THU AM News: Expert details ‘nefarious’ uses of AI during study committee meeting; State Supreme Court agrees to hear hazardous materials cleanup lawsuit

September 12, 2024

— An expert on internet crimes against children warned lawmakers and others about the dark side of artificial intelligence, noting child predators are using the technology for “nefarious” purposes.

The 2024 Legislative Council Study Committee on the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Wisconsin met yesterday in Wausau, where they heard from several speakers on AI applications in law enforcement. The committee is tasked with making recommendations for state legislation focused on the use and development of AI.

Jacob Jansky is the director of Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Human Trafficking Bureau, within the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation. He acknowledged the great potential for AI in improving efficiency and reducing the paperwork burden for police officers and other professions, but centered his remarks on its applications in falsified imagery.

“Humanity right now is in a good place with AI, because it’s being used so frequently in cybersecurity, things like that … We are a little more advanced than those who would use it for nefarious means,” he said, but added “it’s only up to the creativity of those who want to use it nefariously for when that tide turns, and it will turn quickly and drastically.”

He showed a series of images showing the faces of young children and an older man, which despite being generated by AI, were virtually indistinguishable from real pictures. He said “the good news is” most AI companies don’t allow users to create sexually explicit images with their software, especially depicting children.

“It’s when we get into some of the off-platform stuff, some of the code that has been written and put out into the open source where some of that comes into play with child pornography,” he said.

He explained some child predators are using AI to place themselves into “obscene” imagery involving children, which law enforcement officials are tracking to identify those using the technology for these purposes. But when such materials are passed onto others, it can make it difficult to trace, posing a challenge for law enforcement.

While many AI programs learn from information through the internet, some users can build AI software programs locally on a single computer by training them on child pornography, Jansky said. This application uses an AI model called “stable diffusion,” which can create unique photorealistic images from text and image prompts.

“We actually had one case, in fact it was a novel case pretty much in the United States, right here in Wisconsin, where someone had their own processor or stable diffusion platform, and they were actually training it to make [child sexual abuse material] … You couldn’t tell the difference between a real image and a fake image,” he said.

Watch the video at WisconsinEye and see previous coverage on AI.

— The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the Department of Natural Resources’ authority to require cleanup of hazardous materials, including PFAS.

An appeals court in March upheld 2-1 Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren’s decision finding the agency can’t require cleanup of hazardous materials because it failed to properly go through the rulemaking process.

Bohren in April 2022 sided with Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Oconomowoc leather cleaning company Leather-Rich Inc. in their challenge of the DNR’s power to regulate forever chemicals.

The judge found DNR can’t regulate emerging contaminants, including PFAS, under the state’s Spills Law and must go through the rulemaking process. The Spills Law establishes DNR’s authority to require those responsible for hazardous contamination to immediately report it and take action to restore the environment.

— The Versiti Blood Research Institute has broken ground on a $79 million expansion in Wauwatosa with construction slated to begin this month.

The blood health research center is constructing a 79,000-square-foot addition to its existing Milwaukee Regional Medical Center campus, which will “nearly double” the institute’s research capacity, according to a release.

The institute conducts basic, translational and clinical research on various aspects of blood science, ranging from blood clots and excessive bleeding conditions to blood cell development, immunology, blood disorders and more.

The project is expected to create about 100 jobs, with a total projected economic impact of more than $500 million in Wisconsin by 2050.

The expansion comes as the institute is nearing capacity and plans to increase its team of 31 principal scientists to about 50 within the next five to seven years, the release shows. Each of those new scientists will bring a team of up to 10 additional staff.

Chris Miskel, president and CEO of Versiti, says the expansion will open in 2026.

“We will attract leading scientific minds and fuel groundbreaking research, turning discoveries into lifesaving treatments that transform patient care worldwide,” he said in a statement.

HGA Architects and Engineers in Milwaukee is serving as the project architect, while Mortenson, also in Milwaukee, is the general contractor. Versiti previously submitted plans for the project to Wauwatosa’s Design Review Board in March.

See more in the release and see an earlier story on the project.

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— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is backing federal legislation that would give the national secretary of agriculture an oversight role over foreign acquisitions of U.S. agricultural lands.

The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 is meant to “increase scrutiny” on purchases of farmland by foreign adversaries such as China and Russia, according to a release from Baldwin, D-Madison.

The bipartisan bill would permanently add the U.S. secretary of agriculture as a member of the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, with a focus on purchases of ag land, relevant biotech applications and ag products. It would also authorize the ag secretary to report ag land transactions involving Chinese, North Korean, Russian or Iranian nationals, the release shows.

“I’m committed to ensuring the Badger State continues to be an agricultural powerhouse in the future, and that includes defending our farmland from foreign adversaries that threaten our food and national security,” Baldwin said in a statement.

See the release and bill text.

— The Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council has announced plans to become an independent nonprofit, splitting from its parent, Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership Manufacturing Solutions.

The group says it aims to “broaden its mission” to boost sustainability efforts statewide, including expanded services such as education, consulting and member networking.

WSBC was founded by UW-Madison Prof. Tom Eggert in 2007 as a think tank, later becoming part of WMEP in 2019. The council’s “flagship” offering is the Green Masters program, a certification and recognition program for companies seeking to improve sustainability.

See the release.

— Brothers Marvin and Jeff Levy pledged a gift of $75 million supporting the construction of a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus.

The money accounts for half of the private funding needed to support the construction of the $347 million building. The state has already approved $197 million in support of the construction, and UW-Madison will cover the remaining $150 million.

The Levy brothers gave the gift in honor of their late brother Phil, who graduated from UW in-Madison in 1964. The building will be called the “Phillip A. Levy Engineering Center.”

The building will be an eight-story, 395,000-square-foot facility that would allow the College of Engineering to add 5,500 undergraduates. It is expected to be finished by 2028.

This donation is the largest in the UW-Madison College of Engineering history, and one of the largest private donations to the university throughout its 176-year history.

See more in the release.

Microsoft expands real estate holdings in Racine County. See where.

Northwestern Mutual accelerator invests $1M in 2024 Black Founder cohort

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Join Wisconsin Farm Bureau Texas tour and AFBF convention

– Global dairy summit at world dairy expo

CONSTRUCTION

– Peter Schwabe Inc. moves headquarters to Waukesha

EDUCATION

– Wisconsin students failing reading exams, and so are future teachers

– UW-Madison lands $75 million gift, one of largest in its history