5 infos cette semaine ! Voici le choix de la “rédac” StoriesOut
On découvre un système de surveillance, très très poussé, des prisonniers américains et l’on se pose beaucoup de questions On cherche malheureusement toujours les femmes dans la Tech, en France, en Europe et dans le monde On apprend que la Grande-Bretagne va organiser le premier sommet mondial sur l’Intelligence Artificielle On s’inquiète de la possible utilisation des neurotechnologies afin d’embaucher ou de surveiller les employés Et enfin, on s’associe aux utilisateurs de Second Life qui fêtent les 20 ans de leur monde virtuel et regardent d’un œil goguenard les convaincus du métaverse
This week’s five stories! Here are the StoriesOut editor’s picks
We discover a very advanced surveillance system for American prisoners, which brings up a lot of questions Unfortunately, we’re still looking for women in Tech, in France, Europe, and the rest of the world We learn that Great Britain will host the world’s first summit on Artificial Intelligence We worry about the possible use of neurotechnologies to hire or monitor employees And finally, we join Second Life users in celebrating the 20th anniversary of their virtual world and gawk at those convinced by the Metaverse
This Surveillance system tracks inmates down to their heart rate
Pourquoi les femmes demeurent les grandes absentes de la tech
Britain to host first global summit on artificial intelligence safety
Warning firms may use brain data to watch workers
Who needs the Metaverse? Meet the people still living on Second Life
#1. This Surveillance system tracks inmates down to their heart rate
Across the region’s jails, hundreds of sensors are being embedded into the walls. Using radio frequencies, these communicate with wristbands issued to inmates. The system, which was created by Georgia-based firm Talitrix, can track an inmate’s heartbeat, determine their location every 30 seconds, and create 3D images showing who comes into contact with whom. Documents WIRED obtained through a public record request, including a legal agreement, statements of work, and internal PowerPoint presentations, describe how the monitoring system operates and provide a glimpse into its inner workings.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and Talitrix claim the system can help make understaffed jails more efficient and increase overall safety, while monitoring heart rates can alert staff to an inmate’s potential health problems or suicide attempts. Critics, meanwhile, say monitoring technologies subject inmates to more surveillance and fail to address deeper issues with the criminal justice system. The Talitrix system is one of a number of electronic monitoring devices being deployed in the sprawling web of local jails in the United States—and it may be one of the most sophisticated. Some appear to focus on suicide risk, while others have used RFID chips that are manually scanned. As jails and prisons face staffing shortages, they’ve increasingly turned to automation to monitor and control people caught up in the system. At the same time, academic researchers have said inmates are “one of the best surveilled, data-fied and documented populations,” without a choice to opt out.
Talitrix Prison-Monitoring System Tracks Inmates Down to Their Heart Rate | WIRED
#2. Pourquoi les femmes demeurent les grandes absentes de la tech
De part et d’autre de l’Atlantique, les femmes dans la tech restent très minoritaires. Une absence de femmes qui accentue la pénurie de profils sur un secteur d’activité en pleine croissance, et pénalise le développement des algorithmes d’IA par un manque de diversité culturelle et émotionnelle. Ce secteur souffre encore de stéréotypes contre lesquels il est urgent d’agir. Valoriser les formations et les métiers de la tech est un enjeu économique et de société. Les années se suivent et se ressemblent. Les entreprises de la tech françaises et européennes souffrent toujours d’un manque de femmes. Selon l’étude « More Women in Tech » du cabinet McKinsey, la part moyenne de la gent féminine dans ce secteur d’activité a péniblement atteint 22 % en 2022 au sein des 27 pays de l’Union européenne. En France, seules 14 femmes dirigent ou sont fondatrices d’une des 120 start-up ou scale-up de la FrenchTech et aucune n’est à la tête d’une société du Next 40.
Aux Etats-Unis la proportion de femmes dans le secteur des sciences, des technologies, de l’ingénierie et des mathématiques (STEM) est de 23%. Côté création d’entreprise, sur 354 start ups de logiciels d’entreprise suivies par la société de capital-risque Work-Bench en 2021, seules 2% ont été créées par des femmes. Parmi les raisons de cette faible représentation dans les startup : la difficulté pour les femmes d’obtenir un financement initial. Plus globalement, pourquoi un tel manque de représentativité de femmes sur un marché souffrant pourtant de pénurie de main-d’œuvre ? Comment un secteur considéré comme progressiste et porté par des valeurs de diversité et d’égalité, peut-il afficher une telle disparité ? Quelles sont les raisons de l’absence de femmes dans les entreprises de la tech en France et aux Etats-Unis ?
Pourquoi les femmes demeurent les grandes absentes de la tech
#3. Britain to host first global summit on artificial intelligence safety
Britain will host a global summit on artificial intelligence safety later this year and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and U.S. President Joe Biden will discuss the technology at their Thursday meeting, the UK government said. The summit will consider the risks of AI, including frontier systems, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action, the British government said in a statement. No date was given for the event.
Britain to host first global summit on artificial intelligence safety | Reuters
La Grande-Bretagne accueillera le premier sommet mondial sur l’intelligence artificielle – Challenges
Rishi Sunak will tell technology leaders he wants to make the UK both the intellectual and the geographical home of artificial intelligence (AI) regulation.
In a speech to open London Tech Week on Monday, the prime minister will say that the “extraordinary” possibility of AI advances must be carried out “safely” as he positions Britain as a potential home of a global regulator.
It comes after the Conservative Party leader used a trip to the US last week to announce that the UK will host the first global summit on AI safety.
Sunak to pitch UK as ‘geographical home’ of AI regulation at tech conference | ITV News
#4. Warning firms may use brain data to watch workers
Companies in the future may use brain-monitoring technology to watch or hire workers, the data watchdog says. But there is a real danger of discrimination if « neurotech » is not developed and used properly, the Information Commissioner’s Office says.
Tech Futures: Neurotechnology is the first ICO report on « neurodata », data from the brain and nervous system. Workplace monitoring is one of a number of hypothetical future uses of neurotech explored in the report. It comes as companies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink explore new ways to let computers connect to human brains.
Warning firms may use brain data to watch workers – BBC News
#5. Who needs the Metaverse? Meet the people still living on Second Life
Mark Zuckerberg’s grand vision for an online existence has been laughed off as a corporate folly. Meanwhile, those still existing happily in a virtual world launched 20 years ago may be wondering what all the fuss is about.
Second Life’s endurance demonstrates that, whatever the configuration, a metaverse’s success can only be founded on human qualities of social interaction and self-expression. “I obviously don’t feel as excited now as when I started roaming around Second Life,” Aufwie says. “But I still feel gratitude towards this apparently everlasting pioneering metaverse that allowed me to express myself, make friends, learn and share thoughts and all the good things humanity has within it.”
Who needs the Metaverse? Meet the people still living on Second Life
