Report slams Chicago’s data-driven crime prevention tool
Chicago’s police department have tried out many strategies to battle the city’s high gun-related crime rate. The most promising of these, the “Strategic Subject List” (SSL), dumps incident data into an algorithm to produce names of people who are most likely to perpetrate or be a victim of shootings. It was introduced in 2013 and lauded back in May for its accuracy, but a new report by the RAND Corporation says that the SSL’s potential victims aren’t more likely to get shot than a control group of citizens — and that individuals on the list may be getting arrested more often simply for being on it.
The algorithm added folks to the list based not just on arrest records but whether someone is socially connected to a shooter or victim. To prevent crime, these persons of interest would get visited before anything happened. But it wasn’t just police knocking on doors: Social workers and community leaders would approach the data-suggested at-risk folks and attempt to intervene and offer ways out of, say, the gang life that endangered them.
That was the idea, anyway. The RAND Corporation was given incredible access to the Chicago police department as it built and used the first version of the SSL, but found they weren’t using it to provide social services, instead using it to target people for arrest. Partially, The Verge explains, the SSL system got lost in the shuffle of no less than 11 different violence reduction initiatives. “The list just got lost,” said one of the RAND report’s authors.
Given the concerns it raises, the RAND report doesn’t have a suggestion for how the predictions should be applied to policing. It’s possible that being placed on the list draws police attention, as certain officers may have used it as a source for leads to close shooting cases.
The Chicago police department released a statement defending the current SSL system, noting that the RAND Corporation had evaluated version one of the list; They’re now on version five, with a sixth on the way. They have invited them to review the newest SSL. But the report’s criticisms of the actual impact of the SSL are still valid, says law professor at the University of Columbia Andrew G. Ferguson.
“Just creating a data-driven ‘most-wanted’ list misses the value of big data prediction,” Ferguson told The Verge in an email. “The ability to identify and proactively intervene in the lives of at risk youth is a positive, but you have to commit to the intervention piece.”
Source: The Verge
‘Battlefield 1’ will challenge your preconceptions of WWI
Battlefield 1 is shaping up to be a return to form for DICE, the EA-owned development studio behind the famous first-person-shooter series. After handing the franchise keys to Visceral Games for Battlefield Hardline, the studio is back at the helm, and returning to historical warfare with its first game set in World War I. The announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, especially in the face of Activision’s continued focus on jetpacks and other future tech with the Call of Duty series.
I’m not a massive fan of either of the big FPS franchises. I don’t look down on Call of Duty or Battlefield games: They’re expertly crafted multiplayer experiences that millions of gamers love. They’re just not for everyone. My colleague Timothy Seppala, a long-time Battlefield fan, spent most of E3 explaining to me just how impressed he was with what he’d seen so far. “I haven’t loved a Battlefield game since 2010’s Bad Company 2,” he wrote back in June, “but during a single round of Conquest set on a map in northern France, I caught a glimpse of the game that had me smitten five years ago.”
After that first reveal, I wasn’t happy about the choice of war. Growing up in the UK, my main frame of reference for World War I was the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and the various movies (and comedies) set in the trenches. I think of mustard gas, trench foot and men marching in formation to their death. I remember no grand, “exciting” battles, no bold victories; just hopelessness and unnecessary death. How do you set the multiplayer mayhem Battlefield is famous for against that backdrop? It just felt wrong.
Lars Gustavsson, design director at DICE, researched World War I extensively before and during development, and told me during an interview at Gamescom this week that my view of the war, of trenches and terror isn’t the whole story. “It was so much more than trench warfare and single-bolt action rifles,” he explained. Like me, Gustavsson and the team at DICE had some strong preconceptions about the war, which he says are in part due to the entertainment industry largely ignoring WWI. “We see movies, pop culture, about World War II, about the Vietnam war, about contemporary warfare, even future warfare, but we haven’t seen that much on WWI.”
“We have no intent of being a historical lesson line per line.”
Battlefield 1 isn’t looking for historical accuracy in either its campaign or multiplayer games. “We have no intent of being a historical lesson line per line,” Gustavsson said. But the game blends together elements that all existed in that era, and will “try to give extra information to players.” It wants gamers to be able to contextualize the events they see, and the weapons and vehicles players will use. DICE hopes that choosing World War I as a setting will generate interest in that period, and lead players on their own paths of discovery.
