Hi-Tech Crime CRIM30375

Self-driving buses that go wherever you want? How the UK is trying to revolutionise public transport Scotland’s CAVForth self-driving bus service began in May 2023, serving a 14-mile route that crosses the Forth Road Bridge on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Stagecoachbus.com Stephen Potter , The Open University ; Matthew Cook , The Open University , and Miguel Valdez , The Open University Futurology is littered with predictions that failed to materialise, not least in the field of transport technology. In Edwardian times, when public transport was largely powered by horse or steam, a number of new concepts emerged which were hailed as the “future of public transport”. In 1910, the Brennan Monorail was a gyroscopically stabilised, diesel-powered monorail train that ran on a circular test track at the White City in London. One of the early passengers on this 50-person prototype was then-home secretary Winston Churchill, who insisted on dri...

Four ways criminals could use AI to target more victims Building a profile of someone can make it easier for criminals to gain access to their personal accounts. Metamorworks / Shutterstock Daniel Prince , Lancaster University Warnings about artificial intelligence (AI) are ubiquitous right now. They have included fearful messages about AI’s potential to cause the extinction of humans, invoking images of the Terminator movies. The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has even set up a summit to discuss AI safety . However, we have been using AI tools for a long time – from the algorithms used to recommend relevant products on shopping websites, to cars with technology that recognises traffic signs and provides lane positioning . AI is a tool to increase efficiency, process and sort large volumes of data, and offload decision making. Nevertheless, these tools are open to everyone, including criminals. And we’re already seeing the early stag...

Google turns 25: the search engine revolutionised how we access information, but will it survive AI? Flickr/sergio m mahugo, Edited by The Conversation , CC BY-NC-SA Mark Sanderson , RMIT University ; Julian Thomas , RMIT University ; Kieran Hegarty , RMIT University , and Lisa M. Given , RMIT University Today marks an important milestone in the history of the internet: Google’s 25th birthday. With billions of search queries submitted each day, it’s difficult to remember how we ever lived without the search engine. What was it about Google that led it to revolutionise information access? And will artificial intelligence (AI) make it obsolete, or enhance it? Let’s look at how our access to information has changed through the decades – and where it might lead as advanced AI and Google Search become increasingly entwined. Google’s homepage in 1998. Brent Payne/Flickr , CC BY-SA ...

Robots are coming and the fallout will largely harm marginalized communities Those who are most affected in the labour market by robots are those who tend to already be marginalized. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Constantine Gidaris , McMaster University COVID-19 has brought about numerous, devastating changes to people’s lives globally. With the number of cases rising across Canada and globally , we are also witnessing the development and use of robots to perform jobs in some workplaces that are deemed unsafe for humans. There are cases of robots being used to disinfect health-care facilities, deliver drugs to patients and perform temperature checks . In April 2020, doctors at a Boston hospital used Boston Dynamics’ quadruped robot called Spot to reduce health-care workers exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 . By equipping Spot with an iPad and a two-way radio, doctors and patients could communicate in real-time. ...

Debate: How to stop our cities from being turned into AI jungles In the city of London, security cameras can even be found in cemeteries. In 2021 the mayor’s office launched an effort to establish guidelines for research around emerging technology. Acabashi/Wikimedia , CC BY Stefaan G. Verhulst , New York University As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance. Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights , the Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI , and the Open Dialogue on AI Ethics . Others can be found in San Francisco’s ban of facial-rec...

AI image generation is advancing at astronomical speeds. Can we still tell if a picture is fake? Brendan Murphy , Author provided Brendan Paul Murphy , CQUniversity Australia Fake photography is nothing new. In the 1910s, British author Arthur Conan Doyle was famously deceived by two school-aged sisters who had produced photographs of elegant fairies cavorting in their garden. The first of the five ‘Cottingley Fairies’ photographs, taken by Elsie Wright in 1917. Wikipedia Today it is hard to believe these photos could have fooled anybody, but it was not until the 1980s an expert named Geoffrey Crawley had the nerve to directly apply his knowledge of film photography and deduce the obvious. The photographs were fake, as later admitted by one of the sisters themselves. In 1982 Geoffrey Crawley deduced the fairy ph...