Face morphing spoof attacks against biometric systems are particularly challenging for border systems to detect, and as morph attack detection systems are developed, questions have arisen about how to test such systems, and how they are affected by the quality of the images used. Progress has been made towards answers to both questions. The iMARS (image manipulation attack resolving solutions) project held an event in Brussels and online to explore the theme “ .” An iMARS workshop earlier this year shared some progress, but also the sobering news that . Two of the afternoon presentations for the event on Thursday were delivered by Christophe Busch and Matteo Ferrara of the University of Bologna. Researchers with the University of Bologna have developed an evaluation platform for MAD systems, the (BOEP), presented earlier this year in an EAB Lunch Talk. Ferrara presented the benchmarks evaluated by the BOEP for iMARS. Thes systems are divided into single-image morph attack detection (SMAD) and differential morph attack detection (DMAD). So far, six iMARS partners have submitted a total of 34 SMAD algorithms. The target BPCER of below 8 percent set by the iMARS project has been achieved in all SMAD benchmarks, Ferrara says, with a morph attack classification error rate (MACER) at or below 10 percent. For DMAD, 4 iMARS partners submitted 10 algorithms. The key performance indicator in this case is BPCER of 6 percent or lower at MACER under 10 percent, and was likewise met in all benchmarks. Ferrara also reviewed the differences between NIST’s FATE MORPH and BOEP. Busch discussed the importance of being able to assess biometric sample quality to the iMars project. Large scale databases and diverse applications scenarios increase the importance of considering image quality. This helps to avoid false positives, but is also essential for interoperability. This is particular important given the many contributors to the program. They have “many different capture sites with different technology, with different levels of training,” Busch points out. A standardized concept of what is good and what is not is the motivating concept behind the development of the face image quality assessment (FIQA). These algorithms help to predict the recognition performance that can be expected, as well as assisting with the detection of morphed images. The EES system is set up with the ISO/IEC 19794-5 in mind, so that provides some requirements, and the , which OFIQ (Open Source Face Image Quality) is a reference implementation for, provides measurements for them. They must be applied to pre-enrolled reference images, live-enrolled reference images, like at an EES kiosk, and probe images, such as from a biometric automated border control gate. The unified quality score (UQS) specified by ISO/IEC 29794-1 provides the overall assessment, and defect measurement provides explainability. OFIQ software provides 28 quality measures, starting with the unified quality score, covering capture device and subject variables. Numerous algorithms have been proposed, and the iMARS project determined three criteria for assessing the proposals: accuracy, low computational complexity and the liberality of the license. Images with OFIQ-UQS above a certain threshold, perhaps around 70, will be useful enough to store and use. The success of the metric is shown in the performance improvements seen in matching performance as low-quality images are discarded, Busch explains, providing an answer to one of the central questions of the iMARS project; “How can we measure the impact of face image quality on biometric recognition performance.” Busch reviewed the quality components that go into the unified score, and how they are measured based on the position of facial landmarks and other observable characteristics. Expression neutrality has proved relatively complex, but not impossible to measure. Research published in September shows that a positive correlation between images assessed as high-quality and success in morphing attack detection (MAD). Future work will focus on demographic variability and adding missing quality components, such as motion blurring. | | | | | |
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Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.
