We hope you had a great July 4 holiday!
The most fundamental way to participate in our nation’s governance and policymaking is to vote. While we’ve been hearing about races for a while, the election season hits a milestone in the coming days with the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Next month, the Democratic National Convention takes place in Chicago.
In advance of the first convention, Microsoft is ramping up its public education effort to protect elections and highlight the risk of deepfake manipulation. You can read about Microsoft’s “Check, Re-Check and Vote” campaign in this blog. While Microsoft will provide information and technical training to candidates at both conventions, the company does not endorse candidates or parties.
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This Week in Washington
- CyberScoop: After a series of damaging supply chain hacks, breaches, and ransomware attacks, the White House is looking into ways to increase cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors. However, the government is likely to face new challenges in creating stricter cybersecurity rules following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine.
- The Hill: This week, a Senate Commerce Committee hearing examined how AI has intensified the need for a federal comprehensive privacy law. The hearing is a sign of the increased pressure on Congress to create rules for AI, including privacy protections.
- CyberScoop: A pair of bipartisan senators proposed new legislation, the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act, that calls on the White House’s national cyber director to form a committee that can harmonize the cyber requirements imposed on companies by federal regulatory agencies.
- Associated Press: The U.S.’s cybersecurity agency is being urged by a group of state election officials to revise a draft rule that requires election offices to disclose suspected cyberattacks to the federal government, as they are a burden on the overworked local officials. The National Association of Secretaries of State asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to consider easing requirements and to better define what warrants a report.
- Nextgov: A new House bill seeks to update the Communications Act of 1934 to include guidelines about the use of AI-generated audio content. This addition would also allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to apply new standards to other types of emerging technology.
- EdScoop: A new guide called Designing for Education with Artificial Intelligence: An Essential Guide for Developers has been published by the U.S. Department of Education. The guide highlights five key recommendations that range from product design to promoting transparency.
Article Summary
- Indy Star: Indiana obtained over $860 million in federal funds through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. The funding helps improve internet access statewide, and officials say the state will soon consider proposals from internet service providers.
- CBS News: Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach is using AI to help mothers and doctors in the delivery room. The AI algorithm they use tracks the mother’s progress and marks any changes that may appear. Data surrounding this technology already shows a decreased rate in the number of fetal brain injuries and prediction errors during labor.
- CNN: New AI-powered assistive technologies are helping people with disabilities in myriad ways. Powerful image recognition tools can enable people with vision impairment to better navigate the world. AI is increasingly helping people with hearing, motor, and speech disabilities as well.
- Phys.org: Researchers at the University of Freiburg, along with several Fraunhofer Institutes, have spent the last three and a half years developing models that, with the help of AI, can make detailed measurements and predictions regarding the environment. So far, the artificial neural network they designed has been applied to the entire city of Freiburg, Germany to calculate thermal stress and collect climate data.
Featured Podcast
- BBC – Tech Life
The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Interspecies Two-Way Communication is offering a $10 million prize to any scientific animal lovers looking to make the impossible possible. Competitors are tasked with decoding animal communications with AI and then talking back to them. (“If we could talk to the animals” – July 2, 2024)