Could the ransomware crisis force action against Russia?

We could see federal regulation on face recognition as early as next week

Sponsored by KPMG The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A wake-up call 05.21.21 Good morning! Today: there's growing pressure to confront Russia over its role in the rise of ransomware, US laws restricting facial recognition seem imminent, and the researchers trying to understand the exciting, dangerous new world of language AI. I hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Could the ransomware crisis force action against Russia?     Burst into the open: What touches the American psyche more deeply than a gas shortage? If the Colonial Pipeline attack is any measure, nothing. Ransomware has been a growing problem for years, with hundreds of brazen criminal hacks against schools, hospitals, and city governments—but it took an attack that affected people’s cars for the US to really take notice.  The response: President Biden said that while there was no evidence of direct Russian government involvement in the Colonial Pipeline attack, Moscow has a responsibility to deal with criminals residing within their own borders. Security and intelligence experts argue that the Russian government’s long-standing tolerance of—and occasional direct relationship with—cybercriminals is at the heart of the ransomware crisis. Allowing a criminal economy to grow unchecked makes it virtually inevitable that critical infrastructure targets like hospitals and pipelines will be hit. The reward is high and the risk so far is low, so the problem grows. What can be done: There’s a growing consensus that the US needs to not only build a coordinated process to prioritize ransomware defense across the whole federal government, but enlist allies to help deal with the problem too. Read the full story. —Patrick Howell O'Neill We could see federal regulation on facial recognition as early as next week  What’s happening: This week, Amazon announced it would extend its moratorium on sales of its facial recognition software to US police indefinitely, joining competitors IBM and Microsoft in self-regulated purgatory. Many believe that substantial federal legislation is likely to come soon.  What sort? Legislation may come either through direct Congressional action on face recognition, a Presidential executive order, or piecemeal across upcoming appropriation and police reform bills. Several federal bills have already been proposed that would reign in access to facial recognition. One would outright ban facial recognition software for all federal entities. Another, which looks likely to pass imminently, would prevent the use of facial recognition on body cameras. Read the full story. —Tate Ryan-Mosley The race to understand the exhilarating, dangerous world of language AI This week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced an impressive new tool: an AI system called LaMDA that can chat to users about any subject. The eventual goal, said Pichai, is to create a conversational interface that allows people to retrieve any kind of information—text, visual, audio—across all Google’s products just by asking. And it’s not just Google that is deploying this technology. The highest-profile language models so far have been OpenAI’s GPT-2 and GPT-3, and Facebook has developed its own LLMs for translation and content moderation. Studies have already shown how racist, sexist, and abusive ideas are embedded in these models. Because of their size, they have a shockingly high carbon footprint. Because of their fluency, they easily confuse people into thinking a human wrote their outputs. However, very little research is being done to understand how the flaws of this technology could affect people in real-world applications, or to figure out how to design better LLMs that mitigate these challenges. And the few companies rich enough to train and maintain LLMs have a heavy financial interest in declining to examine them carefully. Despite that, more than 500 researchers around the world are now racing to learn more about their capabilities and limitations. Read the full story. —Karen Hao We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + A man and a cat came together, and they made sweet music.   + What's Going On is 50 years old.    + Do you routinely order the second-cheapest wine on the menu? A new study suggests that actually, that might be a pretty smart move.   + An interview with William Shatner who is, somewhat remarkably, 90 years old.    + Tons of delightful recipes to see you through summer.   + Common swifts can migrate truly amazing distances. And finally…. we don't normally include images in Nice Things™ but I'm simply going to have to make an exception for this photo from reader Joyce Brown, who managed to catch a snap of a very welcome guest while she was eating breakfast in her truck in Hawaii. Thanks for sharing it with us, Joyce! Sponsor Message Thriving in an AI World KPMG research across 950 business decision-makers in seven industries reveals that artificial intelligence is becoming ubiquitous and executives widely believe in its ability to deliver value. Explore how AI is being used to solve major industry problems.   Read the report. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Vaccination buses are hitting the road in the US 💉🚌 It always felt inevitable that if we wanted to vaccinate enough people, we'd eventually have to go door to door. (NYT $)   + They could help to close the stark racial disparities between who has and hasn't been vaccinated. (KHN)   + Meanwhile, covid-19 is ravaging countries with low vaccination rates, like Argentina. (The Guardian)   + One-size-fits-all guidance just doesn't cut it anymore. (Wired $)   + Numbers won't tell us when the pandemic is over. (The Verge)   + Facebook said it would stop recommending anti-vaccine groups. It didn’t. (The Next Web)  2 Israel is losing the war online Not that it counts for much. (Vox)   + A ceasefire started this morning. (The Guardian)   + Many young American Jews are grappling with an identity crisis. (NYT $)  3 Are we on the cusp of a Great Offlining? If I never have to do another Zoom quiz again, I will die happy. (The Atlantic $)   + How to have a better relationship with time after this strange pandemic year. (NEO.LIFE)  4 Electric vehicles spell bad news for America's roads Not directly, but due to the way upkeep is funded through gas taxes. (Wired $)   5 This brain-controlled robotic arm can grip—and feel 🦾 Truly amazing. (Wired $)   6 Cryptocurrencies are yet to make the world a better place In fact, it's becoming increasingly clear they're enabling vast amounts of crime. (WSJ $)   + Ireland's health system has been paralyzed for a week now thanks to ransomware attacks. (NYT $)   + Colonial Pipeline's CEO has defended his decision to pay up. (WSJ $)  7 TikTok stars are using their fame to launch music careers 🎤 This makes a lot of sense. (NBC)   + The latest trend on TikTok? Jobs advice. (WSJ $)  8 Archivists are trying to save Sci Hub's 85 million articles The so-called "Pirate Bay of science" is facing multiple lawsuits. (Vice)   9 Microsoft is finally killing off Internet Explorer Time of death: June 2022. (BBC)   + It's hard to believe, but some people are still using it. (Quartz)  10 Twitter has started verifying people again Verify ME, you cowards. (CNBC)   + Clubhouse has just launched worldwide on Android. (Engadget) In less than 3 weeks, join MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review virtually at EmTech Next. Discover the technologies propelling organizational growth, the impact of AI and automation, the urgency to upskill the workforce, and more. Register today. Quote of the day “Vaccines may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot be blinded by that light.” —Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO's European director, warns that progress in the fight against covid-19 is fragile. Top image credit: WOODY MARSHALL | NEWS & RECORD VIA AP Please send the second-cheapest wine on the menu to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Re-envision the future of work Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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