Opinion on the CHIPS Act

 Short Opinion piece from ACM site.  Have not reviewed further, but plan to

The False Promise of America's CHIPS Act

By Project Syndicate, November 28, 2022

The CHIPS Act is flawed in many ways.  (Opinion) 

The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act allocates more than $50 billion to strengthen the semiconductor industry in the hope of making the U.S. self-sufficient. But it is doubtful that the CHIPS Act will achieve its stated goals, much less that it should be used as a model for similar support to other industries.

While it is understandable that the U.S. wants to maintain its technological lead in chips, subsidizing large existing firms and government management of the industry almost certainly will not achieve that goal.

From Project Syndicate

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Further Upheld: AIs Cant Hold Patents

Recall we examined this for a Govt client, her some additional implications.

AI News

US court upholds ruling that AIs can’t be patent holders

By Ryan Daws | October 21, 2022 | TechForge Media

Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Ethics & Society, Legislation & Government,

The US Court of Appeals has upheld previous rulings that AIs cannot hold patents for inventions.

AIs are increasingly being used to make new discoveries but, under most patent laws, a human must be listed as the patent holder for inventions.

Dr Stephen Thaler created a device called DABUS that consists of neural networks and has been used to invent an emergency warning light, a food container that improves grip and heat transfer, and more. Thaler believes that AIs should be patent holders and has launched numerous cases in at least 15 countries to argue the case.

So far, the cases in the UK, US, and New Zealand have all been rejected.

In August 2021, an Australian federal court ruled that AI systems can be credited as inventors. However, in April 2022 that decision was reversed.

Ryan Abbott, a professor at the University of Surrey, filed the applications in Australia on behalf of Dr Thaler., “If I teach my PhD student and they go on to make a final complex idea, that doesn’t make me an inventor on their patent, so it shouldn’t with a machine,” Abbott told the Wall Street Journal in 2019.

In the US, the case was submitted by the Artificial Inventor Project (AIP) which argued that Thaler has no experience in consumer goods and would not have created them himself. Once again, it was rejected.

“This is a case in which the question of statutory interpretation begins and ends with the plain meaning of the text … [T]here is no ambiguity: the Patent Act requires that inventors must be natural persons; that is, human beings,” wrote Judge Leonard P. Stark in the court’s ruling.

At the time, Thaler and Abbott said they’d continue appealing the decisions.

“It ignores the purpose of the Patent Act and the outcome that AI-generated inventions are now unpatentable in the United States,” Abbott told Bloomberg Law.

“That is an outcome with real negative social consequences.”

While the appeal rejections haven’t deterred Thaler or Abbott, most courts appear set on maintaining the principle that humans can only be listed as inventors. The primary argument of the courts is that no AI is creating a new invention by itself, it’s a tool that’s ultimately acting on the instruction of a human. Until we achieve general artificial intelligence, it’s a position that’s hard to dispute.

Of the latest rejection, Thaler is requesting a rehearing at the Federal Circuit level.   ... ' 

Affiliation Influences Our Fear of Data Collection

 Sciam talks fear of data collection.

Political Affiliation Influences Our Fear of Data Collection, By Scientific American, June 7, 2022

Instead of trusting or distrusting government surveillance based on which party is in power, Americans need to demand transparency into how the government as a whole is gaining access to and using their data.

Over the past year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made more than three million warrantless queries on the data of U.S. residents collected by both the government and private companies. A shrinking share of Americans support such warrantless government surveillance, yet we have not effectively advocated against the growing surveillance of our personal data.

That is because we are not taking a principled view on government surveillance as a whole. Instead, we are starting to see viewpoints devolve into ostracization and hatred of the "other." Our research suggests that Americans' fears about government surveillance change based on who is in power and what we fear that political party may do with our data.

From Scientific American   

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Ransomware and Government

Was afraid of this ...

The Government's Still Mostly in the Dark on Ransomware

By The Washington Post, May 24, 2022

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Gary Peters released a report on the government's limited visibility into ransomware attacks.

The government is largely in the dark when it comes to the scale of ransomware attacks pummeling schools, local governments and businesses, a congressional report out this morning warns.