It’s easy to scoff at that notion. As Gustavsson and I spoke at EA’s Gamescom lounge, dozens of Battlefield 1 fans were very excitedly blowing the crap out of each other behind him. I didn’t see anyone giving pause for thought on the reality behind the in-game events. But Gustavsson himself has been changed by his learning experience, and it’s not outlandish to think that some gamers will want to learn more.
“This war shaped the world much more than I ever had thought,” he told me. “It took the world from old empires and old belief into a modernized, highly mechanized, highly technological world. [One where] empires fell, women went into factories and started to work instead of being at home. It changed so much. That really shaped the world we live in today.”
I, too, learned a few things. Not by playing Battlefield 1, in which I was taken apart by players far more adept at the game. But in talking to Gustavsson, I discovered that our desire for oil, which deeply changed the world in the 20th century, really began in earnest during World War I, because Dreadnought ships began to switch from coal to oil for fuel. Perhaps I should’ve known that already, but I had always assumed this began with the Chaco War of the 1930s.
“Just as I now, at the age of 48, have learned so much in the last years about this war that I didn’t know before,” said Gustavsson, “we hope that it will spark the same interest for people that play the game.”
So far, I’ve only demoed the multiplayer part of Battlefield 1. I’ll be honest: None of Gustavsson’s seemingly fastidious research into the war was apparent. Sure, the notion of this action-packed, all-out warfare taking place during the era challenged my preconceptions, but that was all it did. When it comes to the single-player campaign, I hope that DICE can stay true to its word. I hope it will offer some knowledge along with its zeppelins, and really get players interested in what was a fascinating period of history.
We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Beautiful indie game ‘Below’ is delayed once again
If you’re eager to play Super Time Force developer Capybara Games’ latest title, Below, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. The atmospheric and ethereal indie game has been delayed once again, this time with no new release date. Below was originally supposed to come out this summer for Xbox One and PC, but Capy needs a little more time to make sure it meets the studio’s high standards.
Below was first revealed back in 2013 and was one of the first indie titles to be showcased for the Xbox One. Since then it’s had several different release dates, only to become another victim of the rising scourge of game delays.
Capybara is hardly the only victim. Kentucky Route Zero’s fourth chapter was finally released this month after the series took an unexpected three-year hiatus. More big budget titles are also being affected. Final Fantasy XV’s September 30th release date has been delayed to November, making it a little over 10 years since Square Enix first revealed it as a PlayStation 3 exclusive.
Developers should definitely take their time. Delays can often be a good thing as they allow game makers to make last minute improvements that can turn a broken game into a great experience. But it does raise the question: is announcing a game years before it’s close to being ready really a smart move?
Source: Capybara Games
Tiny robot caterpillar can move objects ten times its size
Soft robots aren’t easy to make, since they require a completely different set of components from their rigid counterparts. It’s even tougher to scale down the parts they typically use for locomotion. A team of researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, however, successfully created a 15-millimeter soft micromachine that only needs light to be able to move. The microrobot is made of Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs), smart materials that change shape when exposed to visible light. Under a light source, the machine’s body contracts like a caterpillar and forms waves to propel it forward.
The researchers said the robo-caterpillar can climb steep slopes, squeeze into minuscule spaces and move objects ten times its size. A tiny machine like this that can operate in challenging environments could be used for scientific research, and maybe even espionage if someone can find a way to attach a camera or a mic to it. But if the robot’s a bit too small for a specific application, researchers could also adopt the team’s method to make something a wee bit bigger.
Via: PopSci
Source: Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, Advanced Optical Materials
Google is phasing out Chrome apps for Mac and Windows
Google’s Chrome browser has supported stand-alone “apps” on Mac, Windows and Linux for some time now, but they’ll be going away before long. The company just announced that it’ll be removing support for apps gradually over the next two years. The decision comes as part of an effort to simplify the Chrome browser and move developers to more standardized web apps. Apps will remain part of Chrome OS for the foreseeable future.
If you haven’t used Chrome’s web apps much before, they do a pretty good job of simulating smaller apps in their own dedicated window. Chrome needs to be running for the app to work, but they otherwise feel separate from the browser and are often almost indistinguishable from a native app. (I use Chrome apps for things like Google Keep, Hangouts and Wunderlist on my Mac from time to time, for example.)
