Warning on AI’s potential to deceive

The Chief Digital and AI Officer at the United States Department of Defence says he  is “scared to death” of the potential for generative artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT to deceive citizens and threaten national security.

Speaking at a conference in Baltimore, Craig Martell said that ChatGPT’s ability to fabricate plausible content such as academic essays meant it could mislead citizens.

“My fear is that we trust it too much without the providers of a service building into it the right safeguards and the ability for us to validate the information,” Mr Martell (pictured) said.

“I’m scared to death. That’s my opinion.”

He said campaigns generated by AI could be used to influence Americans, and highlighted that ChatGPT’s use to date showed how it might be used to facilitate disinformation on a large scale.

“ChatGPT has been trained to express itself in a fluent manner. It speaks fluently and authoritatively. So, you believe it even when it’s wrong… and that means it is a perfect tool for disinformation,” Mr Martell said.

“We really need tools to be able to detect when that’s happening and to be able to warn when that’s happening. We don’t have those tools. We are behind in that fight.”

Mr Martell took on his current position at the Pentagon last year after lengthy experience in the private sector heading up machine learning at firms such as ride-hailing service Lyft and file hosting service Dropbox.

Mr Martell’s fears were not echoed by all Defence personnel. Director of the Defence Information Systems Agency, and another speaker at the conference, Lieutenant General Robert Skinner used generative AI to clone his voice at the beginning of his address.  

Lieutenant General Skinner said he saw the potential of generative AI models to do harm as a “challenge” to be met by Agencies who stood to gain by turning such models to their advantage.

“Those who harness generative AI and can understand how to best leverage it, but also how to best protect against it, are going to be the ones that have the high ground,” Lieutenant General Skinner said.

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Minister slammed over ‘secret recordings’

Ireland’s Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly has come under fire for allegedly failing to respond to Public Servants’ concerns about their privacy being breached when internal meetings are secretly recorded.

General Secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, Ciaran Rohan called on the Minister to clarify comments made last year that such recordings could be in the public interest.

He complained in a letter to the Minister in November that leaked recordings of Departmental meetings caused considerable upset to his members, but received no reply.

The leaks were allegedly made by a Department official who had concerns about mismanagement of the health budget. They led to extensive media coverage.

Speaking on the eve of the union’s Annual Delegate Conference, Mr Rohan (pictured) said a motion had been tabled at the conference noting “with concern” comments made by Government Ministers that recordings made without consent of internal Public Service work meetings were in the “public interest”.

It asks the union’s executive to continue to act to protect the privacy rights of members.

Mr Rohan said internal debate was often robust — “you stifle that level of debate if individuals could be recorded”.

He said the issue was still a big concern as many Public Servants were doing blended work, spending three days in the office and two at home.

Other issues for debate at the conference included a number of motions calling for a four-day working week.

Delegates asked the union to support the Irish Congress of Trade Union's campaign for a four-day week and to seek the introduction of ‘work condensing programs' in all Government Departments and offices.

Other motions called on the union to commission research on the costs and benefits of moving to a four-day week, and to review the experiences of organisations that had already trialled a shorter working week.

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Trump’s decision to run has bureaucrats worried

The decision of former United States President, Donald Trump to run for office again in 2024 is causing anxiety for career Public Servants, in no small part because Mr Trump’s doctrine is becoming broadly accepted by the mainstream of his Republican Party.

Mr Trump (pictured) says if he is re-elected he will dismantle the “deep state” and wreak retribution on his political enemies.

He has released proposals to take down what many conservatives believe is a secret cabal of Government workers who wield enormous power and work against Republicans.

These include cracking down on Government whistle-blowers, making troves of classified documents public and creating independent auditors to monitor Intelligence Agencies.

However, it is the lead proposal that concerns Public Servants and excites conservative activists.

Mr Trump says he will reinstitute his Executive Order known as Schedule F, which would reclassify tens of thousands of Federal employees involved in policy decisions as at-will employees.

In other words, they would lose their Public Service employment protections, making it much easier for a President to fire them.

A taste of how the policy might be used came in a pledge in Mr Trump’s proposal immediately following Schedule F to “overhaul Federal Departments and Agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus”.

The Schedule F policy was instituted in the final weeks of Mr Trump’s Administration but not fully implemented and cancelled by incoming President, Joe Biden.

This time around, should Mr Trump return to the White House, there would be little delay.

Yet the embrace of this proposal extends beyond Mr Trump, with many believing it is now the doctrine of the Republican Party.

President of the Centre for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank, Russ Vought said he could not see anyone running for the party who did not want to put Schedule F into play.

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Mexican military to run new State airline

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies has approved changes in civil aviation and airport laws to allow for a new State-owned airline operated by the Ministry of Defence.

The new legislation states that the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport can authorise public sector Agencies, including those operated by the military, to operate and manage airlines.

A combination of economic crises and regulatory obstacles has caused the closure of 21 Mexican airlines in the past two decades. There are only three national commercial airlines currently operating in the country.

The vote was tightly contested, but ultimately passed with 256 in favour and 219 against.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had confirmed plans to create a State-owned commercial airline operated by the armed forces in October last year after media outlets reported on information contained in leaked Ministry of Defence documents.

The Federal Government bought the defunct Mexicana airline in January, with the intention of using the name for the new army-run airline.

Mexicana was founded in 1921, which made it one of the world’s oldest commercial airlines when it ceased operations in 2010 and declared bankruptcy in 2014.

In February, the Chamber of Deputies passed legislation that gives the military control over Mexican airspace, with the stated aim to increase security and to deter drug traffickers.

The law permits the creation of a new monitoring centre to detect activity often associated with traffickers, including turning off transponder codes, unexplained route changes and failure to communicate with air traffic control services. 

Critics of the legislation say it is another move towards the militarisation of the country. The Government has relied on the military and advocated increasing the scope of its responsibilities, including the control of the National Guard – a move now deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The Federal Competition Commission said the launch of a State-owned airline would be anti-competitive by allowing the Government to operate both airlines and airports. 

President López Obrador countered by saying the State-owned airline would allow tickets to be offered at lower prices, increasing access for low-income Mexicans.

The Bill will now move to the Senate for debate.

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