is at risk of being destroyed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/04/generative-ai-search-llmo/678154/

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:41:55 -0400
From: Gabe Goldberg <gabe@gabegold.com>
Subject: You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under
$10,000 (ArsTechnica)

Thermonator, the first "flamethrower-wielding robot dog," is completely
legal in 48 US states.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/you-can-now-buy-a-flame-throwing-robot-dog-for-under-10000/

Well, of course -- it's not excluded from 2A rights by founders. Besides,
it's useful for hunting and self-protection.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2024 14:41:30 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Meta's newest AI model beats some peers. But its amped-up AI agents
are confusing Facebook users

It's already spreading lies. AI Trust & Safety is rapidly becoming the
most crucial issue in tech. -L

https://apnews.com/article/meta-ai-assistant-llama3-large-language-models-llm-229b386ebfbdc23f0e9245a68f7eb2d0

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:15:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Deepfakes of Bollywood Stars Spark Worries of Meddling in
India Election (Reuters)

Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil, Dhwani Pandya, et al.,
*Reuters*, 22 Apr 2024, via ACM TechNews

Deepfake videos of A-list Bollywood actors Aamir Khan (pictured, right) and
Ranveer Singh (left) criticizing India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center)
have gone viral. The videos, which call on viewers to vote for the
opposition Congress party, have generated concerns about the use of AI to
influence the nation's ongoing general election. Reuters found that the
videos had been viewed more than 500,000 times on social media since last
week. At least eight fact-checking websites determined the videos to be
altered or manipulated, but it remains unclear who created them.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:15:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Advanced Brain Science Without Coding Expertise
(Helmholtz Centers)

Helmholtz Centers, 22 Apr 2024, via ACM TechNews

A deep learning tool developed by researchers at Germany's Helmholtz Munich
and the LMU University Hospital Munich enables brain cell mapping without
the need for coding expertise. The goal of the tool, DELiVR (Deep Learning
and Virtual Reality), is to democratize 3D brain analysis. Researchers can
train DELiVR for specific cell types, and it works with the open source
Fijai software for image analysis.

[DE-LIVERing might be not so good. You have only one liver. PGN]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:15:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: ACM TechNews <technews-editor@acm.org>
Subject: Group Joins Fight Over Online Disinformation (NYTimes)

Steven Lee Myers and Jim Rutenberg, *The New York Times*, 22 Apr 2024, via
ACM TechNews

Nina Jankowicz (pictured), former head of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board, has co-founded
the nonprofit American Sunlight Project, with the goal of fighting
against campaigns to undermine researchers who study the sources of
disinformation. The group was formed during a time in which prominent
researchers have been targeted with lawsuits, subpoenas, and physical
threats. The inception of the project reflects how divisive the issue
of identifying and combating disinformation has become as the 2024
presidential election approaches.