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Action-packed April. In this edition of The Cookie Jar...
Indian government’s stealth moves; Gen Z is outsmarting smartphones; AI Hype is getting murkier; and Elon Musk’s non-stealth moves.
🍪🫙Why 'Cookie Jar'?
Our online experiences are a mix of good and bad cookies, and while cookies inherently make our online experiences smoother, it takes a smart cookie to know when some of them could have undesired consequences.
News Chips
Check Mate?
Typewriter by Klau2018/Pixabay
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) introduced IT Amendment Rules, 2023 which allows the central government to set up a fact-checking unit to identify any ‘fake or false or misleading’ information about the central government. Digital rights advocates say it is ‘draconian’ and makes the Centre a ‘judge in its own cause’. Representing citizens’ voice, comedian Kunal Kamra has challenged the new amendment on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
GenZ’s dumbphone frenzy
OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay
If you think you’ve been spending too much time on your phone lately, you’re not alone. After a decade of smartphone frenzy, US Gen Z-ers have had enough of screen time and prefer using ‘feature phones’ — traditional flip or slide phones sans smart features, except GPS and hotspot. Little surprise then that smartphones and apps turbocharged with Generative AI are finding countries like India that see high tech adoption, to be their growing ‘markets’. Might we add that bellbottoms/bootcuts/ mom jeans never went out of style 😉 Also, with heightened awareness of extractive industries and technologies, GenZ-ers everywhere seem to be taking things into their own hands now. And organisations cannot but pay attention.
A seemingly ‘open’ letter
PinPals_Design/Pixabay
Were you conned by pictures of Trump’s arrest, or Pope in a parka jacket, or something more local? While it may seem all fun and games now, misinformation mongers are just getting started. Meanwhile, over 1100 influential tech leaders and researchers signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This may not be as straight as it seems, with various AI factions holding various views, debating it out. Most significant being those issuing clarion calls on existential challenges from AI’s emergent capabilities, and those that calling for a focus on present-day challenges of AI exacerbating social inequities.
AI Arms Race
Gordon Johnson/Pixabay
Furthering #AIHype also appears to be in the interest of Big Tech companies rolling out these technologies into public domain. Scientist and AI Ethics researcher, Margaret Mitchell (Ex-Google) busts Google’s claim that Bard somehow taught itself ‘Bengali’ using Google’s own past announcement. At this point, we are wondering whether market dominance powerplay by tech companies is a more obscure ‘blackbox’ (read smokescreen) than AI itself. This Twitter map could help follow the various perspectives around AI safety.
Twitter aXed
mohamed_hassan/Pixabay
Elon Musk’s takeover and complete transformation of Twitter just got more real – it ‘no longer exists‘! After merging with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp – which Musk calls the “everything app” – Twitter Inc. now ceases to exist as an independent company. Controversially, Musk has also announced the launch of TruthGPT to rival ChatGPT close on the heels of signing the open letter calling for an AI moratorium. Too soon?
(A.)I Spy
The Digital Artist/Pixabay
Some of the most autocratic governments across the world are known to use spyware to repress citizen resistance. The Indian Government is reportedly looking to spend Rs. 986 crores on Cognyte – a spyware software – similar to Israeli ‘Pegasus’, citing ‘national security’ concerns. In case you are wondering how this could affect law-abiding citizens, here’s a reminder from Internet Freedom Foundation on how it went down last time, and what it could lead to now. Yes, your Signal and Whatsapp messages as well. Double ‘check mate’?
CDF Chunks
Tech-savvy seniors
CDF
Senior citizens may not be ‘digital natives’, but they sure paved the path for us to get here, and are more than willing to learn. CDF collaborated with Ernakulam District Administration’s Digital Literacy Programme to empower senior citizens to optimise the benefits and limit the potential harms of digital technologies. We conducted a 1-day Train-the-Trainer programme for student volunteers of Government Model Engineering College (MEC) who will now train senior citizens of Ernakulam District gram panchayats on Information Literacy.
Arun Nath/CDF
CDF also partnered with Ivory app to promote Information Literacy among senior citizens. Ivory app engages seniors adults with result-oriented activities, daily puzzles, and on-demand mentor support. CDF created an exclusive session for Ivory that covers topics such as online scams, phishing, malware, and social media privacy, and educates seniors about the importance of digital privacy and internet safety.
Litt is CDF’s online Information Literacy initiative. Litt courses address a number of online challenges, to empower end-users across India to maximise the benefits of technology and limit the harm. Litt is offering a free intro session on online safety that you can sign up for, among other courses that might interest you.
🥷🦹 Bring your superpowers!
🦾 CDF is a non-profit, tackling techno-social issues like misinformation, online harassment, online child sexual abuse, polarisation, data & privacy breaches, cyber fraud, hypertargeting, behaviour manipulation, AI Bias, election engineering etc. We do this through knowledge solutions, responsible tech advocacy, and good tech collaborations under our goals of Awareness, Accountability and Action.
See our work here.
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The Cookie Jar is a free newsletter helping you stay on top of
tech developments, and how they impact you.
Subscribe to read before everyone else.