The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of AI

30

September

2022

5/5 (2)

All over the world artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is being used to make tasks easier.  Some airports use AI to scan the face of passengers to make the identity check faster and easier (Schiphol, 2022). Or create bots that can have conversations with people and automate customer support for example (Google, 2022). However, AI can also cause damage if not managed properly. There have been cases where AI system became racist, a good example is artificial intelligence showing racial bias towards certain people from ethnic minorities (Milmo, 2022). The issue with AI is that it learns based on the input data which is fed into the system. However, this can be fixed by feeding it more representative information to minimize issues and biases.

There are also other examples where AI is misused on a big scale. China has implemented a system where facial recondition is used to control human behavior. If a person jaywalks in China, they will automatically get a fine since cameras will identify the person (Futurism, 2022). Depending on who you ask, this can be a good or a bad thing. In my opinion, this is a bad development since it creates a very authoritarian country where people must watch out for every small step they make. However, a wanted person can easily be tracked if their face is visible for a camera which can recognize them. This also causes an ethical dilemma; how much privacy are we willing to give up for security? And if we do give up our privacy, will the technologies and data not be misused for other purposes? I expect that this will be one of the biggest challenges for the future, since wrong decisions can cause major damage when it comes to AI systems.

References

GEIB, C. (2018, March 30). If You Jaywalk in China, Facial Recognition Means You’ll Walk Away With A Fine. Retrieved from Futurism: https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-china-social-credit

Google. (2022). Conversational AI. Retrieved 9 30, 2022, from Google: https://cloud.google.com/conversational-ai

Milmo, D. (2022, July 14). UK data watchdog investigates whether AI systems show racial bias. Retrieved 7 30, 2022, from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/14/uk-data-watchdog-investigates-whether-ai-systems-show-racial-bias

Schiphol. (2022). Reizen met gezichtsherkenning. Retrieved 9 30, 2022, from Schiphol: https://www.schiphol.nl/nl/pagina/proef-met-reizen-met-gezichtsherkenning/

Please rate this

Have we reached the era of immortal movie stars? Bruce Willis becomes first celebrity to sell image rights to deepfake firm.

30

September

2022

5/5 (2)

The technology allowed the actor to return to the screen without ever being on set

Willis’ digital twin used in an advert for a russian company

According to The Telegraph (2022), Bruce Willis has just this week sold his image rights to the US firm ‘Deepcake’, allowing the creation of a “digital twin”. Deepcake specializes in the use of deepfake, which consists of superimposing a person’s likeness over another individual (Hellyer, 2022).

Bruce Willis had his first experience with deepfake technology last year, when he allowed for his “twin” to be used in a commercial for a Russian phone service, MegaFon.

In a statement, Willis said: “I liked the precision with which my character turned out. It’s a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time. With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming. It’s a very new and interesting experience, and I thank our entire team.”

Now, the actor has officially sold the rights of his digital doppelganger to be hired by ‘Deepcake’ for future projects.

Some ethical questions about deepfake technology have been the topic of discussion. The ability to recreate someone so nearly-perfectly can cause some worries, for example, it’s the perfect tool for spreading political disinformation. For Hollywood however, it opens up the possibility of actors starring in movies after they die and of stars from the past being brought to life on screen.

Willis, who was diagnosed with Aphasia and announced earlier this year that he would be stepping away from acting as a result from the disease, may be the first of many celebrities willing to have their legacies live on.

