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Daily Archives: June 9, 2021

How Companies Can Navigate Political Risks Successfully

Knowledge@Wharton: “Companies are facing heightened political risks across the globe, but the majority of them are underprepared, reactive, and lacking confidence in their ability to navigate those risks successfully. Geopolitical risks are the biggest, especially with COVID-19 disrupting supply chains, the rise of nationalization and protectionism, the hardening of U.S.-China trade tensions, and increasing confrontations with authoritarian regimes that provoke cycles of sanctions and retaliatory actions. Those are some of the main takeaways from a study released last Friday conducted by the Wharton Political Risk Lab in partnership with its inaugural sponsor, EY-Parthenon’s Geostrategic Business Group. Titled Geostrategy in Practice 2021, the study is the second in an annual series (last year’s report is available here). The study identifies five steps for companies to manage their political risks more proactively and strategically:

  1. Identify and collect quantitative political risk indicators.
  2. Develop or acquire the ability to assess the business impact of political risk.
  3. Integrate political risk into enterprise-wide processes.
  4. Engage the board and C-suite to incorporate political risk into strategic planning.
  5. Set up a cross-functional geostrategic committee.

The study was based on a survey of more than a thousand C-level executives, a quarter of whom were CEOs. Half of the respondents represented corporations with more than $5 billion in revenue. Survey respondents were based roughly equally across the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia-Pacific. The study covered seven industries – advanced manufacturing and mobility; consumer products; energy and resources; financial services; health sciences and wellness; real estate, hospitality and construction; and technology, media and telecommunications…”

The First ‘Google Translate’ for Elephants Debuts

Scientific American: “An online animal catalogue lets you decode communications and other behaviors for everyone’s favorite pachyderm..Elephants possess an incredibly rich repertoire of communication techniques, including hundreds of calls and gestures that convey specific meanings and can change depending on the context. Different elephant populations also exhibit culturally learned behaviors unique to their specific group.… Continue Reading

How to have deeper (and better) conversations with your coworkers

Fast Company: “Workplace conversations have changed their character during the pandemic. Lots of our communication has shifted from face-to-face to something mediated by technology. We talk to people on the phone and via videoconference tools. Instead of catching up in the office kitchen, we exchange brief pleasantries via email or Slack DM. As a result,… Continue Reading

How Academic Pirate Alexandra Elbakyan Is Fighting Scientific Misinformation

Vice: “In the decade since Alexandra Elbakyan founded Sci-Hub, science’s so-called “pirate queen” has amassed more than 85 million full-text research articles, which she’s made available, for free, to anyone who can track down her custom search engine. Sci-Hub uses myriad techniques, including shared passwords and bugs on publisher websites, to rip copyrighted papers, and… Continue Reading

What the CDC’s New Mask Rules Mean for the Immunocompromised, and What That Means for Everyone Else

LifeHacker: “…Less than a month later, on May 13, the CDC released new mask and distancing guidelines. Fully vaccinated people with healthy immune systems (aka the immunocompetent) can now safely resume pre-pandemic behavior indoors and out. In contrast, the CDC’s advice for the immunocompromised is that we might need to continue masking and social distancing… Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges

Cobbe, Jennifer and Singh, Jatinder, Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges (April 12, 2021). Forthcoming in Computer Law & Security Review, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3824736 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3824736 “Artificial Intelligence as a Service (‘AIaaS’) will play a growing role in society’s technical infrastructure, enabling, facilitating, and underpinning functionality in many applications.… Continue Reading

Deep Fakes and National Security

CRS In Focus – Deep Fakes and National Security, Updated June 8, 2021: “Deep fakes”—a term that first emerged in 2017 to describe realistic photo, audio, video, and other forgeries generated with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—could present a variety of national security challenges in the years to come. As these technologies continue to mature, they… Continue Reading

Ohio sues Google, seeks to declare the internet company a public utility

The Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit asking a court to declare Google a public utility that should be regulated as such. “Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products – that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said in a statement. “When you own the railroad or… Continue Reading

CRS Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies

CRS In Focus – Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies, Updated June 8, 2021: “Both U.S. national strategy documents and Congress’s own bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified a number of emerging technologies that could have a disruptive impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. These technologies include artificial intelligence, lethal… Continue Reading