Entries Tagged "Schneier news"

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

  • I’m speaking—along with John Bruce, the CEO and Co-founder of Inrupt—at the 18th Annual CDOIQ Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The symposium runs from July 16 through 18, 2024, and my session is on Tuesday, July 16 at 3:15 PM. The symposium will also be livestreamed through the Whova platform.
  • I’m speaking on “Reimagining Democracy in the Age of AI” at the Bozeman Library in Bozeman, Montana, USA, July 18, 2024. The event will also be available via Zoom.
  • I’m speaking at the TEDxBillings Democracy Event in Billings, Montana, USA, on July 19, 2024.

The list is maintained on this page.

Posted on July 14, 2024 at 12:05 PM • View Comments

Upcoming Book on AI and Democracy

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve noticed that I have written a lot about AI and democracy, mostly with my co-author Nathan Sanders. I am pleased to announce that we’re writing a book on the topic.

This isn’t a book about deep fakes, or misinformation. This is a book about what happens when AI writes laws, adjudicates disputes, audits bureaucratic actions, assists in political strategy, and advises citizens on what candidates and issues to support. It’s a book that tries to look into what an AI-assisted democratic system might look like, and then at how to best ensure that we make use of the good parts while avoiding the bad parts.

This is what I talked about in my RSA Conference speech last month, which you can both watch and read. (You can also read earlier attempts at this idea.)

The book will be published by MIT Press sometime in fall 2025, with an open-access digital version available a year after that. (It really can’t be published earlier. Nothing published this year will rise above the noise of the US presidential election, and anything published next spring will have to go to press without knowing the results of that election.)

Right now, the organization of the book is in six parts:

AI-Assisted Politicians
AI-Assisted Legislators
The AI-Assisted Administration
The AI-Assisted Legal System
AI-Assisted Citizens
Getting the Future We Want

It’s too early to share a more detailed table of contents, but I would like help thinking about titles. Below are my current list of brainstorming ideas: both titles and subtitles. Please mix and match, or suggest your own in the comments. No idea is too far afield, because anything can spark more ideas.

Titles:

AI and Democracy
Democracy with AI
Democracy after AI
Democratia ex Machina
Democracy ex Machina
E Pluribus, Machina
Democracy and the Machines
Democracy with Machines
Building Democracy with Machines
Democracy in the Loop
We the People + AI
Artificial Democracy
AI Enhanced Democracy
The State of AI
Citizen AI

Trusting the Bots
Trusting the Computer
Trusting the Machine

The End of the Beginning
Sharing Power
Better Run
Speed, Scale, Scope, and Sophistication
The New Model of Governance
Model Citizen
Artificial Individualism

Subtitles:

How AI Upsets the Power Balances of Democracy
Twenty (or So) Ways AI will Change Democracy
Reimagining Democracy for the Age of AI
Who Wins and Loses
How Democracy Thrives in an AI-Enhanced World
Ensuring that AI Enhances Democracy and Doesn’t Destroy It
How AI Will Change Politics, Legislating, Bureaucracy, Courtrooms, and Citizens
AI’s Transformation of Government, Citizenship, and Everything In-Between
Remaking Democracy, from Voting to Legislating to Waiting in Line
How to Make Democracy Work for People in an AI Future
How AI Will Totally Reshape Democracies and Democratic Institutions
Who Wins and Loses when AI Governs
How to Win and Not Lose With AI as a Partner
AI’s Transformation of Democracy, for Better and for Worse
How AI Can Improve Society and Not Destroy It
How AI Can Improve Society and Not Subvert It
Of the People, for the People, with a Whole lot of AI
How AI Will Reshape Democracy
How the AI Revolution Will Reshape Democracy

Combinations:

Imagining a Thriving Democracy in the Age of AI: How Technology Enhances Democratic Ideals and Nurtures a Society that Serves its People

Making Model Citizens: How to Put AI to Use to Help Democracy
Modeling Citizenship: Who Wins and Who Loses when AI Transforms Democracy
A Model for Government: Democracy with AI, and How to Make it Work for Us