You can see deepfake technology in action and watch the behind-the-scenes video for Bruce Willis commercial below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca75gKxfdPQ

References

Allen, N. (2022). Deepfake tech allows Bruce Willis to return to the screen without ever being on set. The Telegraph. [online] 28 Sep. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/28/deepfake-tech-allows-bruce-willis-return-screen-without-ever/ [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

‌Hellyer, F. (2022). Deepfakes: The New Ticket to Immortality? [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/the-new-ticket-to-immortality-1324513/ [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

Vincent, J. (2021). Everyone will be able to clone their voice in the future. [online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/22672123/ai-voice-clone-synthesis-deepfake-applications-vergecast [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

Please rate this

Apple’s ARKit 6: The evolution of Mobile Augmented Reality

30

September

2022

5/5 (2)

Most people have already heard about AR headsets, but not everyone is constantly using these headsets as it is still not mainstream (Makarov, 2022). However, a device that almost every individual owns is the mobile phone. Business are trying to leverage this opportunity and this led to one of the biggest trend at the moment in the market of AR, known as mobile augmented reality. According to Craig, Mobile AR is a type of AR that you are able to take everywhere with you (Craig, 2013). It is mainly, small and lightweight devices that you are carrying with you anyway, for example smartphones and smart tablets.

A newly released creation in the field of Mobile AR, is the ARKit 6. The ARKit 6 is created by Apple and includes the possibility to make videos in 4K (Kuttichová, 2022). Furthermore, it includes features like Object Capture, which you can use to transform real-life objects into 3D models. For example, you can preview different paintings in your surroundings or even put on different kinds of shoes to see how they look on your feet. Also, a feature called the RoomPlan framework has been added. This feature allows people to scan the room and generate a 3D model, which includes all kinds of room-defining features, furniture and the option to full in the room’s parametric data. This feature gives people more freedom to reconstruct rooms.

If you compare Apple’s ARKit 6 with its’ competitor, Google’s ARCore, the ARKit 6 stand out as one of the best in the market (Craig, 2013). Moreover, the hardware of Apple’s mobile devices are more powerful and are able to handle the high-end ARKit 6 without problems.

Comparison table (Craig, 2013).

Mobile AR has many advantages. We already carry most of the times the required hardware on us and are able to use it anywhere, anytime we want (Craig, 2013). Furthermore, it allows for ubiquitous learning. Mobile AR is also much cheaper compared to other AR technologies. Last but not least, one of the main advantages of Mobile AR is that most individuals already own the hardware (Smartphones). The only thing you probably have to do is download an application for the software.

On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages. There are constraints on the capabilities of smartphones and the usability of Mobile AR in a variety of different environmental conditions (Craig, 2013). Moreover, user understanding decreases if there is too much information on your screen. Especially when there is spam in the form of unwanted advertising/information in the augmented reality world. How would companies allow users to choose what they want to see and what to filter out?

I can see the use of Mobile AR, but personally I’m not sure if I would use the features regularly. For example, if I ever want to redecorate my room, using the RoomPlan feature can be useful but would I really use it? The feature does not seem that user friendly and easy to use. Until now I managed without the feature so I do not see the reason for using it. Moreover, if I am somewhere and I need information on something in my vicinity, I am not going to use mobile AR to get some information, rather I would just try to find the information on Google. I am used to this and it is a faster option than trying to film my surroundings and trying to read the text that appears on my smartphone, especially knowing that not all environments have met the conditions for the use of AR. Getting the latest mobile AR functions would not be a reason for me to buy a smartphone.

What is your opinion on Mobile AR, and specifically on it’s functions. Furthermore, would you use the functions regularly? Would buying the newest Iphone be worth it just for the latest mobile AR functions?

References

Craig, A. B. (2013). Understanding augmented reality : concepts and applications. Morgan Kaufmann. Retrieved September 21, 2022, https://web-s-ebscohost-com.eur.idm.oclc.org/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzQ4NjAxMF9fQU41?sid=d4486cb8-1fc6-4dbc-8b98-e41aa508c89f@redis&vid=0&format=EB

Kuttichová, E. (2022, 5 juli). AR Trends: what to expect in 2022 – UX Planet. Medium. Retrieved 21 september 2022, from https://uxplanet.org/ar-trends-what-to-expect-in-2022-eed73f73c8ff

Makarov, A. (2022, 20 september). 12 Augmented Reality Trends of 2023: New Milestones in Immersive Technology. MobiDev. Retrieved 21 september 2022, from https://mobidev.biz/blog/augmented-reality-trends-future-ar-technologies

Please rate this

The influence of NFT’s on the sports industry

30

September

2022

4.67/5 (3)

Non-fungible tokens (from now on NFT’s) are starting to appear in a variety of industries including the sport industry, but how can NFT’s influence the sport industry and why would the sport industry be targeted. This article will try to answer these questions.