The phase-out plan for Chrome apps calls for newly-published apps to only be available to Chrome OS starting at the end of 2016. By mid-2017, the Chrome app store won’t show apps Mac, Windows or Linux users anymore (though extensions will still be available), and in early 2018 Chrome apps won’t function at all on those platforms.
That gives users plenty of time to find alternatives and for developers to build standard web apps for their services. And Google says that one percent of users on Mac, Windows and Linux use Chrome’s “packaged” apps. There’s another type of Chrome apps, hosted apps, that Google says are already implimented as standard web apps. Netflix is a good example: It’s available in the Chrome app store for multiple platforms, but it just opens the Netflix site in a new browser tab. It’s little more than a glorified bookmark.
While some users might be annoyed by this change, it doesn’t sound like Chrome will lose much in the way of functionality, and the long runway for shutting down the platform means users will easily be able to adjust their workflows. And Google’s push towards web standards means it’s already been encouraging developers to build services that are browser-agnostic. The slow discontinuation of Chrome apps is just another part of that goal.
Source: Google
Blizzard built a World of Warcraft cafe
World of Warcraft is an institution. After 12 years, Blizzard’s seminal MMO is still running, and although player counts have fallen since its 2010 peak, there were still 5.5 million active accounts last September. Germany has always been a key market for the company, consistently ranking among the top five countries, and to celebrate the game’s sixth expansion, Legion, Blizzard has given players a treat. In the heart of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom convention, the developer has transformed the 14th century festival hall Gürzenich into a WoW locale.
At the venue’s launch event on Wednesday, fans were invited to wander around a recreation of “The Fel Hammer,” a starting zone in the new expansion. Inside, they were treated to heavy metal renditions of WoW music, face painting, photo booths, and WoW-themed food and drink (including Alliance and Horde cocktails, of course). Cosplayers were everywhere, and there was even a quest giver with an exclamation point above their head, who directed attendees to another “NPC” with a question mark who gave out free prizes. As well as being great PR for Blizzard, it’s a nice way to give something back to the fans that pay the bills.
We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Hacking and AI: Moral panic vs real problems
On August 4th, seven different artificial intelligence systems competed against each other to see which was best at hacking. The Cyber Grand Challenge was sponsored by DARPA (the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and held at Def Con, in a vast ballroom remade to resemble an e-sports broadcast. Of course, because we’re talking about about AIs made to seek out security vulnerabilities (and either patch or exploit them), some were inclined to scream “Skynet!” and run for the hills.
Okay, they didn’t literally run for any hills. But the EFF wrote a very panicked blog post warning of the dangers to come if an AI trained to hack wasn’t parented properly. The histrionic post made a few headlines, but missed the point of the competition entirely. If the AI playing Def Con’s all-machine Capture The Flag had feelings, they would’ve been very hurt indeed.
The seven different AI agents were projects of teams that hailed from around the world, coming together to compete for a $2 million purse. Partnering with Def Con, DARPA pit the rival development teams against each other in a CTF, where the programs had to beat each other at reverse engineering unknown programs, probing the security of opponent software, applying patches and shoring up defenses.
This is all the kind of stuff usually done by human hackers. Basically each AI program would be hacking into things, and deciding how to fix bugs. It also means the AI needs to be good at attacking, too.
That’s what got the EFF’s panties in a collective bunch. And insofar as AI goes these days, their pants-based discomfort is shared by more than a few people currently worried about Skynet and computers calling them Dave and telling them to calm down. The EFF cautioned:
“We are going to start seeing tools that don’t just identify vulnerabilities, but automatically write and launch exploits for them. Using these same sorts of autonomous tools, we can imagine an attacker creating (perhaps even accidentally) a 21st century version of the Morris worm that can discover new zero days to help itself propagate.”
The EFF’s post selectively crafts an argument that a set of standards or policies, must be created as soon as possible by AI researchers before things spin horribly out of control. As if people with bad intentions follow rules. This kind of mindset — where the most nightmarish visions of opening Pandora’s AI Box demand we wrap ourselves in some sort of moral life jacked before dipping a toe in the proverbial water — is not unique to the EFF. For instance, this exact kind of moral panic about pseudo-sentient machines has been unspooling in the press over the past year about AI and sex dolls, or sexbots.
