Protesters in Wisconsin call election results into question. However a recently completed bi-partisan audit found no issues with voting machines. 03 February 2023
- The election commission in Wisconsin, has unanimously determined that voting machines worked accurately in the 2022 midterm elections. The commission, made up of both Republican and Democratic members oversaw the hand counting of more than 220 thousand ballots, as part of the state’s largest ever audit. Six ballots in total were found to have been improperly counted, however these issues were also found to have been due to human, rather than machine, error. Republican commissioner Bob Spindell praised the audit, saying it “should give confidence to the people Wisconsin that these machines work properly.”
- The recently launched ‘Speak Up Brussels!’ campaign has issued a call for participation running from January through to June 2023. The initiative, part of Brussels2030 and aimed at those under 30, aims to encourage young people to ask questions and contribute their visions for the future of their city. Brussels2030 has worked with CitizenLab to develop the online platform which facilitates the initiative. After input has been gathered, all young people who have contributed will be invited to a ‘Summer Assembly’ which will include debates, workshops and other activities, before forming a ‘Youth Coalition’ to take youth perspectives before the Brussels Parliament.
- Meanwhile, as AI tools take the internet by storm, a lawmaker in Massachusetts has filed a bill to regulate artificial intelligence, with one twist — the bill was partially written by ChatGPT, the automated chatbot developed by OpenAI. The (partly) AI produced AI bill, listed a number of key requirements, including that large AI companies disclose information about their algorithms, that they undertake risk assessments and implement security measures, that they acquire user consent before processing information and that they use watermarks on content to combat plagiarism. Although a fascinating experiment, according to Senator Barry Finegold, “ChatGPT got us 70 percent of what we needed when we wanted to draft this bill, but it didn’t get us all the way.”
