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Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Alphabet board member Eric Schmidt has urged the USA's Department of Defense and private tech sector to work together to develop AI for use in military systems, Facebook users' data is being scraped via third-party logins, major tech firms have committed to refrain from government-sponsored cyberattacks, and more.

Alphabet board member and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has told the US government that the military and private tech firms should work together to ensure that the US Department of Defense is equipped with the AI systems he says it will need to win future conflicts (The Verge). Speaking in a personal capacity before the House Armed Services Committee, he said that, despite ethical concerns expressed by many tech workers, "the industry is going to come to some set of agreements on AI principles". In a written statement, Schmidt referred to Google's controversial military drone object recognition system: "The world’s most prominent AI companies focus on gathering the data on which to train AI and the human capital to support and execute AI operations. If DoD is to become 'AI‑ready,' it must continue down the pathway that Project Maven paved and create a foundation for similar projects to flourish, in addition to its basic research efforts."


Security researchers from Freedom to Tinker have found that JavaScript web trackers are able to extract Facebok user data via the Login With Facebook authentication service for third-party sites (TechCrunch). Ad trackers embedded in pages using Login With Facebook, found on 434 sites including those of freelance portal Fiverr, MongoDB and online gig guide Bandsintown, were able to collect user data including name, email address, age range, gender, locale and profile photo. Facebook has confirmed that it's investigating the problem and a number of the sites involved have now disabled ad tracking on their sign-in pages.

Some of the world's biggest technology firms have signed up to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a commitment that they "will not help governments launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises" (The Guardian). The 34 companies, which include Cisco, Arm, BitDefender and GitHub, have also committed to protect their users against exploitation and work to develop defences against cyberattacks. However, some of the industry's biggest players, notably Google, Apple and Amazon, are conspicuous by their absence.

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Claire Novorol is co-founder of Ada, a Berlin- and London-based startup whose app gives its users information about their symptoms (WIRED). Answer a series of questions, and you’ll get guidance about your ailment, including an assessment of what it might be. The app, which is available on Android and iOS, can’t give a formal diagnosis – there are strict regulations around diagnosing patients – but in the UK it connects people directly to GPs via video. Since launching in the UK in April 2017, Ada has been downloaded by two million people worldwide.


Popcap's colourful, bouncing-ball themed puzzle game Peggle is currently free on EA's Origin digital store (Rock, Paper, Shotgun). The game challenges you to line up a shot on a pachinko-style board, with the objective of hitting target pins in a riot of colour and sound. It's over a decade old now, but Windows and macOS users who've not played it before are in for some fantastic puzzle fun.

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While the Cambridge Analytica scandal rumbles on, Facebook is quietly asking users in the EU and Canada to let it use its facial recognition to scan their faces and suggest tags in photos. It isn't the first time Mark Zuckerberg's firm has tried to get access to millions of Europeans' facial data.

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