Weapons of Mass Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and International Law
[Cambridge International Law Journal] The answers each political community finds to the law reform questions posed artificial intelligence (AI) may differ, but a near-term threat is that AI systems capable of causing harm will not be confined to one jurisdiction — indeed, it may be impossible to link them to a specific jurisdiction at all. […] more…
The Robot Century
[Straits Times] Robots have been part of human culture for a hundred years. How can we ensure that they support — rather than supplant — humans over the next hundred? The word ‘robot’ entered the modern lexicon a hundred years ago today with the première at Prague’s National Theatre of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. […] more…
Your Data or Your Life
[Straits Times] Data, in particular personal data, is often described as the ‘new oil’ powering the information economy. It’s an attractive metaphor — evoking transformations underway in a fourth industrial revolution, heralding a world of artificial intelligence and limitless possibilities. Unfortunately, that metaphor is wrong in almost every way. Oil is finite, companies pay millions […] more…
Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Legal Personality
[ICLQ] As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become more sophisticated and play a larger role in society, arguments that they should have some form of legal personality gain credence. It has been suggested that this will fill an accountability gap created by the speed, autonomy, and opacity of AI. In addition, a growing body of literature […] more…
Through a Glass, Darkly: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Opacity
[American Journal of Comparative Law] As computer programs become more complex, the ability of non-specialists to understand how a given output has been reached diminishes. Opaqueness may also be built into programs to protect proprietary interests. Both types of system are capable of being explained, either through recourse to experts or an order to produce […] more…
“Move Fast and Break Things”: Law, Technology, and the Problem of Speed
[Singapore Academy of Law Journal] Since computers entered into the mainstream in the 1960s, the efficiency with which data could be processed has raised regulatory questions. This is well understood with respect to privacy. Data that was notionally public — divorce proceedings, say — had long been protected through the ‘practical obscurity’ of paper records. […] more…
Facing Up to Facial Surveillance
[Straits Times] The benefits of facial recognition technology are that it offers a quick, non-invasive means of identifying people. Those are also its dangers. Last month it was reported that facial recognition will be used to take attendance in Singapore’s Parliament and check into certain hotels. The latest phones already unlock with Face ID and many […] more…
Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Autonomy
[Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies] Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are routinely said to operate autonomously, exposing gaps in regulatory regimes that assume the centrality of human actors. Yet surprisingly little attention is given to precisely what is meant by “autonomy” and its relationship to those gaps. Driverless vehicles and autonomous weapon systems are the […] more…
Should Robots Be Given Rights as Well?
[Straits Times] As computers surpass human intelligence and take on greater responsibilities, should they be given rights also? Earlier this month, the Bank of England announced that Alan Turing would be featured on the new fifty pound note. The last to switch from paper to polymer, it is due to enter circulation in late […] more…
Should We Regulate A.I.? Can We?
[Straits Times] Artificial intelligence is viewed by many as the defining technology of the 21st century. But how can we ensure that its benefits outweigh the potential risks? This week marked a grim anniversary of sorts for artificial intelligence (AI). On a Sunday night this time last year, Elaine Herzberg stepped off an ornamental […] more…
Singapore’s Biggest Ever Data Breach May Give Privacy New Life
[Straits Times] Reports of the death of privacy are greatly exaggerated. This might seem an odd opening line, with Singapore still reeling from its worst ever data breach, in which the personal details of 1.5 million people were stolen from SingHealth. But as the country realigns its economy and its public institutions to take advantage […] more…
Data Protection Law in Singapore (2nd edition)
[Academy Publishing] The adoption of the Personal Data Protection Act transformed the legal regime for data protection in Singapore. This book explains the history and evolution of data protection in Singapore, highlights issues that are being worked out in practice, and derives lessons that Singapore can learn from other jurisdictions – and that other jurisdictions […] more…
Privacy and Our Digital Selves
[Straits Times] By October, the lamp posts on Singapore’s Orchard Road and in selected housing estates will be doing more than just illuminating the street. With cameras and other sensors they will capture real-time information on traffic flow, the environment, pedestrian movement — and, potentially, security threats. In his National Day Rally last month, Prime […] more…
Do Driverless Cars Dream of Electric Sheep?
[Straits Times] Autonomous vehicles offer the prospect of safer and cheaper transportation of people and goods. But as Singapore sees the first driverless taxis take to the roads, technology has raced ahead of our laws — and our morals. Last week, the world’s first driverless taxi service began picking up passengers on Singapore’s roads. It […] more…
Digital Security: You Are the Weakest Link
[Straits Times] Singapore’s decision to cut Internet access from 100,000 public servants accepts the reality: the greatest vulnerability in any network is the people who use it. “The only truly secure system,” Professor Gene Spafford observed of computers in 1989, “is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed […] more…
Law 2.0
[Straits Times] In a world in which data and money no longer respect national borders, can law keep ahead of technological innovation? It can’t — and it shouldn’t. On 26 February 2015, the US Federal Communications Commission voted, 3-2, to reclassify broadband as a public utility. Regulators in the United States can now prevent Internet service […] more…
Protecting and Sharing Personal Data
[Straits Times] By the time Singapore’s Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry came into effect earlier this month, more than 400,000 numbers had already been entered online, by SMS, and by phone. Many Singaporeans, it is clear, are not particularly interested in unsolicited offers of investment advice, “exclusive” property offers, and so on. But the reaction to the […] more…
Data Protection Law in Singapore: Privacy and Sovereignty in an Interconnected World
[Academy Publishing] The adoption of the Personal Data Protection Act has transformed the legal regime for data protection in Singapore. This book explains the history and evolution of data protection in Singapore, highlights issues that will need to be worked out in practice as the new law is implemented, and derives lessons that may be […] more…
US Intelligence, Inc.
[Project Syndicate] Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden’s leaking of classified material – whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand – the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence collection and analysis in the United States. Around a […] more…
A Chat Room of One’s Own
[Straits Times] The Internet has had a greater impact on access to information than any development in human history, with the possible exception of the invention of writing. We are more connected and better informed than ever before. So why does it often feel like what takes place on the Internet is so dumb? Two […] more…
After Privacy: The Rise of Facebook, The Fall of WikiLeaks, and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012
[Singapore Journal of Legal Studies] This article discusses the changing ways in which information is produced, stored, and shared—exemplified by the rise of social-networking sites like Facebook and controversies over the activities of WikiLeaks—and the implications for privacy and data protection. Legal protections of privacy have always been reactive, but the coherence of any legal […] more…
How Best to Protect Kids Online
[Straits Times] How many “friends” does your child have online? Who reads her blog or sees the pictures she uploads? And what survey forms is she filling in to win a chance at a prize? Some parents will know some of the answers to some of these questions. But it is highly unlikely that any […] more…
Who Killed Privacy?
[Straits Times] It is more than a decade since the former CEO of Sun Microsystems infamously declared that privacy was dead, urging the reporters who had asked him about the subject to “get over it”. That was before the launch of Facebook, Google’s Street View, the iPhone, and a proliferation of other tools that many […] more…
One Nation Under Surveillance
[OUP] What limits, if any, should be placed on a government’s efforts to spy on its citizens in the name of national security? Spying on foreigners has long been regarded as an unseemly but necessary enterprise. Spying on one’s own citizens in a democracy, by contrast, has historically been subject to various forms of legal […] more…
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