First, a short introduction on NFT’s. A non-fungible token is essentially a token which someone can buy. However, the person is not really interested in the picture or image itself, but the buyer is interested in buying the rights of the digital pixels. The non-fungible token exists only on the blockchain which make the NFT business transparent to its users.

For over decades sport enthusiasts have been collecting items from all over the globe, varying from football shirts to match-tickets and the fan favorite card collecting. It was only a matter of time with the introduction of NFT’s, that card collecting would be available digitally. Now, there are multiple platforms offering online trading card games. Traditionally, these trading card games were made of plastic or paper, but from now on they are NFT’s. Platforms like ‘NBA’s top shot’ or ‘Sorare’ have grown rapidly over the last couple of years (Zaucha and Agur, 2022).

In this article, the focus will be on the platform Sorare. In Sorare it is possible to purchase football, baseball, and basketball cards (these cards being NFT’s) with Ethereum, a cryptocurrency which is the only currency allowed on the platform.

The platform does offer 5 varieties in cards. There are: ‘Common cards’, ‘Limited cards’, ‘Rare cards’, ‘Super-rare cards’ and ‘unique cards. The cards value depends on its rarity. This means that a Unique card is far more valuable than a Limited one. The Unique card of Erling Braut Haaland (a very talented football player) sold for over 600.000 dollars (Niggli, 2022). In other words, NFT’s in the sport industry is a serious business.

On the platform it is possible to win rewards with your purchased NFT’s. Every week Sorare hosts a variety of competitions where its users can compete to each other, based on the score of your NFT’s you can win rewards (cards or Ethereum). This way the platform interacts with its users and gives value to the NFT’s. At the end of the day, you can win money with the cards.

Could this development hurt the sport industry? The answer here is yes, it definitely could. The market on these platforms is highly deregulated and are vulnerable to all kinds of Ponzi schemes (Bartoletti et al., 2020). Thereby, there is plenty of opportunity of insider trading. Value of cards can heavily drop due to injuries or speculations in the sports world.

In the end, the trading card games are no longer as harmful as in the past and are being transformed into a big money business. There are high risks involved regarding these trading card games. In the long run, it will become clear if these kinds of platforms are really going to hurt the sport industry in negative ways.

References:

Bartoletti, M., Carta, S., Cimoli, T. and Saia, R. (2020). Dissecting Ponzi schemes on Ethereum: Identification, analysis, and impact. Future Generation Computer Systems, 102, pp.259–277. doi:10.1016/j.future.2019.08.014.

Sutlive, T.P. (2022) ‘Not Your Grandpa’s Trading Cards: Understanding NFTs in Professional Sports and Why Some May Be Considered Securities’, North Carolina Banking Institute, 26, 249+, available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A700250871/AONE?u=erasmus&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=c4b5100f [accessed 29 Sep 2022].

Zaucha, T. and Agur, C. (2022). Newly minted: Non-fungible tokens and the commodification of fandom. New Media & Society, p.146144482210804. doi:10.1177/14614448221080481.

‌

Please rate this

Do our mobile phones really listen to us all the time?

30

September

2022

5/5 (3)

You have probably experienced this before; right after talking with a friend or family member about a certain topic (let’s say the iPhone 12) you almost immediately get an ad on your phone about the iPhone 12 with a nice discount.

