Showing 1 - 10 of 530
Will justice be served?
Oped, Editorial, Published on 01/06/2024
» The arrest of inmate Chaowalit "Sia Paeng Nanod" Thongduang has helped to boost the sagging image of Thai justice and our law enforcers.
The rise of AI in political warfare
News, Published on 07/05/2024
» This year promises to be a whopper for elective government, with billions of people -- or more than 40% of the world's population -- able to vote in an election. But nearly five months into 2024, some government officials are quietly wondering why the looming risk of AI hasn't, apparently, played out. Even as voters in Indonesia and Pakistan have gone to the polls, they are seeing little evidence of viral deepfakes skewing an electoral outcome, according to a recent article in Politico, which cited "national security officials, tech company executives and outside watchdog groups". AI, they said, wasn't having the "mass impact" that they expected. That is a painfully shortsighted view. The reason? AI may be disrupting elections right now, and we just don't know it.
Must media democratisation be bad for us?
News, Published on 29/04/2024
» Sometimes, the fulfilment of a promise feels like punishment. When the radio was invented more than 100 years ago, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht observed that its full potential could be explored only after it had become a communication tool, rather than merely a distribution channel. After all, there is a big difference between the few being able to speak to the many, and everyone being able to speak with everyone else.
Will AI create more fake news than it exposes?
News, Tyler Cowen, Published on 08/04/2024
» The best large-language models can already write like humans, especially if prompted properly. Photos and images can be faked at low cost. Yet-to-be-released technology can create convincing voice simulations. There are signs that some academic papers contain traces of GPT-4. If even professors are faking it, then surely the dam has burst.
Economics, at its core, is irredeemably sexist
Oped, Published on 05/04/2024
» Economics has an intractable "women problem". High-school girls avoid it. Female undergraduates abandon it. And the problem runs deeper than the difficulty of attracting enough women to mathematics, science, and engineering. Even women who have reached the discipline's summit, like Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, consider economists "a tribal clique" and their models defective.
Thailand again bids for UNHRC seat
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 12/03/2024
» The human rights condition in Thailand is paradoxical. A liberal mindset does not regard the country as a democracy. Instead, it sees it as one lacking in freedom of expression and constantly violating the rights of its own citizens.
Time for a recharge
Oped, Editorial, Published on 01/03/2024
» A power bank explosion on board a domestic flight that caused a fire in midair has raised concerns over safety measures regarding the widely used electrical device.
The rise of consumer cryptocurrency
News, Published on 26/02/2024
» Since its inception with the launch of Bitcoin in 2008, blockchain technology has gone through numerous cycles of public attention. Over time, growing interest and investment in the best-known cryptocurrencies has led to greater acceptance, as highlighted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) in January. While blockchains and their associated "crypto" assets have yet to be adopted by a truly broad base of consumers, that is starting to change, owing to a shift in how these technologies are being used.
Deepfakes will hijack your brain -- if you let them
News, Published on 22/02/2024
» Realistic AI-generated images and voice recordings may be the newest threat to democracy, but they're part of a longstanding family of deceptions. The way to fight so-called deepfakes isn't to develop some rumour-busting form of AI or to train the public to spot fake images. A better tactic would be to encourage a few well-known critical thinking methods -- refocusing our attention, reconsidering our sources, and questioning ourselves.
Tackling Myanmar's crime corridor
News, Published on 12/02/2024
» On Feb 4, a small piece of news indicated that the Myanmar police were planning to send back over 90 Thais and more than 1,000 Chinese nationals and other foreigners who were lured to work in Shwe Kokko, Myawaddy. Under this plan, all would have been sent back from Myawaddy -- a special economic zone -- to Mae Sot district in Thailand's Tak province.