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Friday, June 1, 2018

A Google scientist warned against promoting the firm's work on a weapons project using Elon Musk's doomsday prophecy about AI

A senior Google scientist reportedly turned to Elon Musk's doomsday prophecy about AI to warn her company against promoting its controversial work on a military artificial-intelligence contract.

The New York Times reported this week that Fei-Fei Li, the chief scientist for AI at Google Cloud, is a vocal internal critic of Google's work on the US Department of Defense's Project Maven.

The reported $9 million contract, which will see Google help the Pentagon use artificial intelligence to interpret video images that could improve drone strikes, has sparked uproar internally. Staff have petitioned against it, resigned in protest, flooded message boards, and confronted senior management in fractious meetings.

The Times obtained an email from Li, warning Google colleagues that publicising its work on Maven would be "red meat" for critics. Now, The Intercept has published a further extract from the same message, in which she refers to Tesla CEO Musk's critical views of AI.

"You probably heard Elon Musk and his comment about AI causing WW3," she wrote last September, according to the email seen by The Intercept. "I don't know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the Defense industry."

In the end, Google did not promote its work on Maven, but The Intercept said the Google team agreed that the firm should work to agree a "narrative" as quickly as possible. The company declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Business Insider.

Li is a prominent advocate for "human-centered AI" that helps people in "benevolent" ways. "It is deeply against my principles to work on any project that I think is to weaponize AI," she told The Times.

Telsa CEO Elon Musk and Eric Schmidt, the former executive chairman of Google's parent firm Alphabet.

Getty and Reuters

Her comments about Musk surfaced just days after Eric Schmidt, the former executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, said the Tesla CEO is "exactly wrong" about AI.

Last month, Musk imagined a nightmare scenario in which the technology morphs into a tyrannical regime, arguing AI could create "an immortal dictator from which we can never escape." But Schmidt said Musk doesn't understand the benefits of the technology.

"The fact of the matter is that artificial intelligence and machine learning are so fundamentally good for humanity," Schmidt said at VivaTech in France last week. "It makes every citizen smarter, from the best educated to the least. It allows you to live longer, with less pain, less disease. It allows you to make economic systems and social systems be more fluid."

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US disregards Beijing's nonsense, says it can take down South China Sea islands

US Navy uss lassen — USS Lassen (DDG 82) patrols the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The US issued a stark warning to Beijing on Thursday, as Chinese militarization of the South China Sea creates a potential flashpoint in a longstanding battle for control of the Pacific.

For years, Beijing has dredged the South China Sea to build artificial islands in waters it claims are its own territory.

Six of China's neighbors also lay claim to patches of the South China Sea. The body of water is home to natural resources, and trillions of dollars worth of trade passes through every year.

In 2016, an international court ruled that China's claims to the precious waterway were illegal, but Beijing made a show of ignoring that ruling.

In 2018, it upped the ante by breaking a previous promise not to militarize the islands with missile deployments and landing nuclear-capable bombers on the islands.

On Thursday, the US reminded China of a "historical fact." Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff said "the United States military has had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific, taking down small islands."

"We have a lot of experience, in the Second World War, taking down small islands that are isolated. So that's a — that's a core competency of the US military that we've done before. You shouldn't read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact," said McKenzie.

"Orwellian nonsense"

Wikipedia

The US has been the main challenger to China's maritime claims, and in doing so provoked the bulk of Beijing's rage, which is often expressed in a kind of doublespeak common for the Chinese Communist Party.

On Thursday China's foreign ministry called US claims that Beijing is militarizing the islands "ridiculous" and compared them to "a case of a thief crying 'stop thief' to cover their misdeeds."

But on the same day Chinese state media detailed plans to prepare a military response to US interference.

The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party, wrote: "Aside from deploying defensive weapons on the Spratly Islands, China should build a powerful deterrence system, including an aerial base and a roving naval force and base."

"How can anyone argue with a straight face? How can anyone say this is not militarization. It's a patent lie," Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Business Insider. She said the ranges and functions of missiles China placed on the islands points to a clear military utility.

The White House has addressed this kind of speak from China's Communist party before, calling it "Orwellian nonsense."

War is here, if you want it

This photo taken in April 2018 shows China's sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (front), sailing with other ships during a drill at sea.