I experienced this phenomenom myself before as well. My colleagues were talking about visiting the Dolfinarium (an aquatic zoo in the Netherlands), right after this conversation I checked my weather app and there was an ad about tickets of the Dolfinarium. Experiencing this felt like I was being spied on and I didn’t like it. The internet is full of other people with the same kind of experiences, but is our phone really listening to us in order to provide highly personalized ads?

Many people believe that this is true, but according to the Washington post (Tatum Hunter, 2021) your phone is not listening to you in order to provide personalized ads, Mark Zuckerberg even denied this under oath during his senate hearing in 2018 (Bloomberg, 2018). It appears that the big tech companies are already aware of our interests with the use of our past transactions, search history, and online profiles. It is also possible that after your conversation, you look up the price of the product that your talking about, which gives a reason for the platforms to offer ads about this product (Caitlin Dewey, 2016). But this explanation still doesn’t explain the fact that I received an ad about the Dolfinarium when I wasn’t even interested in going there. In fact, I’ve only been to the Dolfinarium once (when I was eight years old).

WWLTV did an experiment to test if our phones are really listening and eventually came to the same conclusion, it appears that while browsing the internet and using apps on our phone we provide the companies behind those apps a tremendous amount of information on our own interests and for example location data that they can provide these highly personalized ads in real time. In case you would like to watch the YouTube video by WWLTV use the following link: YouTubeVideo.

Do you think that our mobile phones are listening to us?

References

Bloomberg. (2018, April 10). Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s senate hearing. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/10/transcript-of-mark-zuckerbergs-senate-hearing/

Caitlin Dewey. (2016, June 6). No, Facebook doesn’t eavesdrop on your phone. But it does spy on you. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/06/06/no-facebook-doesnt-eavesdrop-on-your-phone-but-it-does-spy-on-you/

Tatum Hunter. (2021, November 12). Ask Help Desk: No, your phone isn’t listening to your conversations. Seriously. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/12/phone-audio-targeting-privacy/

Please rate this

Walmart “Breaks into” the Metaverse

30

September

2022

5/5 (2)
Walmart Land (Walmart)

Walmart Inc. has taken its first step into the metaverse.

On 27 September 2022, Walmart announced that it would be joining Roblox with two new experiences for young users: “Walmart Land” and “Walmart Game World” (Walmart, 2022).

This is another major company “in” Roblox, following giants such as Nike, Samsung, VF, Gucci and Spotify (Bradley, 2022). Walmart has chosen Roblox as its first stop in the meta-universe, and the reason is not too complicated – Roblox has a huge number of users, and that number is growing fast.

With the epidemic, the online gaming platform Roblox has grown from 32.6 million daily active users in 2020 to over 53.3 million in June 2022, most of whom are children and teenagers, in their mid-25s or younger (Landsberg, 2022). They can create their own games on Roblox, play other users’ games and interact with each other. “Roblox is one of the fastest growing and largest platforms in the virtual world, and we know our customers are spending a lot of time there.” William White, chief marketing officer of Walmart US, said in a statement (Walmart, 2022). In addition to Roblox, Walmart has also entered TikTok and Twitter aggressively and has hosted shoppable live events (Aghadjanian, 2021).

With this move, Walmart wants to attract more young people of the Z generation and from what we can see Roblox is a good choice. With Nike’s virtual world Nikeland reportedly receiving 21 million visits and VF’s Vans World receiving around 81 million visits (Webscrypto, 2022), Roblox becomes a great channel for large brands to reach out to the younger generation.

However, while Roblox has a huge number of users, several Roblox players said that the current metaverse products are still relatively poorly made. Similar to playing Sandbox before, the UX of Roblox is pretty rough (de Mello, 2022). This may have something to do with the fact that historically it was focused on the gaming experience of kids.

I think the future of the metaverse will offer a variety of possibilities for companies with various business models. But there is still a lot to do before the metaverse becomes a mainstream market. Metaverse projects in the next phase should focus more on the evolution in terms of UX design, graphic design and, of course, decentralization.

