Expert papers, studies and research documents
Find information on all questions of economy and society that are reflected in the sustainability goals. Make your articles, studies, podcasts or videos available beyond the mainstream.
23 professional article found
World without cash?
TAB report on changes in traditional banking and payment systems and changes in its power structure provides an overview of developments in the payment traffic and changes in its power structure.In Germany, cash is the only unrestricted legal tender and still the most commonly used means of payment. Compared with non-cash means of payment, cash is an important corrective in payment transactions. ...
Function determines form
New AI algorithm generates innovative substances on the basis of desired propertiesWhether in medicine, battery research, or materials science, researchers everywhere are seeking innovative substances. In the process, they can often predict the desired chemical and physical properties in great detail, right down to atomic level. However, the range of all potential chemical compounds alone is so ...
On the way to a digitally integrated agriculture?
In two newly published reports TAB sheds light on development trends in digital agricultural technologies and analyses the opportunities and risks of a systemically integrated agriculture. The corresponding Policy Briefs are now available in English.Agriculture is a highly technical economic sector whose production processes are based on the use of natural resources and the keeping of animals. How ...
How to identify bias in Natural Language Processing
Why do translation programs or chatbots on our computers often contain discriminatory tendencies towards gender or race? Here is an easy guide to understand how bias in natural language processing works. We explain why sexist technologies like search engines are not just an unfortunate coincidence.What is bias in translation programs?Have you ever used machine translation for translating a ...
AlgorithmWatch forced to shut down Instagram monitoring project after threats from Facebook
Digital platforms play an ever-increasing role in structuring and influencing public debate. Civil society watchdogs, researchers and journalists need to be able to hold them to account. But Facebook is increasingly fighting those who try. It shut down New York University’s Ad Observatory last week, and went after AlgorithmWatch, too. The European Parliament and EU Member States must act now to ...
A Call for EU Cyber Diplomacy.
In December 2020, the European Union (EU) presented its new strategy on cybersecurity with the aim of strengthening Europe’s technological and digital sovereignty. The document lists reform projects that will link cybersecurity more closely with the EU’s new rules on data, algorithms, markets, and Internet services. However, it clearly falls short of the development of a European cyber ...
When scholars sprint, bad algorithms are on the run
The first research sprint of the Ethics of Digitalisation project financed by the Stiftung Mercator reached the finishing line. Thirteen international fellows tackled pressing issues concerning the use of AI in content moderation. Looking back at ten intense weeks of interdisciplinary research, we share highlights and key outcomes.In response to increasing public pressure to tackle hate speech and ...
DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III points possible ways to better RNA vaccines
The pharmaceutical company BioNTech and the University of Mainz are conducting research with other partners on the EMBL beamlineThe Mainz-based biotech company BioNTech, which recently presented the first promising results for a coronavirus vaccine together with the US company Pfizer, is already conducting research on the next generation of RNA drugs at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III. Using the ...
Video streaming: data transmission technology crucial for climate footprint
HD-quality video streaming produces different levels of greenhouse gas emissions depending on the transmission technology. The CO2 emissions generated by data processing in a data centre are relatively low, at 1.5 grams of CO2 per hour. However, the technology used to transmit data from the data centre to the user determines the climate compatibility of cloud services like video streaming. ...
Legal Tech – potentials and applications of technology based legal consulting
Since there is currently a high level of dynamism with regard to the development of new business models and the establishment of legal tech companies with a focus on legal advice and legal services, the TAB has published a study on their potential and applications.TAB's policy brief in English TAB-Fokus no. 24 PDF [2,58 MB] provides an overview of Legal Tech services and ...
Who Governs the Internet?
Based on the guiding principle „digital policy means social policy“, this publication follows the idea that internet governance affects everyone. An open, free and global Internet is vital for all. Therefore, infrastructures for surveillance and censorship should not be established.This publication gives an overview of actors and areas of action and stresses that collective engagement is ...
Palantir, the secretive data behemoth linked to the Trump administration, expands into Europe
The data analysis company, known in particular for running the deportation machine of the Trump administration, is expanding aggressively into Europe. Who are its clients?Palantir was founded in 2004, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Its founders wanted to help intelligence agencies organize the data they collected, so that they would identify threats before they could strike. It is widely ...
The future of health data
A guide to a research-compatible electronic patient fileUnder the title “Zukunft Gesundheitsdaten — Wegweiser zu einer forschungskompatiblen elektronischen Patientenakte” (Future health data — a guide to a research-compatible electronic patient file), the iRights.Lab developed a comprehensive study on the subject of eHealth on behalf of Bundesdruckerei (federal printing house). It shows ...
Identity-management and citizen scoring in Ghana, Rwanda, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and China
A review of identity-management practices in five African countries shows that much of the continent is well on its way towards comprehensive biometric registration. It could enable comprehensive citizen scoring or automated surveillance in the near future.The report Identity-management and citizen scoring in Ghana, Rwanda, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and China was commissioned to AlgorithmWatch by ...
Ethical guidelines issued by engineers’ organization fail to gain traction
The world’s largest professional association of engineers released its ethical guidelines for automated systems March 2019. A review by AlgorithmWatch shows that Facebook and Google have yet to acknowledge them.In early 2016, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional association known as IEEE, launched a “global initiative to advance ethics in technology.” After ...
“Robot judges” without training?
Discussing the implementation of automated decision making systems as savior of overburdened legal decision makers is en vogue. But if employed instead of human decision makers and with rising complexity of legal decision, they face hardly resolvable structural problems and barriers. Dr. Stephan Dreyer and Johannes Schmees explain this by reference to four technical and legal challenges. By that, ...
Defective computing: How algorithms use speech analysis to profile job candidates
Some companies and scientists present Affective Computing, the algorithmic analysis of personality traits also known as “artificial emotional intelligence”, as an important new development. But the methods that are used are often dubious and present serious risks for discrimination.It was announced with some fanfare that Alexa and others would soon demonstrate breakthroughs in the field of ...
In the War of Disinformation—Trolls Versus the Defenders of Democratic Discourse
Working as a think tank on behalf of the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, iRights.Lab regularly compiles a Research Monitor on the topic of information intermediaries. The third edition of this report is now available with the title “In the War of Disinformation—Trolls Versus the Defenders of Democratic Discourse.”Especially in connection with the last elections to the ...
Research Monitor Microtargeting
The iRights.Lab think tank produces a regular Research Monitor on behalf of the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia.German and European researchers have thus far dealt only tentatively with the topic of microtargeting in election campaigns. Most of the research projects and scientific papers on the subject are from the USA. Since Barack Obama’s election campaign in 2008 at the ...
Comment about Mark Zuckerbergs „Independent Governance and Oversight“
Why Zuckerberg’s “Independent Governance and Oversight” board is not gonna fly (but some of his other ideas are at least worth discussing) Mark Zuckerberg is all for regulation of social media all of sudden. What’s wrong with that picture? In an almost 5,000 word “blog post”, Zuckerberg (plus we assume two dozen or so of the company’s public policy hacks and lawyers) has laid out ...