Government officials don't reliably know how many attacks there are, how badly those attacks are hurting victims or how much victims are paying to rid themselves of the malicious software that locks up their computers and data. That's the troubling assessment of a 10-month investigation by Democratic staffers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

From The Washington Post   

Ransomware Goes Deeper into Government

Ransomware Rampant

Ransomware gang threatens to overthrow Costa Rica government

Ransomware gang threatens to overthrow Costa Rica governmentA ransomware gang that infiltrated some Costa Rican government computer systems has upped its threat, saying its goal is now to overthrow the government.

The Russian-speaking Conti gang attacked Costa Rica in April, accessing multiple critical systems in the Finance Ministry, including customs and tax collection. Other government systems were also affected and a month later not all are fully functioning.   President Rodrigo Chaves declared a state of emergency over the attack as soon as he was sworn in last week. The U.S. State Department offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification or location of Conti leaders.

Conti responded by writing, "We are determined to overthrow the government by means of a cyber attack, we have already shown you all the strength and power, you have introduced an emergency."

The gang also said it was raising the ransom demand to $20 million. It called on Costa Ricans to pressure their government to pay. .... ' 

Risk Assessment Algorithms Can Unfairly Impact Court Decisions

 An aspect hat we examined for potential changes in court standings on regulations.  Well worth following. 

Risk Assessment Algorithms Can Unfairly Impact Court Decisions   By Government Technology,   September 29, 2021  in CACM

A study by the University of Michigan's Ben Green and Harvard University's Yiling Chen suggests pretrial risk assessment algorithms increase the likelihood that judges will change their priorities in making pretrial decisions.

The algorithms use data on previous defendants' outcomes to make forecasts on the given arrestee, presenting them either as a numerical score, or designating them high-, medium-, or low-risk for failure to appear in court, or being arrested again.

The researchers found viewing the algorithms' predictions caused participants to consider factors differently and to more highly prioritize the risk of defendants' failure to appear or getting re-arrested, with the result of more inequitable sentencing (since Blacks were more likely to be deemed higher-risk defendants, and to receive harsher decisions than Whites).

From Government Technology

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... Pretrial risk assessment algorithms are intended to help judges make more informed decisions. Researchers have raised concerns not only about the fairness and accuracy of the tools themselves, but also their influence on judges thinking.  ... 

US Fed Gov AI Spending Increasing

It appears in most the usual spaces.

Federal Government Spending on AI is Accelerating 

By AI Trends Staff  

AI is a major priority for US federal agencies and its adoption is accelerating, in part due to urgency following the COVID pandemic but also rooted in the long-term IT and R&D strategic plans.   

This is a key finding of the Federal Artificial Intelligence Landscape, 2022 report from the Federal Market Analysis team of Deltek, a global provider of enterprise software with a project focus. The report examines the major considerations around budget, policy, acquisition and workforce issues that influence federal AI priorities.   

Christine Fritsch, principal research analyst, federal market analysis, Deltek

“That research has found that as government mission requirements grow, federal agencies are seeking ways to maximize the use of the vast data sets they collect and store,” stated Christine Fritsch, principal research analyst, federal market analysis at Deltek, author of the account on Deltek’s report in Federal Times.  

The report describes how AI and machine learning technologies are enabling agencies to improve the effectiveness of missions, stretch workforce capacity, combat waste, fraud, and abuse, and drive operating efficiencies. The maturation of AI technology, a growing list of AI use cases and applications, and the growth in commercial solutions, have all contributed to pushing AI beyond the R&D work at scientific agencies such as NASA and the Department of Energy to a broader pool of agencies, the report found.   ... ' 

Worldwide Web as We Know Ending?

 Certainly changing.  What drives such changes, more legislation, which are likely to produce yet more and likely less creative participants.   It was lack of govt oversight that drove that creativity.  

The worldwide web as we know it may be ending   By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business

(CNN Business)Over the last year, the worldwide web has started to look less worldwide.

Europe is floating regulation that could impose temporary bans on US tech companies that violate its laws. The United States was on the verge of banning TikTok and WeChat, though the new Biden administration is rethinking that move. India, which did ban those two apps as well of dozens of others, is now at loggerheads with Twitter.