Aghadjanian, N., 2021. Twitter Announces New Live Shopping Platform With Walmart. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alistdaily.com/social/walmart-cyber-deals-live-shopping-twitter-platform/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Bradley, D., 2022. How brands like Chipotle and Duolingo are driving brand love on Roblox. [Online]
Available at: https://www.campaignlive.com/article/brands-chipotle-duolingo-driving-brand-love-roblox/1792603
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

de Mello, D., 2022. How Roblox works: the UX of the Metaverse. [Online]
Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/how-roblox-works-the-ux-of-the-metaverse-d2ca42bc4ae8
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Landsberg, N., 2022. 55 Amazing Roblox Statistics Revenue, Usage & Growth Stats. [Online]
Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/roblox-stats/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Walmart, 2022. Walmart Jumps Into Roblox With Launch of Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play. [Online]
Available at: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2022/09/26/walmart-jumps-into-roblox-with-launch-of-walmart-land-and-walmarts-universe-of-play
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Webscrypto, 2022. Nike’s Virtual Store Nikeland Has More Than 21 Million Visitors. [Online]
Available at: https://webscrypto.com/nikes-virtual-store-nikeland-has-more-than-21-million-visitors/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Please rate this

Horse Racing: Reduction of Death Cases using Modern Technology

30

September

2022

5/5 (2)

Although for years Horse Racing has been popular for its thrill and the opportunity to place bets, it has been increasingly targeted with criticism by the public for its numerous fatal injuries – not only concerning horses, but also jockeys. In order to cast off this unfavorable reputation, the British Horse Racing Authority (BHA) has established means to reduce mid race injuries, such as obligatory pre-race examinations. 

With the general amelioration of medical technology, those health check-ups strongly increased in significance. Especially the refinement of the MRI has fostered an early detection of illnesses or injuries, like small ruptures of muscle tissue or tendons. Over the last five years, this is estimated to have averted about 30% of fatal equine injuries (EBR, 2022). 

Next to MRIs, ultrasound and thermal imaging cameras that are used to monitor a horse’s temperature post race, other technologies have been developed specifically for this sport. 

The University of Bath has designed an equine fitness tracker referred to as EquiVi (the Guardian, 2019). This device includes three sensors, which are placed on the horse’s body during practice or a race. The sensors are able to continuously measure important vital signs, such as blood pressure, temperature and respiratory rate, and transfer this data simultaneously via a wireless connection to a digital device. This enables coaches, owners and veterinarians to track the horse’s welfare during extreme physical exertion and adapt its training and racing schedule accordingly. In addition, the relation of the visible performance and cardiovascular activity can be examined, which is again very conclusive about the horse’s true level of fitness. Lead researcher Dr. Ben Metcalfe stresses the benefits of such an non-intrusive monitoring device as the horse is not exposed to any damaging influences (www.bath.ac.uk, 2019).

The risk reduction for fatal equine injuries automatically minimises health threats for the jockey. Still, accidents can and do occur, which led the BHA to ask the University of Bath for another research project. Through remodeling countless falls of jockeys accessible in the digital race archive, they are working to better understand and treat common injuries such as concussions and injuries involving the spinal cord. 

These different approaches to not only prevent mid-race injuries, but also maximise a positive treatment outcome, are only possible through the newest technological innovations. Therefore nowadays, modern technology even contributes to the safety and with it the continued existence of one of the oldest and most traditional sports.

