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The US Air Force will give Capella Space Corp $15 million in funding to improve and scale its synthetic aperture radar to deliver enhanced resolution imagery. Capella also supplies technology to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, US Navy, US Space Force, and NASA.https://www.capellaspace.com/press-releases/capella-space-awarded-a-15m-contract-with-the-u-s-air-forcePublication: Capella SpaceWriter: Capella Space
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It has been announced that the California Highway Patrol has signed a $1.6 million (for the first year) contract with Flock Safety to install 480 high-tech cameras on Oakland's streets and freeways to identify licence plates and catalogue passing vehicles by make, model, colour, and other features. An official asserted that footage obtained from the cameras would be deleted after 28 days and not shared with third parties or other states that might use the information to track people seeking or…
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The UK Home Office has renewed its 3 year long contract with Tekever to provide maritime surveillance as a service across the English Channel using its AR5 and AR3 model drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The AR5 system is a UAV that is intended to conduct surveillance missions and can fly for more than 20 hours and carry sensors such as maritime radar and day and night cameras. It will be used to detect, recognise, track, and identify potentially illegal vessels and…
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Under a new contract, Planet Labs PBC will provide the NATO Communications and Information Agency's Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space programme (APSS) with satellite data to aid in detailed tracking and analysis of foreign military activities and fill intelligence gaps. APSS is a multi-year, multinational project to use space to collect data on any location at any time and enhance NATO's engagement with future technologies, for example Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud…
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The US Department of Defense has awarded a contract worth almost $250 million to Anduril Industries for more than 500 Roadrunner-Ms as well as Pulsar electronic warfare capabilities, with AI-enabled systems, to counter the threat of attacks using unmanned aerial systems in “priority regions”. Anduril has won nearly $350 million in contracts since these technologies were publicly launched.https://www.designdevelopmenttoday.com/industries/military/news/22922589/anduril-awarded-250-million-air-…
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Under a new contract effective from October 2024 to December 2025, PureTech Systems, which specialises in geospatial AI-boosted video analytics, will deploy its command-and-control software in 22,600 square kilometers of the US border. The software will integrate the sensors attached to existing surveillance towers while retaining the interface already familiar to border agents.https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/puretech-systems-inc-awarded-major-command-and-control-contract-by-us-…
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In a novel class action suit, Derek Mobley, who is Black and over 40, has claimed he was passed over for more than 100 jobs at companies that use Workday's AI recruitment software to select candidates for interviews, alleging that it uses data from companies' existing workforce without accounting for historical bias. Workday has filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that it is not covered by federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of race, age, or disability because it is neither…
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Over the years, Urban Company, which in 2014 offered women economic independence in India, a country that has very low female participation in the workforce, has increasingly removed flexibility and autonomy for its workers while raising the cost of getting started as a worker on the app to the equivalent of two months' salary. Urban Company disputes this characterisation. In June 2024, dozens of women workers began a protest outside the company's office in Bengaluru, calling the company a…
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Almost half of all job seekers are using AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to help them write CVs and cover letters and complete assessments, flooding employers and recruiters with applications in an already-tight market. Managers have said they can spot giveaways that applicants used AI, such as US-style grammar and bland, impersonal language. Those whose AI-padded applications perform best are those who have paid for ChatGPT - overwhelmingly from higher socio-economic backgrounds, male, and…
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Amazon is calling for the dismissal of a complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board after two warehouse workers in the US state of Georgia claimed they faced retaliation, surveillance, and questioning after they led employee complaints about policy changes. Amazon, in common with other companies such as Trader Joe's and Starbucks, is claiming that following a recent US Supreme Court decision ending the "Chevron deference" principle, the NLRB's complaint violates the US constitution…
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Uber has been fined €290 million in the Netherlands for sending European taxi drivers' data to the US without appropriate safeguards in violation of the EU's GDPR. The Dutch data protection authority, which adjudicated a complaint originally filed in France on behalf of more than 170 drivers there, says Uber has since stopped the practice. Uber contests this decision; the appeal is expected to take four years. Earlier in 2024, the authority also fined Uber €10 million for infringing privacy…
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Uber and Bolt users in South Africa and Nigeria have been booking hoax rides in each other's country and pranking gig workers to express their anger after the beauty pageant contestant Chidimma Adetshina controversially pulled out of the Miss South Africa pageant and then agreed to appear in a similar contest in Nigeria, fuelling tension between the two countries. Bolt has responded by restricting inter-country ride requests and blocked the users in question. Uber says it is investigating.Read…
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After Uber refused requests to adjust prices following a rise in the cost of fuel, Kenya's Organisation of Online Drivers union of about 15,000 began circulating its own chart listing fares about 50% higher than Uber's official prices. Members using it are prioritising customers who pay by cash or M-Pesa and turn down customers who want to pay using Uber's app. As the rate card has become more familiar, customers are showing less resistance to these new driver-set prices. Uber says the…
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More than 1,000 motorcycle taxi drivers in Indonesia for the ride-sharing company GoTo and the ride-hailing and food delivery company Grab have begun a strike. The drivers are calling on the government to grant them a larger percentage of trip revenues and improved employment status. Together, Grab and GoTo have a combined market cap of $18 billion; both call drivers "partners" to avoid legal employment obligations such as minimum wages, limited hours, and social security insurance.Read the…