And this month, Facebook (FB) clashed with the Australian government over a proposed law that would require it to pay publishers. The company briefly decided to prevent users from sharing news links in the country in response to the law, with the potential to drastically change how its platform functions from one country to the next. Then on Tuesday, it reached a deal with the government and agreed to restore news pages. The deal partially relaxed arbitration requirements that Facebook took issue with.

In its announcement of the deal, however, Facebook hinted at the possibility of similar clashes in the future. "We'll continue to invest in news globally and resist efforts by media conglomerates to advance regulatory frameworks that do not take account of the true value exchange between publishers and platforms like Facebook," Campbell Brown, VP of global news partnerships at Facebook, said in a statement Tuesday.  ... " 

Unlocking Data for Public Policy

Improved governmental data access for policy and regulation decisions.

Unlocking Data to Improve Public Policy
By Justine S. Hastings, Mark Howison, Ted Lawless, John Ucles, Preston White
Communications of the ACM, October 2019, Vol. 62 No. 10, Pages 48-53
10.1145/3335150

There is a growing consensus among policymakers that bringing high-quality evidence to bear on public policy decisions is essential to supporting the effective and efficient government their constituencies want and need. At the U.S. federal level, this view is reflected in a recent Congressional report by the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, which recommends creating a data infrastructure that enables "a future in which rigorous evidence is created efficiently, as a routine part of government operations, and used to construct effective public policy."4

This article describes a new approach to data infrastructure for fact-based policy, developed through a partnership between our interdisciplinary organization Research Improving People's Lives and the State of Rhode Island.13 Together, we constructed RI 360, an anonymized database that integrates administrative records from siloed databases across nearly every Rhode Island state agency. The comprehensive scope of RI 360 has enabled new insights across a wide range of policy areas, and supports ongoing research into improving policies to alleviate poverty and increase economic opportunity for all Rhode Island residents (see the sidebar "Policy Areas in which RI 360 Has Contributed Insights"). Our approach can guide other policymakers and researchers seeking to similarly transform and integrate administrative data to guide and improve policy.

The role of administrative data in policymaking. Administrative data can be collected from the computer systems used by government agencies to run their programs. When transformed into databases that are more suitable for insights, these anonymized records provide new sources of facts for policymakers to benchmark goals and measure the successes and shortcomings of existing and future programs. Often classified as "big data"10 due to their volume, variety, and availability, administrative records are also an increasingly valuable source for empirical social science research.5 Research with administrative records can contribute new data-driven insights to inform important policy decisions (see the side-bar "Recent Data-Driven Insights from Administrative Records"), and add objectivity and scientific rigor to measuring program impact and designing effective program changes. Moreover, scientists can inform how data from administrative systems, which are primarily designed around operational needs and often not suitable for analysis, can be transformed effectively to support research and insights.

Although the idea of guiding policy with data dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, early studies only considered isolated data sources and come from a time when data was scarce. It was not until recently that advances in data collection, storage, and scale provided the opportunity to integrate data across nearly every facet of government. Early case studies and survey studies highlight how the process of data modeling can facilitate negotiation and consensus-building among policymakers,8 but also how the unmet promises of new information technologies prompted frustration among government leaders at that time.9

An important lesson is to engage policymakers and leaders to fully understand their needs, which is why we formed extensive partnerships with state government leaders while building RI 360. Integrated administrative data can support not only academic research, but also the analytics requirements of government itself. Like researchers, government analysts need access to data that has been transformed to provide insights and integrated across programs that serve what are often overlapping populations. For these reasons, RI 360 was selected as the primary data source for the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Service's Data Ecosystem project, to empower its data analysts and partners with data optimized for insights.   .... "

Blockchain and Government

Maybe so, but in recent conversations was struck by how nervous government was regarding the whole idea, especially how it seemed to be hiding certain uses of currency and investment.    When I countered with its use as a trust mechanism, they liked that better, but were not convinced.    Below that argument is made.  Still unintended consequences and implications of converting into a system that has still unknown weaknesses should be cautious.

How the Blockchain Can Transform Government  in K@W:

The blockchain is one of the most significant, fundamental advances in digital platforms since the internet and also probably the most overhyped technology in current times, according to Kevin Werbach, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics, at the inaugural annual Penn Wharton Budget Model Spring Policy Forum, held recently in Washington.

