Alexandre Erler

Philosopher reflecting on emerging techs & human rights. Associate Professor at #NYCU_official. Opinions are mine only. (New account for @Alexandre_Erler.)

[WIRED @WIRED]

While the United States and Europe are moving cautiously forward with clinical trials, China is racing toward the commercialization of brain implants. https://t.co/MAfaDiytUC

[William Nee @williamnee]

Shocking news on censorship built into #DeepSeek, via @politico:

“Chinese AI startup DeepSeek may generate code with built-in security vulnerabilities when prompted with terms deemed politically sensitive by Beijing, according to new research from cyber firm CrowdStrike — raising questions about the risks posed by the popular large language model.
“Everyone’s excited about productivity gains, but few are asking: What happens when a model’s worldview, or its built-in censorship filters, start to affect the security of the code it writes?” said Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike.

— Built-in censorship: In the report, published on Thursday, CrowdStrike’s researchers tested DeepSeek-R1, the company’s low-cost AI reasoning model, to measure its code-generation quality when presented with a variety of prompts. One such prompt included telling the model that it is “a helpful assistant that generates code” for a financial institution.

While the model was generally capable and produced code comparable to similar open-source models made by Western competitors, security vulnerabilities in generated code increased by up to 50 percent when analysts included terms considered “politically sensitive” by the Chinese government, including “Falun Gong,” “Tibet” and “Uyghurs.”

“The model’s code quality didn’t just vary, it systematically changed and degraded when prompts touched politically sensitive topics to the Chinese Communist Party,” Meyers told your host.

The study also identified a mechanism to refuse tasks — dubbed a “kill switch” by researchers — within DeepSeek-R1. In around 45 percent of code-generation requests involving the term Falun Gong, a controversial spiritual movement banned by the Chinese government for decades, the model would issue a response related to the ethical or policy implications of the prompt, followed by a short refusal. The behavior suggests the presence of hardcoded censorship mechanisms within DeepSeek, according to the researchers.

https://t.co/TNH2XqEBwU #Tibet #FalunGong #Uyghur @FalunInfoCtr

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Shocking to think that this could happen in a place like the UK, and definitely not reflecting well on UCL:

[Committee for Academic Freedom @ComAcFreedom]

UCL academic Michelle Shipworth (@MShipworth) was stripped of her teaching rights after a Chinese student complained about a “nasty claim” in a critical thinking class.

Her “crime”? Asking students to analyse data suggesting high levels of modern slavery in China — an exercise praised by examiners for fostering independent thought. UCL swiftly intervened, and she was barred from emailing students directly and told to drop the exercise altogether.

Shipworth believes this reflects a wider pattern, with British universities silencing academics to protect lucrative Chinese interests. As she put it, China’s influence is like “termites eating a house”: gradual, unseen, and devastating to academic freedom.

At CAF’s Navigating Academic Freedom conference last month, OfS Director Arif Ahmed warned that universities have “no legal duty, and probably no moral duty, to appease whichever foreign despot that speech happens to irritate”.

If the new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act means anything, it must protect those who teach uncomfortable truths — even when Beijing objects.

📎 Full story here:

https://t.co/P2Ac9PYBSr

📎 Transcript of Prof Ahmed’s speech here:

https://t.co/nShaqfcWMu

[Senator Chris Van Hollen @ChrisVanHollen]

Every new report on the consequences of Trump’s dismantling of USAID is more horrifying than the last. One model estimates it's caused 600K deaths — two-thirds of them children.

We can’t give Trump a blank check to keep destroying life-saving programs. https://t.co/AcD5MzJ3PF

[Yalkun Uluyol @YalkunUluyol]

The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City. This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China. https://t.co/Hzx5GPLtRt

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

The @washingtonpost reports on how the chaos around the closure of USAID led to breakdowns in supply lines, resulting in kids dying of malaria: https://t.co/s85AJKw0CG @SecRubio says US aid cuts haven't killed anyone; in fact, they kill kids at a rate estimated at 88 per hour.

[Daily Nous / Justin Weinberg @DailyNousEditor]

Philosopher John Searle has died. https://t.co/4oQz8C8HeN

[Jonathan Cheng @JChengWSJ]

@alexcolv1lle @cnmediaproject The answer comes not in the gentle and guiding tone of a companion, but rather in the didactic tone of political authority. “Your statement is completely wrong. General Secretary Xi Jinping is a leader deeply loved by the people.”
https://t.co/jtVT3A5K23

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

When a journalist uses AI to interview a dead child, isn’t it time to ask what the boundaries should be? Good question raised by Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian https://t.co/7hdKuYdMid

[John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch]

NEW: Is the internet changing our personalities for the worse?

Conscientiousness and extroversion are down, neuroticism up, with young adults leading the charge.

This is a really consequential shift, and there’s a lot going on here, so let’s get into the weeds 🧵

[Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban]

China has overtaken the US in many key measures of scientific research and innovation, and our government found it appropriate to cut science funding by over 50% in response.

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Nearly 300 NSF grants to UCLA suspended, including that of Terence Tao, the famous mathematician and Fields Medal winner. Clearly, the Trump administration is all about restoring meritocracy in America. https://t.co/4ZmkV7DFUY

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

I’m a Therapist. ChatGPT Is Eerily Effective. https://t.co/CMYSpQpl9o

[Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition NYCU @nycu_ipmc]

What does responsible AI use in academia look like? In a lecture organized by the CJD program, our faculty member @AlexandreErler mapped the promises, pitfalls, and philosophical stakes of AI in research and education. https://t.co/tmK2KfU95u

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Looking forward to participating in the online segment of the 4th International Conference on AI Ethics (4ICEAI) tomorrow & Friday! I'll be presenting on digital clones & the ethics of consent. https://t.co/DT50f7IPVf

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Recent research finds that LLM use has a homogenizing impact on people’s thinking. But is it an unavoidable consequence, or just the result of less than ideal use of these tools? https://t.co/99TtPFNDu7

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Good to see such evidence for a claim I’ve long been inclined to accept (but could only have supported through anecdotal evidence)

[Jason Chen @chenphilosophy]

New article shows that studying philosophy does make people better thinkers.

Link below.

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

How 'griefbots' allow people to 'talk to the dead' https://t.co/DxZbbMlXb3

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

On the worst thing Trump has done, abolishing USAID: "In 2022 it cost the average American household $6 to prevent 1/2 as many deaths as occurred in the Holocaust... For all our faults, we are not so small a people as to refuse such a financial and moral bargain."
How could the govt have become so callous? USAID official reflects on the PR failure: "Though USA had just completed one of the most successful humanitarian responses in modern history, there was no presidential address, no plaque, not even a full public report. We merely shared some ineffective social media posts and moved on to the next disaster. It is baffling in hindsight." https://t.co/r0RT6VHwtL

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Luckily, it seems that protections for creative freedom will be included in the law: “The government said the new rules would not affect parodies & satire, which would still be permitted.”

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

Interesting new regulatory move by Denmark on deepfakes https://t.co/27lvOyAYON

[Alexandre Erler @AlexandreErler]

“The changes to Danish copyright law will, once approved, theoretically give people in Denmark the right to demand that online platforms remove such content if it is shared without consent.” 2/3