References:
the Guardian. (2019). Equine fitness trackers could save lives of racehorses. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/30/racehorses-to-be-fitted-with-life-savingfitness-sensors [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].
Incze, G. (2022). How Horse Racing Has Embraced Technological Innovations. [online] European Gaming Industry News. Available at: https://europeangaming.eu/portal/latest-news/2022/03/02/110251/how-horse-racing-has-embraced-technological-innovations/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].
EBR, E. (2022). How Technology Has Changed Horse Racing. [online] The European Business Review. Available at: https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/how-technology-has-changed-horse-racing/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].
www.bath.ac.uk. (2019). Boost to horse welfare and performance thanks to new monitoring device. [online] Available at: https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/boost-to-horse-welfare-and-performance-thanks-to-new-monitoring-device/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Please rate this

How AI might disrupt health care as we know it

29

September

2022

5/5 (3)

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It can be used in almost any sector, with dozens of use cases. And one of the most exciting sectors AI could have a huge impact on is health care. According to IBM and Deepminds Healthcare, AI has the capability to help in early stages to specify certain diagnose of patients in a very accurate way. Further use cases of AI would be in decision making processes, care delivery, chronic care management and self-care.

Solutions which are already being used are: AI replacing repetitive task. Think about administration of patients, which now still takes a lot of time from doctors and nurses. Having these repetitive tasks reduced gives the doctors more time to focus on what they were meant to be doing in the first place: be doctors.

A second use case, one which needs more development, studying, and especially data and data analysis is AI predictive health care. In this case through the use of Big Data analytics AI can predict in what state a patient is at, and with this data prevent patients in an early stage to develop into more severe cases. With this insight, health care will make a switch from taking care of ill people, to prevent people get severe illnesses in the first place. Preventing people from getting sick, will not only save huge amounts of time and energy, but also save millions in current hospital costs.

A third and final use case I would like to bring up is precision medicine. Through AI and data analysis doctors can use this tool to take better decisions in their evaluation process. Think of someone who has a fracture, more often than not doctors might miss a genuine fracture (false negative) or on the other hand, classify something as a fracture (false positive). Through AI this decision-making process can be automized. Doctors can still give their insights on certain situations. However, if AI gives a completely different analysis than what the doctor expects the doctor here has the advantage to get triggered to pay extra attention to this case.

These are just three of the use cases which can immensely help our health care system. There are dozens of other applications for AI in healthcare. Where do you think AI can contribute the most in our healthcare system and why?

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252524829/The-challenges-of-verifying-AI-for-healthcare

Please rate this

Autonomous Vehicles are calling for regulations

29

September

2022

5/5 (2)

According to World Health Organization’s report on road traffic injuries, there are approximately 1.35 million deaths every year caused by road crashes, mostly due to human errors (S.Singh et al., 2021). Thus, car manufacturers are calling for the need of implementing self-driving cars technology in vehicles to massively improve their safety and reliability. Of course, the reasons moving most of the players of the automotive industry towards autonomous vehicles (AVs) are manifold and not only limited to societal benefits, but merely connected to firms’ economic returns. Indeed, car companies are turning their cars into software-based products, setting the scene for data-based business models to lower entry barriers to individual mobility, while offering very attractive service packages for the customers (Aschhoff, R., & Roggenbuck, J., 2021).

Besides, driverless cars necessitate actual guidelines for their autonomous decision-making and for overcrossing the related moral and ethical aspects. So far, few governments and institutions did recognize the need for clear rules and requirements for AVs. Although car manufacturers keep developing and testing self-driving cars to eventually standardize such a disruptive technology that will widely impact our society, the lack of a proper legal framework might have the unintended consequence of slowing down their innovation process.

Moreover, consumers’ concerns do exist, and clear regulations require also to address their fears. It is true that, as driverless cars would be allowed to make critical decisions on public roads, they will potentially choose among types of damage or injuries to different individuals. An exemplary case happened in the US, where a Tesla Model S in “self-driving mode” had been involved in a mortal accident by crashing into an 18-wheeler that turned in front of the car; to avoid the accident, should the AV system have taken “illegal actions” instead of sticking to the rules and ending up in the crash? Also, who must be held responsible in event of an emergency or collision? The owner of an autonomous vehicle might suffer from personal liabilities that are not more under his control; hence, it is arguable as the fault should be attributed to the car manufacturer or to its software.

