News Roundup 20 October 2023
Oct 20, 2023 • 4 min Read
Philippines bans military from using AI image generators due to ‘security risks’ | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — All defense and military personnel in the Philippines have been ordered to refrain from using all artificial intelligence image generator apps, which a government memorandum said poses “significant privacy and security risks.”
In an October 14 issued by Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the defense chief warned of the “inherent security risks” posed by uploading real images of one’s face to reproduce AI images — technology that has also triggered global concerns on how generative AI can be misused to create deceptive or abusive content.
“The online trending digital application that uses AI which requires its users to submit at least 10 photos to generate an enhanced portrait, poses significant privacy and security risks,” read the memorandum, which covers all personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense.
The memorandum added that the AI image generator compiles users’ data and creates a “digital person that mimics how a real individual speaks and moves.”
Teodoro said that while “seemingly harmless and amusing,” AI-powered applications can be used to create fake profiles that can lead to “identity theft, social engineering, phishing attacks, and other malicious activities.”
Full Story at: Philippines bans military from using AI image generators due to ‘security risks’ | Philstar.com
Oil price hike expected next week — DOE | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Motorists could expect a price hike on petroleum products next week, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Friday.
The DOE said that all oil prices are expected to increase due to the depletion of crude oil stockpiles in the United States, and the conflict due to the Israel-Hamas war.
“Kung based sa projection ng supply and demand, hanggang sa end of the year, may deficit pa na halos 1 million barrels per day so ibig sabihin may tightness of supply tapos may ganyan pang kaguluhan. So yan yung talagang magpapataas ng presyo,” Department of Energy-Oil Industry Management Bureau Assistant Director Rodela Romero said in a press briefing.
(If based on the supply and demand projection, there will still be a deficit of almost 1 million barrels per day until the end of the year. This means that there will be a tight supply, and with such turmoil, this will indeed push up prices.)
However, she clarified that the conflict in Israel is not the direct reason for the looming oil price hike.
Romero said that based on the four-day trading prices, these are the oil price adjustments next week:
- Gasoline – P0.50 to P0.65 increase per liter
- Diesel – P1.15 to P1.35 increase per liter
- Kerosene – P1.20 to P1.50 increase per liter
The price hike will end the three-week price rollback for diesel, and will mark the second consecutive week gasoline price increase.
Final price adjustments will be announced by oil companies on Monday.
Dutertes’ anger at secret fund scrutiny, queries opens crack in ‘UniTeam’ | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines—With the decision of the House of Representatives to strip Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte of P650 million in confidential funds, her father, Rodrigo Duterte, seemed to have no choice but to come to her defense.
The former president said Sara was planning to use some of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) confidential funds for the revival of the controversial Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
He told SMNI, a radio station owned by Duterte pal Apollo Quiboloy, that Sara will insist in making ROTC compulsory.
But based on government documents, confidential funds are only for confidential expenses related to surveillance activities in civilian government offices that are intended to support their mandate or operations.
The elder Duterte later said he prodded his daughter to instead say that her confidential funds—P500 million for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P150 million for DepEd—would be used against “communists in Congress.”
He even went on threatening one of the fiercest critics of confidential and intelligence funds in the government, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro of the progressive Makabayan bloc in the House.
Full Story at: Dutertes’ anger at secret fund scrutiny, queries opens crack in ‘UniTeam’ | Inquirer News
SUCs: Divert secret funds to raise our budgets, too | INQUIRER.NET – Faculty and student leaders of state universities and colleges (SUCs) are urging the government to realign the billions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) budgeted for next year to improving higher education in the country.
On Sept. 27, the House of Representatives approved the P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget, which includes a P100.882-billion appropriation for SUCs. The amount given to the SUCs was P6.155 billion, or 5.75 percent, lower than this year’s P107.0297-billion allocation.
In a joint statement on Thursday, student, faculty and staff regents, student councils and publications, and faculty and employees’ unions of four SUCs called on the House and the Senate to restore the budget cut and even increase the higher education spending for next year.
It noted that the maintenance and other operating expenses dipped while the capital outlay, which covers long-term development of facilities, equipment and other institutional investments, had the largest cut.
Full Story at: SUCs: divert secret funds to raise our budgets, too (inquirer.net)