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Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump , set to return to the White House. Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio , whom Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, his replacement — who would be chosen by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — would serve for two years until the next regularly scheduled election in 2026, at which point the seat would be up for election again. “It is something I would seriously consider,” Lara Trump told The Associated Press in an interview. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me. But yeah, I would 100% consider it.” Elected as RNC co-chair in March, Lara Trump was a key player in the Republicans retaking the White House and control of the Senate while maintaining a narrow House majority. What she does next could shape Republican politics, given her elevated political profile and her ties to the incoming president. The idea of placing a Trump family member in the Senate has been lauded in some Republican circles. Among the people pushing for her to replace Rubio is Maye Musk, mother of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk . “The Senate is an old man’s club. We desperately need a smart, young, outspoken woman who will reveal their secrets,” she posted on X. Lara Trump is 42. Elon Musk, who was with Lara Trump on election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, responded to his mother’s post: “Lara Trump is genuinely great.” Led by chairman Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, the RNC invested heavily in recruiting roughly 230,000 volunteers and an army of lawyers for what it called its “election integrity” effort, four years after Donald Trump lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, citing false or unproven theories about voter fraud. Outside groups such as Turning Point Action and Musk’s America PAC took a greater responsibility for advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. While Whatley will remain RNC chairman, Lara Trump said she felt she had accomplished her goals in the co-chair role. “With that big win, I kind of feel like my time is up,” she said. “What I intended to do has been done.” President-elect Donald Trump endorsed RNC Treasurer KC Crosbie to replace Lara Trump as co-chair of the committee on Monday. “As Treasurer, she helped the RNC smash every fundraising record in History, and fortified our Party’s financial foundation. KC has been with me from the very beginning, helping REAL Republicans get elected across the Country, and would be a tremendous Co-Chair of the RNC!” President-elect Trump wrote on Truth Social. Lara Trump praised Musk’s new endeavor, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE , a nongovernmental task force headed by Musk and and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy . They’ve been tapped to fire federal workers , cut programs and slash federal regulations as part of Trump’s “Save America” agenda for his second term. “I really don’t think we’ve seen movement like this in our federal government since our country’s founding in many ways,” she said. “And I think if they are successful in what they plan to do, I think it is going to be transformative to America in a great way.” She said she expects a different presidency this time, beginning with the structure of the administration: While Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner served as White House advisers in his last administration, Lara Trump said she doesn’t see any family member taking any position in the White House this time around with her father-in-law. “He really wants to get in there and do a good job for the four years, and that’s all he wants to serve,” she said. “Four years, and he’s out.” Lara Trump also says she expects the Republican Party to be more unified than it has ever been. When she became co-chair in May, the Trump campaign and the RNC merged, with staffers fired and positions restructured. She said the result could spell trouble for GOP lawmakers who do not agree with Trump’s agenda. “The whole party has totally shifted and totally changed,” she said. “I think people are feeling a little more bold in coming out with their political views.” This story has been corrected to clarify that Rubio’s Senate seat would be filled until 2026 when an election would be held for the seat. Linderman reported from Baltimore and Mendoza from Santa Cruz, California. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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ASPI Investors Have Opportunity to Lead ASP Isotopes Inc. Securities Fraud LawsuitEfforts by New Mexico to save and invest portions of a financial windfall from local oil production are paying off as state government income on investments surpasses personal income tax collections for the first time, according to a new forecast Monday. General fund income from the state's two, multibillion-dollar permanent funds and interest on treasury accounts is expected to climb to $2.1 billion for the fiscal year between July 2024 and June 2025, surpassing $2 billion in revenue from personal income taxes. The investment earnings are designed to ensure that critical programs — ranging from childcare subsidies to tuition-free college and trade school education — endure if oil income falters amid a possible transition to new sources of energy. At the same time, legislators this year revised personal income tax brackets to lower taxes in the nation's No. 2 state for oil production behind Texas . “We’re not a poor state anymore,” said Democratic state Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup. “We’ve got things that we can win on — free education, childcare ... low taxes for working families, for children. And that’s all because we’ve done a lot of the work to set this up for the future.” The comments came at a legislative panel Monday where economists from four government agencies announced an income estimate for the coming year. The figures are the baseline for budget negotiations when the Democratic-led Legislature convenes in January. State government income, which is closely linked to oil production in New Mexico, continues to grow, though at a slower pace, as legislators discuss new investments in social programs aimed at curbing crime and homelessness. Economists estimate the state will bring in a record-setting $13.6 billion in general fund income for the fiscal year that runs from July 2025 to June 2026, a 2.6% increase over the current period. This year’s income bump leaves room for an additional $892 million in state spending in the coming fiscal year, a 7% increase, according to the Legislature’s accountability and budgeting office. State income is forecast to exceed current bedrock annual spending obligations by $3.4 billion. New Mexico legislators are pushing to open new savings accounts. One proposal would set aside as much as $1 billion in a trust to underwrite spending on mental health and addiction treatment in response to public frustration with crime and homelessness. Legislators also are likely to revisit a stalled proposal to create a trust for Native American education that could expand Indigenous language instruction.
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