CDT’s Tech Talk is a podcast where we dish on tech and Internet policy, while also explaining what these policies mean to our daily lives. You can find Tech Talk on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Play.
Our personal data is everywhere, but how should law enforcement be using that data and what rules should they follow to gain access? In this episode we’ll be talking about policing in the age of big data and what that means for society.
First, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson talks about his new book, The Rise of Big Data Policy. He shares insights on how police departments worldwide are embracing big data in a variety of ways, including using it to predict whether someone might commit a crime. Would you be comfortable having a score attached to you about your potential to commit a crime?
Then we talk with CDT’s Lisa Hayes about a Supreme Court case that deals with law enforcement access to cell phone location data. As that data becomes more precise, should law enforcement be able to access information about our cell phone location without a warrant, or should that information be more fully protected under the Fourth Amendment?
If you want to hear more on location tracking and law enforcement, be sure to join CDT for our event on the topic. It takes place the day before the Supreme Court hears a case on the issue and features Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Coalition Urges Senate Not to Let Companies Waive Financial Regulations for AI
CDT joined AI Now Institute, American Civil Liberties Union, and several organizations dedicated to tech policy, consumer protection, and civil rights in a letter to Senate leadership and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee opposing the “AI Innovation Labs” language in Sec. 10509 of the CLARITY Act.
As concern about risks and harms related to AI systems continue to grow, a growing chorus of policymakers, industry leaders, and advocates have called for independent AI assessments. This explainer provides an overview of recent proposals for third-party assessment in the United States, including state and federal legislation, executive actions, and industry proposals.
Having third parties assess AI systems might seem like common sense, but crafting effective policies toward this goal can be devilishly tricky. A poorly-constructed ecosystem for third-party assessment could easily fail to consider the most consequential mechanisms of risk, neglect the AI harms that most impact people, or do more to protect AI companies than people.
Not All Guardrails Are Created Equal: Comparing Content Safety and Copyright Filtering
As courts and policymakers work through questions about chatbot liability, they should be wary of analogies that flatten meaningful technical differences. Copyright filtering and safety intervention share real challenges around ambiguity and evasion, but they diverge in what each control must assess, how each manifests over the course of a conversation, and how much can be verified from the outside.
