News of the Cyber World

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CBP Is Using Sophisticated AI Tool to Monitor Americans’ Social Media Activity

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using an artificial intelligence (AI) data collection tool to collect information from social media activity that can in some cases be linked to individuals’ social security or driver’s license numbers, according to a CBP document describing the software tool. The document was obtained by Vice magazine’s tech site Motherboard via a Freedom of Information Act request, and described in a May 17 report.

The CBP document describes the open-source AI tool, dubbed Babel X, which was developed by Babel Street, a U.S. company focused on intelligence gathering. Babel Street’s top leadership and board of advisors include tech industry experts, veteran military leadership, and former intelligence officers.

CBP is a federal agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CBP submitted the document, termed a Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA), to DHS to “continue to pilot the use of Babel Street’s Babel X platform.”
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The PTA describes Babel X as a multilingual tool that gathers publicly available information, including social media activity. Designed for use by the intelligence community and law enforcement, the sophisticated tool allows CBP to screen travelers, including U.S. citizens, refugees, and people seeking asylum.

Babel X is “geo-enabled,” analyzes texts, and can monitor web activity on the public, “dark,” and “deep” webs. The dark web is a portion of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and functions on a different software infrastructure. It is often used for organized criminal activity.

The Babel X platform can search for keywords or phrases on more than 52 social media websites, in millions of web addresses, and in 200 languages, allowing users to enter English terms and return foreign language results.

CBP says it uses the tool to detect information that is “derogatory” or could show a threat to national security or CBP personnel.

 Babel already sounded weird but the tool's capabilities make it look as a precursor of SkyNet's total control of the internet traffic.

Twitter Blames Microsoft For Data Misuse in Potential Future Conflict Over AI

In a May 18 letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Twitter said that Microsoft “may have been in violation” of multiple provisions of the Twitter Developer Agreement for an “extended period of time.” Such violations include “excessive or abusive” use of Twitter APIs, using it for “unauthorized uses and purposes” like sharing data with government agencies, and utilizing the APIs for “expressly prohibited use cases.”

“For years, Microsoft has used Twitter’s standard developer APIs free of charge in order to benefit from Twitter’s data and services in key Microsoft products that generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue for Microsoft annually.”

But in April, Microsoft stopped using these APIs after Twitter began charging for the access. Microsoft refused to pay “even a discounted rate for continued access to Twitter’s APIs and content,” the letter said.

Until then, Microsoft is said to have operated eight separate Twitter API apps that provided data and functionality to at least five Microsoft products and services—Xbox One, Ads, Bing Pages, Power Platform, and Azure.

Twitter’s letter comes as companies with large swathes of data attempt to stop AI systems from free or cheap access to such data. As big tech firms race to build AI models, data ownership is increasingly becoming a conflict point.

BT to Cut up to 55,000 Jobs by 2030 Amid Shift to AI

Vodafone would cut another 11,000 jobs

The UK’s largest broadband and mobile provider will cut up to 55,000 jobs—more than 40 percent of its workforce—by the end of the decade amid plans to shift to artificial intelligence (AI) and automated services.

Telecoms giant BT Group has around 130,000 employees but said it plans to reduce that number to between 75,000 and 95,000 by 2030, which means between 40,000 and 55,000 roles could be cut.

The company has been working through a transformation plan to build a national fibre network and roll out high-speed 5G mobile services.

Chief executive Philip Jansen said that BT will rely on a much smaller workforce and significantly reduced cost base after completing the fibre roll-out, digitising the way it works, adopting AI, and simplifying its structure.
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On Tuesday BT’s rival Vodafone announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs worldwide over a three-year period—the biggest job cuts in the history of the company, which employs around 100,000 people in Europe and Africa.

UK: Internet Trolls Who Encourage Serious Self-Harm Face 5 Years in Jail

Additions to the Online Safety Bill will make it a crime to encourage someone to cause serious self-harm, regardless of whether or not victims go on to injure themselves.

The offence will add to existing laws which make it illegal to encourage or assist someone to take their own life.

Ministers previously announced the promotion of self-harm would be criminalised but on Thursday confirmed the maximum penalty for the offence upon conviction would be imprisonment for five years.

Police or prosecutors will only have to prove communication was intended to encourage or assist serious self-harm amounting to grievous bodily harm—this could include serious injuries such as broken bones or permanent scarring.

General encouragement of self-harm, starving, and not taking prescribed medication will be covered by the law, the MoJ said.

The offence will apply even where the perpetrator does not know the person they are targeting.