Just as the EFF post wants “moral and ethical” policies for those who create AI hackers, The Campaign Against Sex Robots calls for eerily similar standards in sexbots for fear of AI companions unleashing “violence and victimization” on humans.
In early 2015, robot ethics researcher at De Montfort University Kathleen Richardson, along with Erik Billing of the University of Skövde in Sweden, launched the campaign. Its mission: to raise awareness about how the combination of AI and sex dolls “are potentially harmful and will contribute to inequalities in society.” For CASR, sex dolls with AI are “getting us ready for a new, different kind of sexual relationship where anything goes.”
Unfortunately for both sectors of the reigning AI morality police, sentient hacking machines and highly inventive sexbots are a long ways off. Our (hopefully) smart and kinky droids are predicted to become a reality around 2050, and the same goes for any kind of program that you could legitimately call an AI hacker.
Still, if all you had to go on were the warnings of dangerous AI seen in the headlines, you’d think DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge was a wild free-for-all where smart programs got smarter under the incautious and malfeasant hand of the US government. Far from it. The CGC had a careful framework in which the software essentially acted like an antivirus program on steroids and competed in its own version of American Idol. Apologies to everyone hoping for drama, but it was just a glorified bug-finding competition.
The winning team, ForAllSecure, a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon, explained the goals and limitations of its AI best in their video on DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge website. In it, they talk about their platform in direct relation to strengthening consumer — and yes, government — security. The hope is that their AI will do a whole lot of securing and patching automatically, of things old and forgotten, as well as things poorly made. Their platform could also return its results to create security scorecards.
In their Reddit IamA after winning the CGC with their program “Mayhem,” ForAllSecure explained, “Our hope is to use Mayhem to check the world’s software for bugs. It’s really hard to get to the level of a security expert to be able to analyze your own software or form your own opinions on security of software. But if we had a system that could automatically do those tasks, everyone would be safer online.”
ForAllSecure’s responses were a stark contrast to the EFF’s dire warnings of someone using something like Mayhem to find vulns and attack connected Barbies and tea kettles, or an AI running amok all on its own. The team said, “Imagine if you could take your smart fridge (or whatever), which was written by some sketchy company who put in the minimum amount of security research possible, and apply fairly good binary-hardening techniques.”
They added, “The same could apply to all the government or whatever people who are still using super old code. If you could go in and add stack canaries, CFI, etc. without breaking it, that could be awesome.”
Competing teams line up before the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge at Def Con 24.
Winning the CGC means that Mayhem is now considered the best platform of its kind in the world. When asked how close to Skynet we are, ForAllSecure replied, “Our system is still very much an instance of artificial ‘special’ intelligence, rather than artificial ‘general’ intelligence. We’ve taught it how to find bugs, exploit them, and patch. It doesn’t have the ability to teach itself more things than that.”
Still, like all things to do with government research and development, the capabilities here for warfare are real. We’re already in a digital arms race; we now know we passed that point long ago, so any discussions about heading off stockpiles of vulns or attacks at the pass are moot.
And ForAllSecure had some pretty wise words on the importance offense. “If you focus only on defense, you’ll find you are always playing catch-up, and can never be ahead of attackers. If you make sure to focus on pushing the state of the art on both sides, you’ll do a lot better improving the state of cyber security.”
Perhaps what the ethics cops at the EFF should’ve got their ticket books out for was researcher Davi Ottenheimer’s keynote the day before the Cyber Grand Challenge, “Great Disasters of Machine Learning.” In it, he took a very close look at the Tesla Autopilot incident that killed a man in May, when his Model S sedan slammed into a tractor-trailer in Florida. Ottenheimer concluded that what had actually happened was the car’s AI made a critical decision at the last moment before the crash, essentially deciding to save the car — valuing itself over the life of the driver. It seems to me that this intersection of marketing hype, billionaire hubris, “intelligent” software, and promises of consumer safety is a much clearer and pressing problem than “let’s make rules because there are bad guys.”