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About 30 Brazilian delivery drivers for Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Bristol, UK have resorted to living in encampments due to rapidly rising rents and low, if not below, minimum wage. Gig workers have reported increasingly harsh living conditions and long hours with low pay, leading to worsening mental health problems in the encampment. Meanwhile, Deliveroo and Uber Eats have both recently declared profits, and Deliveroo has even recently defeated a seven-year legal effort to gain workers'…
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Ontario allocates $30 million to install new security technologies and vape detectors, expanding their surveillance apparatus whilst contributing to an overall cut in funding per student. Some of the vape detectors installed in Canadian schools include noise detectors, however there is a lack of transparency in how data is collected or used, and evidence for their efficacy in keeping students safe is lacking. Link to article: https://theconversation.com/vaping-in-schools-ontarios-30-…
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The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has reprimanded the Chelmer Valley High School in Chelmsford, Essex for unlawfully implementing facial recognition technology in its canteen. The school failed to perform a data protection information assessment, and didn't get adequate permission to process their students' biometric data or ask students to give consent by opting in. North Ayrshire Council - who implemented facial recognition in nine schools in Scotland - have also been warned by…
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The UK's Department of Education intends to appoint a project team to test edtech against set criteria to choose the highest-quality and most useful products. Extra training will be offered to help teachers develop enhanced skills. Critics suggest it would be better to run a consultation first to work out what schools and teachers want.Link to article Publication: Schools WeekWriter: Lucas Cumiskey
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The UK's new Labour government are giving AI models special access to the Department of Education's bank of resources in order to encourage technology companies to create better AI tools to reduce teachers' workloads. A competition for the best ideas will award an additional £1 million in development funds. Link to article Publication: GuardianWriter: Richard Adams
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Google has settled a case brought in 2020 by the parents of an Illinois girl who sued the company in state court alleging that it had violated two sections of the Biometric Information Privacy Act. The case also alleged that Google had violated the law by failing to obtain parental consent to collect, store, and use biometric data belonging to millions of children and had illegally harvest other data such as physical location, website histories, personal contact lists, passwords, and…
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Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho is appointing a task force to find out what went wrong and how to move forward with an AI chatbot intended to issue advice and create individual acceleration plans for every student. The company, AllHere, has apparently collapsed financially, but the school district still has no idea why. Its former manager, Chris Whiteley, has said the company implemented security and privacy in ways that violated school district policy, sound pracctice, and…
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Teachers and staff members at state primary and upper primary schools across the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are protesting the requirement that they use a digital attendance system to log their entry and exit times. Among the problems: the system was introduced without a trial period to solve problems and the portal allows only 15 minutes for taking attendance. They are refusing to use the system until other needs, such as earned leave and compensatory holidays when they have to work on…
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The Utah State Board of Education has approved a $3 million contract with Utah-based AEGIX Global that will let K-12 schools in the state apply for funding for AI gun detection software from ZeroEyes for up to four cameras per school. The software will work with the schools' existing camera systems, and notifies police when the detection of a firearm is verified at the ZeroEyes control centre. The legislature will consider additional funding if the early implementation is successful. The…
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The Los Angeles school district turned off “Ed”, a $6 million chatbot, after the company paid to develop it got into financial trouble. The incident provides a cautionary tale for Britain’s new Labour government, which has talked of using AI in schools to free up teacher time and revive public services on a tight budget, as has a report issued by the Tony Blair Institute. The failure of the algorithm used to predict GCSE and A-level grades during the covid lockdown and the potential to increase…
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In an interview conducted by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s investigative team, Chris Whiteley, the former senior director of software engineering at AllHere, explained his concerns with the security and privacy aspects of the design of “Ed”, an AI chatbot intended to assist students. Whiteley says the chatbot placed students’ personally identifiable information at risk by including it in all chatbot prompts, even when the data wasn’t relevant. District leaders need to conduct…
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The United School Administrators of Kansas, who represent more than 2,000 administrators in the state, are partnering with Seattle-based Indicio to install its Indicio Proven product, which will issue and verify transcripts and other records with ID verification.Link to articlePublication: Biometric UpdateWriter: Joel R. McConvey
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Los Angeles public schools have turned off an AI chatbot custom-designed to help parents and children navigate the school system after only three months because AllHere, which created it, mostly shut down. The information the chatbot dispensed is still available on the school’s platform, and the district intends to bring it back once officials figure out how to proceed. The school’s contract was worth $6 million over five years; about half it had been paid.
Link:LAUSD shelves its hyped AI…
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Public documents show that US school districts have for years been buying phone cracking tools from companies like Cellebrite and Oxygen Forensics. The equipment enables school district employees to search students’ personal devices. In one example, the Los Angeles Unified School District says its team uses its Cellebrite device to investigate complaints about employee misconduct against students. Many questions remain about how these devices are used: what justification is needed for searches…
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Schools in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana, are using facial recognition to take morning attendance. Telangana is also using facial recognition to pay pensions, renew driving licences, evoting, and deter crime. Adoption was partly fueled by fear of spreading covid-19 through fingerprints. There are now 370,000 cameras in Hyderabad, controlled from a new command-and-control centre, and about 925,000 across Telangana. Link to the article Publication: The…
Content type: Examples
The United School Administrators of Kansas, who represent more than 2,000 administrators in the state, are partnering with Seattle-based Indicio to install its Indicio Proven product, which will issue and verify transcripts and other records with ID verification.Link to articlePublication: Biometric UpdateWriter: Joel R. McConvey