AFP/Getty Images

Beijing's militarization of the South China Sea isn't just a potential threat to the region. Beijing is already using hard power to force out other countries and assert its dominance.

Most recently, on May 11 a Philippine navy ship was harassed by two Chinese vessels while trying to resupply Filipino marines in the disputed waters. A helicopter reportedly got dangerously close to the small, rubber Filipino ship and chased it off.

U.S. Energy Information Administration

"If the Chinese start blocking supply operations," the Filipino marines "could starve," said Glaser.

The Philippines are a long-time US ally. The US has massive military bases there and a duty to protect it.

Glaser said this is the first time the actual Chinese navy had announced involving itself in a patrol of the waters, marking an escalation of conflicts.

"Just the other night, [Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte] said if my troops are hurt there, that could be my red line," Duterte's national security adviser said of the South China Sea.

It's unclear whether Duterte would enforce his red line, but the legal case and practical need for military conflict in the South China Sea is there.

The US reminding China that it can destroy its islands there could be a sign of things to come as the Chinese Communist Party increasingly tries to flex its muscles against freedom of navigation.

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VoIP Hosted PBX With Powerful Features and Capabilities

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Electrocution, cardiac pain, and a miscarriage: Amazon warehouse investigation reveals 600 ambulance call-outs for injured workers

Amazon is under fire again over the way it treats the thousands of staff who work at its warehouses after an investigation revealed 600 ambulance call-outs to its UK sites over the past three years.

Freedom of Information requests lodged by GMB, one of the UK's largest trade unions, revealed 115 ambulance call-outs just to Amazon's Rugeley warehouse in central England.

The call-outs include three for maternity and pregnancy-related issues, and three for major trauma. There were 14 calls for people with breathing problems, one call for the building being on fire, and two for electrocution.

The union found that there had only been eight ambulance call-outs over the same period to a similarly sized Tesco warehouse close to Rugeley.

GMB officer Mick Rix accused Amazon of treating its staff like "robots."

"Hundreds of ambulance call outs, pregnant women telling us they are forced to stand for ten hours a day, pick, stow, stretch and bend, pull heavy carts and walk miles — even miscarriages and pregnancy issues at work," he said.

"I've never seen figures like this — Amazon Rugeley must be one of the most dangerous places to work in Britain. Amazon should be absolutely ashamed of themselves."

The miscarriage Rix referred to was raised at a meeting of British lawmakers, who were discussing the gig economy. According to testimony at the meeting, an Amazon worker said one of her colleagues had a miscarriage as a result of the continuous pressure to hit targets.

Business Insider contacted Amazon for comment. An spokesperson told The Guardian: "[It is] simply not correct to suggest that we have unsafe working conditions based on this data or on unsubstantiated anecdotes.

"Requests for ambulance services at our fulfilment centres are predominantly associated with personal health events and are not work-related. Nevertheless, ambulance visits at our UK fulfilment centres last year was 0.00001 per worked hour, which is dramatically low."

One woman told GMB that she had requested a less physical job at Amazon when she found out she was pregnant. She said: "I was told I could not be transferred and must continue picking, which involves bending, stretching and moving a heavy cart, and walking miles."

Amazon warehouse workers have previously told Business Insider that pressure to hit targets makes it difficult to take breaks to go to the toilet or eat. The company has said it doesn't recognise this portrayal of its working conditions.

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Mobile Workforce Tracking Field Service Efficiency

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Tracking field service performance assists fleet operators and field service providers by reducing operational costs, whilst at the same time increasing mobile worker productivity and customer service enables by complete visibility of field operation efficiency levels.

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Theresa May told to stand up to Trump's 'bullying' after refusing to condemn trade war

Theresa May Donald Trump — U.S. President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Theresa May during the U.N. General Assembly in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017.

LONDON — Theresa May has been criticised for refusing to stand up to Donald Trump after she opted not to join the leaders of other western countries in speaking out against the President's decision to impose hefty tariffs on exports to the US.

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was going ahead with plans to slap 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico, in what is expected to escalate into a global trade war.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, described the move as "totally unacceptable," and said it amounted to "an affront to the thousands of Canadians who have fought and died alongside their American brothers in arms."

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both described the tariffs as "illegal," while Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, said he was "lost" with Trump, describing his decision to impose hefty tariffs on EU exports as "totally unacceptable."

