Summary
Professor Victoria Baines FBCS is a leading authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets on digital ethics, cybercrime and the misuse of emerging technologies, including Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Her areas of research include electronic surveillance, cybercrime futures, and the politics of security.
Victoria has published on cyberspace governance, online surveillance, the future of cybercrime, and the politics of security. Drawing on her Classical education, her book Rhetoric of Insecurity (Routledge, 2021) sheds light on 2000 years of security speak and is a toolkit for understanding why security issues always seem to be so novel, urgent and divisive. She also provides research expertise to a number of international organisations, including Interpol, UNICEF and the Council of Europe.
Source: Gresham webpage
The Gresham Archive – 23/02/2023 (01:39)
OnAir Post: Victoria Baines
About
Biography
For several years Victoria was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Her work focused on operational support to law enforcement, and strategic engagement with policy makers on criminal activity online. Before joining Facebook, Victoria led the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she was responsible for the EU’s cyber threat analysis. She designed and developed the iOCTA, Europe’s flagship threat assessment on cybercrime, and authored Projects 2020 and 2030, scenarios for the future of cybersecurity that were the bases for award-winning movies. Prior to this, Victoria was Principal Analyst at the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). She began her career in law enforcement in 2005 as a Higher Intelligence Analyst for Surrey Police. In 2008, the International Association for Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts recognised Victoria’s work with a global award for outstanding achievement.
Victoria is a Liveryman of the City of London and Chair of the Information Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham.
Source: Gresham webpage
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Introducing our new Professor of IT: Victoria Baines
(01:39)
By: The Gresham Archive
ITDF Essay, November 2023
AI advances will bring the metaverse up to speed
Source: ITDF Webpage
AI advances will bring the metaverse up to speed and accelerate 5G/6G and smart cities
“It’s tempting to consider the future of AI as vertical, but technologies do not develop in vacuums. They enable, accelerate and even frustrate each other.
“For instance, further developments in large language models (LLMs) and machine learning will power the synthetic individuals, content creation, administration and enforcement that may make metaverses more compelling and better populated. Machine learning will also be integral to the (semi-)autonomy of smart-city infrastructure and the massive Internet of Things and 5G/6G may accelerate the transition of AI to on-device and edge processing. Quantum computing is expected to greatly expand available processing power, which in turn could accelerate AI’s iterative evolution.
It’s tempting to consider the future of AI as vertical, but technologies do not develop in vacuums. They enable, accelerate and even frustrate each other.
“Envisaging a converged world is what I do in my cybersecurity futures exercises. The most recent of these, co-written by Rik Ferguson, is ‘Project 2030: Scenarios for the Future of Cybersecurity.’ A very brief excerpt follows from one of those 2030 scenarios. It describes the life of a fictitious woman named Resilia:
“‘Instant access to the world’s knowledge has obviated the need to learn anything. Education is now focused on processing rather than acquiring knowledge. As a result, people increasingly know less objectively. … Algorithmic optimisation has become a key technology in the battle literally for hearts and minds. Search results are now the subjective truth; manipulating these is a target for those looking to spread disinformation and propaganda.
“‘As more people have opted for [internet-connected] implants, it has raised the possibility of changing people’s belief systems more efficiently and more directly, for good or ill. Hyper-personalised headlines are delivered directly into Resilia’s field of vision. Constrained by the lenses’ character limits, mainstream news is now essentially clickbait, with added emotional engagement and the psychological impact of not being able to look away. Scammers and influence operators have been able to capitalise on the opportunities of a more captive audience. …
“‘Increased teleworking has led to companies giving up expensive office space. Faced with downtown desertion and potential deprivation, so-called bright-flight, the city innovated at the expense of the out-of-town shopping malls. Rents were slashed for residential, recreational, social and creative uses, and there is now a vibrant leisure hub. They’re calling it recentrification. And, as the city centres are repopulated, the suburban sprawl is shrinking, leaving behind ghost districts and ghost suburbs. …
“‘People’s digital versions of themselves have become so extensive as to require dedicated management. Resila uses a tool that broadcasts her privacy preferences to every service that requires her data. The tool grants permissions that are contextually sensitive, the data is homomorphically encrypted and only Resila has access to it. … Humans have now volunteered so much of their lives through self-generated content that archives for individuals have not only become necessary, they have resulted in digital selves that outlive the physical death of a person. What was once a collection of memories on social media is now a seemingly living thing. … Increasingly, these digital humans have agency, particularly as the physical and digital worlds combine. They engage in inappropriate behaviour and sometimes commit crimes like engaging in hate speech. Government authorities are now considering whether they are culpable and what appropriate enforcement measures might be for their illegal activities.
“‘Grieving families, meanwhile, have sought the help of human rights lawyers to prevent their loved ones being switched off, or, in some cases, to enforce that they are.‘”
This essay was submitted in November 2023 in reply to the question: Considering likely changes due to the proliferation of AI in individuals’ lives and in social, economic and political systems, how will life have changed by 2040? This and more than 150 additional essay responses are included in the report “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040”
