Tag Archive for: chance

‘There’s a non-zero chance’ of AI wiping out humanity

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Billionaire Elon Musk and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt are stepping up warnings about their concerns that rogue advanced artificial intelligence could one day have deadly consequences for humanity.

Schmidt argued that AI is an “existential risk” to humanity that could result in “many, many, many, many people harmed or killed” as it becomes more advanced in the coming years. Musk compared the potential risks to the doomsday scenario from James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi film “Terminator.”

“There are scenarios not today, but reasonably soon, where these systems will be able to find zero-day exploits in cyber issues, or discover new kinds of biology,” Schmidt said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit on Wednesday.

“Now, this is fiction today, but its reasoning is likely to be true,” Schmidt added. “And when that happens, we want to be ready to know how to make sure these things are not misused by evil people.”

Speaking at the same conference a day earlier, Musk warned there is a “non-zero chance” that rogue advanced artificial intelligence could annihilate humanity.

“There’s a non-zero chance of it going Terminator. It’s not zero percent,” Musk said. “It’s a small likelihood of annihilating humanity, but it’s not zero. We want that probability to be as close to zero as possible.”

Musk also raised the possibility that an advanced AI system could decide to place humanity “under strict controls.”


Terminator
Arnold Schwarzenegger played the original “Terminator.”
©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

AI could, for example, decide to seize “all the computing systems and weapons systems of Earth and effectively being like some sort of ‘uber-nanny.’” he said.

“One way to achieve world peace is to take all the weapons away from the humans so they can no longer use them and to punish any humans that engage in extraterritorial activity,” Musk added.

Musk and Schmidt are among the most prominent tech leaders urging caution in the development of AI – though they have taken differing approaches to the problem.

In March, Musk joined more than 1,000 experts in advocating for a…

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New technology and its power to influence geopolitics; smaller nations now stand a chance

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By Tanaka Mhembere

THE high pace and level of development of information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed not only the space surrounding a person, making it limitless, but also changed the modern system of international relations.

The arena of geopolitical confrontation has shifted to the sphere of ICT. Digital technologies and resources are gradually compared in value with geopolitical factors and the military-political power of states.

For this reason, any state, even the smallest, but possessing modern cyber-technologies, is capable of becoming a major player in the global digital space.

Today, it is the level of ICT development that determines the status of a state in the international arena and is an important factor for the growth of the national economy.

The explosive development of cyber-technologies is pushing for the acquisition of strategic advantages. Strategic stability is ensured not so much by the military as by the technological parity of the main actors in international relations.

Therefore, today ICT is becoming a strategic line of the American-Chinese confrontation, which we can observe especially clearly in Africa. China is striving for technological independence and is trying to close the gap with the United States.

Washington is alarmed by Beijing, which creates its own digital technologies and claims to be the world technological leader, which is already ahead of its American counterparts in terms of the level of development of some new civilian network technologies, such as 5G.

The expressed interest in 5G technologies from the European Union, an American strategic partner, only reinforces this concern and, as a result, intensifies US actions to wage a large-scale trade and economic war against China, penetrating into the sphere of technology standards regulation.

Although the European Union is a key ally and partner of the United States, it is clearly not inclined to dive deep into a confrontation between them and China, since it is fraught with the loss of the Chinese market and mutually beneficial European-Chinese ties.

Apparently, the sharpness of the American-Chinese confrontation, which is acquiring a fundamental…

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Digital Citizens had a 30% Chance of Encountering a Threat in 2021

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Avast’s 2021 Global PC Risk Report reveals threats like Trojans, file infectors, and adware put people’s digital freedom at risk

PRAGUE, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Avast (LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security and privacy, today released its latest Global PC Risk Report. The 2021 report provides insights into the digital threats home and business Windows users faced throughout the year 2021. On average, home users around the world had a 29.25% chance of encountering a threat, and in the US, home users had a 24.61% chance of encountering a threat.

“The threats we protect our customers from are designed to go after their personal information and money, putting them at risk. The risks they encounter threaten their right to use the internet safely and confidently,” said Jakub Kroustek, Avast Malware Research Director at Avast.

The countries in which home users are most at risk of encountering threats are:

  1. Kosovo (53.71%)
  2. China (48.11%)
  3. Afghanistan (46.43%)
  4. Yemen (46.21%)
  5. Angola (44.65%)
  6. Rwanda (44.61%)
  7. Egypt (44.39%)
  8. Madagascar (44.13%)
  9. Algeria (44.05%)
  10. Macao (44.01%)

The ten countries with the lowest risk of encountering threats are:

  1. Puerto Rico (21.64 %)
  2. South Korea (22.81%)
  3. United Kingdom (23.55%)
  4. Martinique (23.80%)
  5. Guadeloupe (23.83%)
  6. Ireland (24.11%)
  7. Finland (24.21%)
  8. Switzerland (24.23%)
  9. Netherlands (24.27%)
  10. Denmark (24.39%)

For the most part, the countries with the highest risk ratio are those with more unstable socio-political situations (Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe). The reason for this heightened risk ratio could be explained by these users having limited access to content, therefore forcing them to resort to accessing blocked content via unsafe channels. The digital infrastructure in these countries tend to have lower levels of security, for example, ISP or local webmail providers might not effectively detect and block threats before they reach endpoints, and thus the risk ratio is higher. Finally, a lower level of education in terms of cybersecurity best practices among computer users in these regions could explain the higher risk ratios.

The top ten types of malware consumers faced, globally, in 2021 were:

  • Trojans (30.73%)
  • File infectors…

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Last Chance To Get CIA: Collect It All For Christmas With Standard Shipping, And Save 25%

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Get 25% off your copy of CIA: Collect It All
with the code HOLIDAY2019 »

CIA: Collect It All on Kickstarter

Our first ever sale on CIA: Collect It All, the real training game for CIA analysts that we reproduced and launched on Kickstarter last year, will be running for another week and change — but this weekend is your last chance to order it with standard shipping in the US and still get it in time for Christmas. Monday is the deadline, and then you have until December 17th to order with express shipping. Use the promo code HOLIDAY2019 with your order to get 25% off »

CIA: Collect It All includes 170 cards representing global crises, intelligence gathering techniques, and the unexpected circumstances and opposition that frustrate them. Plus, it contains rules for two separate games: the original CIA training game, and a storytelling variant that uses the cards for a more narrative roleplaying experience.

After our current stock runs out, we don’t know if or when the game will be coming back! So if you want to make sure you get your hands on a copy, order sooner rather than later. And if you want to check it out first, or just print your own copy, the print-and-play version is now free on itch.io with the complete set of cards and rules formatted for easy home printing.

Get 25% off your copy of CIA: Collect It All
with the code HOLIDAY2019 »

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