However, May has so far resisted calls to join some of her closest allies in speaking out against Trump, instructing UK's Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, to do it instead.

Fox — a Brexiteer who has led calls for Britain to prioritise a trade deal with the US after Britain has left the EU — described the tariffs as a "patently absurd" move, and said the UK government was considering counter-measures.

However, the Conservative minister also urged the European Union to be cautious in its response to Trump, saying: "It would be a great pity if we ended up in a tit-for-tat trade dispute with our closest allies."

Juncker has said that the EU will hit back with tariffs of its own, telling reporters: "This is a bad day for the world trade. What they can do, we're able to do exactly the same."

Shadow Trade Secretary, Barry Gardiner, urged May to "act decisively" and stand up to Trump's "bullying and intimidation" to protect British jobs. Around 31,000 people are employed by the steel industry in the UK.

"These are proportionate measures to show that we will not be cowed, we will not be bullied by the President," Gardiner told the Today programme on Friday morning.

"The President has said he believes he could win a trade war. We think a trade war is in nobody's interests. It's not in our interests, it's not in the EU's interests, and it's not in the interest of American workers."

He added: "We believe in a rules-based system. President Trump doesn't. We must understand that. He wants to break up the rules-based system.

"Theresa May has not managed to persuade Trump at all to abandon the plans he has had. The idea that we have a special relationship and we're going to get a special deal with America once we've left the EU. It is a nonsense."

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The very purpose of the Chinese tech company ZTE is to spy on other countries, a competitor alleges in new court documents

ZTE

ZTE was created for intelligence-gathering reasons and has been engaged in extensive bribery, according to new documents filed in a Dallas County, Texas, district court.

Fairfax Media found case files in which a competitor alleges ZTE was founded by China's Ministry of Aerospace in order to spy on targets overseas.

Officials in Liberia reportedly testified that they received "brown paper bags" filled with cash as bribes to act against the interest of ZTE's competitor.

Court documents apparently include a 2015 report from an ethics council for Norway's Government Pension Fund, which said ZTE had been accused of corruption in 18 countries.

ZTE was created by China for the purpose of spying, and openly used bribery to accomplish its goals, court documents allege.

Fairfax Media reported that files in a Dallas case between Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE and Universal Telephone Exchange contain shocking claims regarding the purposes and practices of the company at the center of the Trump administration's trade talks with China.

“China's Ministry of Aerospace founded ZTE as a front to send officers abroad under non-diplomatic covers such as scientists, businessmen and executives for the purpose of collecting intelligence,” documents in the case allege.

The documents also include testimony, taken under oath, from two telecom executives from Liberia who said ZTE bribed officials, allegedly including judges and the country's former president, between 2005 and 2007.

The officials said they were offered 5% of the value of a ZTE contract if the deal was taken away from Universal Telephone Exchange. Both men testified to receiving cash in "brown paper bags."

One of the men allegedly also received travel and an "unlimited shopping spree" in China, according to the court documents cited by Fairfax Media.

ZTE denied the claims in a statement to Fairfax, but Norway's central bank banned its Government Investment Fund from investing in ZTE in 2016 because of what it deemed to be an unacceptable risk of "gross corruption."

The report this claim was based on is, according to Fairfax, part of the Texas case documents. It alleges that, in 2015, ZTE had been "accused of corruption in a total of 18 countries and been investigated for corruption in 10
of these."

"ZTE operates in a sector where large public-sector contracts are common and has allegedly repeatedly paid large bribes so that public-sector employees will favour it in competitive tenders. This has supposedly taken place in countries such as Zambia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Myanmar and Nigeria," the report read.

According to a previous investigation by Fairfax Media, ZTE not only regularly bribed foreign officials but had an entire department dedicated to managing bribe payments.

In February, six intelligence chiefs — including the heads of the CIA, FBI, and NSA — testified they do not use, and would not recommend private citizens use products from ZTE and smartphone maker Huawei. The Pentagon announced in early May it had stopped selling ZTE and Huawei phones and modems in stores on its military bases because they "may pose an unacceptable risk."

In Australia, ZTE and Chinese smartphone maker Huawei have been shortlisted to develop a 5G network.

SEE ALSO: Trump wants to end a trade ban on ZTE, the Chinese company that reportedly had an entire department devoted to paying foreign bribes

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