However, making justified conclusions in such tricky circumstances might be a daunting task, and questions on ethical and legal aspects must have exhaustive answers in order to ensure smooth development and adoption processes of AVs, as its growing market is said it will reach a sales volume of 21 million vehicles by 2035.

Sources

Aschhoff, R., & Roggenbuck, J. (2021). Volkswagen is accelerating transformation into software-driven mobility provider. Volkswagen Newsroom. https://www.volkswagen- newsroom.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-is-accelerating-transformation-into- software-driven-mobility-provider-6878

Sergeenkov, A. (2019). Competition in the Autonomous Vehicle Industry is Heating Up. HackerNoon. https://hackernoon.com/competition-in-the-autonomous-vehicle- industry-is-heating-up-22524d71ca5

Singh, S., & Saini, B. S. (2021). Autonomous cars: Recent developments, challenges, and possible solutions. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 1022(1), 012028. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1022/1/012028

Please rate this

This is why there is a new European law for platforms

28

September

2022

5/5 (2)

There are 2 new laws proposed by the European Commission revolving digital services in the European Union. These laws are the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (The Digital Services Act package, 2022). But why did the European Commission planned new laws? In this part, the digital services act will be discussed. The evolving environment and fundamental rights of the users are important when considering the effect of platforms.

Digitization and platforms are becoming more important in the daily lives of individuals. Individuals use platforms for shopping, communication and many other purposes. For users, higher transparency, pricing and better content are some of the benefits of digitization of various services. However, these emerging trends are not all coming up roses. Individuals can also be exposed to some issues that come with digitization. Examples are illegal trade, limitations on self-expression or discrimination. Because these issues are in contradiction with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the same principle for which the GDPR is also developed), a new law is proposed to protect individuals, the Digital Services Act. By this law, platform owners obtain more responsibility for the content on the platform. The DSA requires organisations to have the right procedures at hand in order to deal with illegal content, such as fake news. An important note is that various “categories” of organisations revolving digital services or platforms have additional obligations. In order form the least obligations to most obligations, the categories of platforms are as follows: provider of intermediary services, hosting, online platforms and “very large online platforms” (Digital Services Act, 2021; PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). An example of additional obligations is to allow conducting of external audits by authorities and crisis response. Moreover, the firms could be forced to share or be transparent about the algorithms used in advertising or recommendations systems. This creates more transparency for the users regarding online advertising.

To conclude, the Digital Service Act is developed for the increased risk of individuals online and on online platforms. The new law requires firms, dependent on their category, to implement processes to deal with illegal content and be transparent about algorithms and decision making.

In the opinion of the author, the new law will have an impact, but in small extent. The predicted trend of these new laws is similar to the GDPR. According to the GDPR, organisations may not process personal data unless an individual checks a box, which is often done without hesitation. The transparency of algorithms could be impactful, however most individuals are probably not focused on these decision-making processes. However, the GDPR did increase the recognized interest of privacy of European citizens. The DSA has the same opportunity regarding the risks of platforms and digitization and the increased power some platforms obtain in our daily lives.  

References

The Digital Services Act package. (2022, July 5). Shaping Europe’s Digital Future. Retrieved 27 September 2022, from https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act-package

Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat. (2021, November 25). EU-ministers akkoord met regelgeving voor digitale diensten en markten. Nieuwsbericht | Rijksoverheid.nl. Retrieved 27 September 2022, from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2021/11/24/eu-ministers-akkoord-met-regelgeving-digitale-diensten-en–markten

PricewaterhouseCoopers. (n.d.). Grondige herziening van regels voor onlineplatforms. PwC. Retrieved 28 September 2022, from https://www.pwc.nl/nl/actueel-en-publicaties/themas/digitalisering/grondige-herziening-van-regels-voor-onlineplatforms.html

Digital Services Act, (2021). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2020%3A825%3AFIN

Please rate this