Happy New Year, dear readers! It was quite a year last year, eh? I'm sure that, like me, many of you are glad to move on. More on what we're moving into in a moment, but first let's use one of the biggest news stories (not just tech stories) of 2023 – generative AI – to look at the Top 5 news stories of the past year. I asked both Microsoft's Bing, powered by ChatGPT4, and Google's Bard, … [Read more...] about Welcome to 2024!
Microsoft
Generative AI: July 2023 freeze frame
It's feeling like I need a large language model brain to write about safety with large language models. [I certify that I only wish I had such a brain, and I am a human.] So let's freeze the film for a moment and see where we humans are with generative AI safety. First, so that we're all on the same page, a large language model is basically an algorithmic structure called a "neural … [Read more...] about Generative AI: July 2023 freeze frame
The metaverse and the Meta part
I hadn’t read Snow Crash. So I first learned about the metaverse in 2008, right after returning from a family trip around the world and a few months before Barack Obama was elected President for the first time. I was a little disoriented coming back to America after 10 months in many other countries, especially during an election year, and it didn’t help that I was attending my very first ISTE … [Read more...] about The metaverse and the Meta part
Apple & the child online safety challenge
2nd important update Sept. 19: As if in direct response to the open letter from privacy activists around the world, the WeProtect Global Alliance published their own statement saying Apple must not pause its expanded protections, the Guardian reported. I stand by my thoughts in the update just below. We need privacy activists and protection activists in the same room answering the questions: Would … [Read more...] about Apple & the child online safety challenge
Youth cybersecurity concerns & what will reduce them: Research
This being National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we might ask how secure young people are feeling online. According to two just-released studies, not so much. But there's some light in there, so stay with me. A Microsoft survey of 13-17 year-olds in 14 countries found that 43% had experienced unwelcome contact at some point. The study also surveyed adults and found that 58% of young people … [Read more...] about Youth cybersecurity concerns & what will reduce them: Research