“In many ways, the parallels are striking,” said Werbach, who worked at the Federal Communications Commission in the late 1990s during the dot-com boom. “This is a new infrastructure baseline technology that can lead to lots of benefits — also, it has lots of problems. Blockchain is now the source of a great deal of fraud, of illegal activity and regulatory arbitrage, but it is also sparking innovation across the world in all sorts of areas.”

While most people use the terms Bitcoin and blockchain interchangeably, they are very different things. “At bottom, blockchain is not about money, even though this is the technology underlying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — and it’s not fundamentally about destroying governments and replacing them with purely private, decentralized systems, even though it is a system that creates a new kind of decentralized infrastructure,” Werbach said. “Fundamentally, blockchain is about something deeper than all of that. It’s about trust.” ....'

Governments and AI

In McKinsey, thoughtful piece:

When governments turn to AI: Algorithms, trade-offs, and trust

Artificial intelligence can help government agencies solve complex public-sector problems. For those that are new at it, here are five factors that can affect the benefits and risks.  ... " 

Whats an Inspector General?

My college roommate writes.

Who you gonna call? Inspectors General.  By John F. Sopko in The Hill

 In 1984, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd popularized that line – “Who you gonna call?” – from the theme to “Ghostbusters.” In 2018, however, “if there’s something weird/and it don’t look good,” the safest call may be to an inspector general. From allegations of FBI skullduggery, to accusations of profligate spending by cabinet offices, to theft and corruption surrounding the $126 billion spent on Afghanistan’s reconstruction, the inspector general community is increasingly in the news and relied upon for unvarnished, independent assessments on matters of grave national concern.

While many Americans, including some government officials, don’t know what an inspector general is, the concept is hardly new. Most Offices of Inspectors General were created by Congress in 1978, but the history of IGs goes back to 1778, when George Washington nominated Friedrich von Steuben to the newly created post of Inspector General of the Continental Army.

Von Steuben’s heirs – the 72 serving federal inspectors general – identify waste, fraud, and abuse in their respective agencies, and arrest those who steal from U.S. taxpayers.

This independent work is important – but it is also critical that inspectors general support Congress as it carries out its oversight obligations. Woodrow Wilson wrote that “it is the proper duty of a representative body to look diligently into every affair of government …the informing function of Congress should be preferred even to its legislative function.” .... " 

Seeking Cognitive Infrastructures for Process ML

Have been reviewing work we did with machine learning as far back as 1998.  We initially installed and used inductive techniques to learn and adapt rules from data.  This was useful, but not for big data applications.   At the time we also chatted with SOAR which was working on the problem as well.  Our efforts ended.  But now I am reexamining the problem of general machine learning.

Convolutional Neural nets and their variants have been very successful for solving difficult, data greedy pattern problems.   But are not necessarily useful for dealing with complex business process  where the operations that need to be learned consist of many steps, and depend on complex context defined by data.

I also discovered that while most AI oriented companies we worked with then no long exist.  A  SOAR applying company still exists: (https://soartech.com). A quick scan of the work they mention seems to indicate much of what they are working on is for DOD and Government applications.

Wikipedia provides an overview of SOAR
The SOAR architecture still exists and is posted at a U of Mich site: https://soar.eecs.umich.edu/

Anyone have experience with SoarTech as a means of machine learning in process?  Willing to talk?  Collaborate in learning or use?  Contact me.   On Linkedin.   Will be diving deeper.

" ... At SoarTech, our focus is in the development of intelligent software that reasons like humans do, to automate complex tasks, simplify human-machine interactions, or model human behaviors. Our philosophy is three-fold: to be an augmentation to, not a replacement of, the human; to think “top-down, not bottom-up;” and to be transparent so that decisions and processing are communicated to the human and in human-like terms.  ... " 

( note that some of their efforts deal with drone swarms, also mentioned here.  I also note there is not much mention of 'learning' in the applications they mention)

Army App Store

The DOD Army App store is scheduled to be launched in November.  An interesting development.  I worked with the DOD for several years in the system simulation area and this would have been very useful to have.