Perhaps the Cyber Grand Challenge deserves a little blame itself for igniting this moral panic. Maybe it was a little bit of a victim of its own hype. Press sure loved making hay out of AI warfare, and whoever put the Matrix-meets-Fox Sports stage sets and “back to you, Jim” livestream together certainly had a flair for the dramatic. The gigantic, gilded Paris Las Vegas room was packed with rows of filled seats. There were even press boxes for talking heads, from which confused announcers stumbled over hacker names live on camera, awkwardly trying to make a lively event out of computers sitting there like obedient little dust collectors.
After the bot-on-bot sort-of violence of DARPA’s automated CTF, Mayhem went on to challenge actual humans in a similar competition at Def Con.. And don’t worry: it lost.
Image: Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images (Cyber Grand Challenge teams).
Niantic vows to ban ‘Pokemon Go’ cheaters
Niantic is trying to make Pokemon Go more fair for its millions of players across the globe, this week officially confirming that it will ban any account that appears to be cheating.
“After reviewing many reports of in-game cheating, we have started taking action against players taking unfair advantage of and abusing Pokemon Go. Moving forward, we will continue to terminate accounts that show clear signs of cheating,” Niantic said.
The company didn’t specify what the “clear signs of cheating” are, but it will most likely target accounts using bots to level up at inhuman speeds, those with skewed location data and other hacks that violate its user guidelines. Anyone who believes their account has been unfairly banned can submit an appeal right here.
Trainers, we’re working hard to provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for all: https://t.co/aaYfjvECq0
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) August 19, 2016
Niantic recently shut down many third-party Pokemon Go tools like PokeVision, which displayed all of the creatures available for capture in a live map. Closing these services allowed the company to expand into new territories, the company explained.
Niantic isn’t alone in the fight against cheaters — Twitch is also on the hunt for players that violate Pokemon Go’s guidelines. Anyone caught cheating in a live stream will receive a strike against his or her Twitch account.
Source: Pokemon Go
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 and new Gear VR headset are available now
Samsung announced a host of new gear earlier this month, the most notable of which is its excellent new Galaxy Note 7 handset, and it’s all available now in the US. The phone is now on sale at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Sprint stores as well as at Best Buy, Target, Walmart and a handful of other retailers. If you loathe going to retail locations, you can pick it up on Samsung or straight from the carriers online.
The new Gear VR headset is on sale, as well. It’ll set you back $99.99 and is a notable upgrade over the earlier model — we found it to be one of the best introductions to VR content you can have, particularly at its reasonable price. If you’ve wanted to create your own VR content, Samsung’s Gear 360 camera is available, but that’ll set you back more. It costs $349.99, but it’s one of the few options consumers have for creating more immersive video. The little camera will only be available online, for now.
Lastly, a pair of Samsung accessories — the Gear IconX earbuds and Level Active headphones — are both available for $199.99 and $99.99, respectively. The Gear IconX buds are particularly intriguing; they’re totally free of cords and have built-in memory for storying music. And they can also track motion, making them an all-in-one fitness and music solution. The Level Active, a more traditional pair of Bluetooth enabled headphones, is a bit less exciting. They do integrate with Samsung apps through an “active” button you can press to hear workout data from the S Health app or to activate a timer for your run.
MacRumors Giveaway: Win an iPhone Accessory Prize Pack from Cygnett
For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with popular iPhone accessory maker Cygnett to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a Cygnett Accessory Prize Pack that includes any Cygnett case, a battery pack, a Lightning cable, and an iPhone car mount.
Cygnett makes a wide range of iPhone cases for all iPhone models from the iPhone 5 and iPhone SE to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Cases range from the thin and light polycarbonate AeroShield to the shock resistant silicone Flex 360 to the sleek Urbanwallet case. Giveaway winners can choose their favorite Cygnett case for any iPhone.
Along with iPhone cases, Cygnett has a wide selection of battery packs ranging in size from 2,500 mAh to 10,000 mAh. The battery pack included in the giveaway is the Chargeup Digital, a 6000 mAh charger that’s ultra thin and has rapid charging capabilities.
To go with the iPhone case and the battery pack, our prize pack will also include Cygnett’s durable 2m Source Lightning to USB cable in any color and the adjustable VentView Universal car mount that’ll fit any model iPhone.
Three MacRumors readers will win a Cygnett accessory package. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.
Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.
a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (August 19) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on August 26. The winners will be chosen randomly on August 26 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.
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