AI of, By, and for the People: How Artificial Intelligence will reshape Democracy
The (AI) Political Revolution: Speed, Scale, Scope, Sophistication, and our Democracy
Speed, Scale, Scope, Sophistication: The AI Democratic Revolution
The Artificial Political Revolution: X Ways AI will Change Democracy…Forever

EDITED TO ADD (7/10): More options:

The Silicon Realignment: The Future of Political Power in a Digital World
Political Machines
EveryTHING is political

Posted on July 2, 2024 at 2:11 PM • View Comments

New Blog Moderation Policy

There has been a lot of toxicity in the comments section of this blog. Recently, we’re having to delete more and more comments. Not just spam and off-topic comments, but also sniping and personal attacks. It’s gotten so bad that I need to do something.

My options are limited because I’m just one person, and this website is free, ad-free, and anonymous. I pay for a part-time moderator out of pocket; he isn’t able to constantly monitor comments. And I’m unwilling to require verified accounts.

So starting now, we will be pre-screening comments and letting through only those that 1) are on topic, 2) contribute to the discussion, and 3) don’t attack or insult anyone. The standard is not going to be “well, I guess this doesn’t technically quite break a rule,” but “is this actually contributing.”

Obviously, this is a subjective standard; sometimes good comments will accidentally get thrown out. And the delayed nature of the screening will result in less conversation and more disjointed comments. Those are costs, and they’re significant ones. But something has to be done, and I would like to try this before turning off all comments.

I am going to disable comments on the weekly squid posts. Topicality is too murky on an open thread, and these posts are especially hard to keep on top of.

Comments will be reviewed and published when possible, usually in the morning and evening. Sometimes it will take longer. Again, the moderator is part time, so please be patient.

I apologize to all those who have just kept commenting reasonably all along. But I’ve received three e-mails in the past couple of months about people who have given up on comments because of the toxicity.

So let’s see if this works. I’ve been able to maintain an anonymous comment section on this blog for almost twenty years. It’s kind of astounding that it’s worked as long as it has. Maybe its time is up.

ETA (1/31/25): I am going to try removing the restriction on comments. For now, all comments will be published on submission and moderated later. If that works well, I’ll open these Friday Squid Blogging posts up again as an open thread.

Posted on June 19, 2024 at 4:26 PM • View Comments

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

  • I’m appearing on a panel on Society and Democracy at ACM Collective Intelligence in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference runs from June 26 through 29, 2024, and my panel is at 9:00 AM on Friday, June 28.
  • I’m speaking on “Reimagining Democracy in the Age of AI” at the Bozeman Library in Bozeman, Montana, USA, July 18, 2024. The event will also be available via Zoom.
  • I’m speaking at the TEDxBillings Democracy Event in Billings, Montana, USA, on July 19, 2024.

The list is maintained on this page.

Posted on June 14, 2024 at 11:59 AM • View Comments

Zelle Is Using My Name and Voice without My Consent

Okay, so this is weird. Zelle has been using my name, and my voice, in audio podcast ads—without my permission. At least, I think it is without my permission. It’s possible that I gave some sort of blanket permission when speaking at an event. It’s not likely, but it is possible.

I wrote to Zelle about it. Or, at least, I wrote to a company called Early Warning that owns Zelle about it. They asked me where the ads appeared. This seems odd to me. Podcast distribution networks drop ads in podcasts depending on the listener—like personalized ads on webpages—so the actual podcast doesn’t matter. And shouldn’t they know their own ads? Annoyingly, it seems like it’s time to get attorneys involved.

What would help is to have a copy of the actual ad. (Or ads, I’m assuming there’s only one.) So, has anyone else heard me in a Zelle ad? Does anyone happen to have an audio recording? Please email me.

And I will update this post if I learn anything more. Or if there is some actual legal action. (And if this post ever disappears, you’ll know I was required to take it down for some reason.)

Posted on January 19, 2024 at 3:05 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.