通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日英語跟讀 Ep.781: Software To Recognize Faces Is Found To Be Biased

The majority of commercial facial-recognition systems exhibit bias, according to a study from a federal agency released recently, underscoring questions about a technology increasingly used by police departments and federal agencies to identify suspected criminals.

根據美國聯邦機構新近發表的研究結果，多數商用臉部辨識系統存在偏差，凸顯出這種科技的問題，而警察部門和聯邦機構使用這項科技辨識可疑罪犯的程度正不斷增高。

The systems falsely identified African American and Asian faces 10 times to 100 times more than Caucasian faces, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported. Among a database of photos used by law enforcement agencies in the United States, the highest error rates came in identifying Native Americans, the study found.

國家標準及科技研究所指出，比起白人臉孔，這些系統錯誤辨識非裔美國人和亞洲臉孔的機率高出10至100倍。研究發現，在美國執法單位使用的照片資料庫中，辨識美國原住民的錯誤率最高。

The technology also had more difficulty identifying women than men. And it falsely identified older adults up to 10 times more than middle-aged adults.

這項科技辨識女性也比男性更困難，而且辨識老人的錯誤率高達中年人的10倍。

The new report comes at a time of mounting concern from lawmakers and civil rights groups over the proliferation of facial recognition. Proponents view it as an important tool for catching criminals and tracking terrorists. Tech companies market it as a convenience that can be used to help identify people in photos or in lieu of a password to unlock smartphones.

這份新報告發表之際，國會議員和公民運動團體對臉部辨識的普及正日益感到憂慮。支持者視它為抓捕罪犯和追蹤恐怖分子的重要工具，科技公司將它行銷成方便好用的東西，可辨識照片中的人或作為密碼解鎖智慧手機。

Civil liberties experts, however, warn that the technology — which can be used to track people at a distance without their knowledge — has the potential to lead to ubiquitous surveillance, chilling freedom of movement and speech. Last year, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley in California and the Massachusetts communities of Somerville and Brookline banned government use of the technology.

然而，公民自由專家警告，這項科技能在人們不知情的狀況下從一定距離外追蹤他們，有可能導致無所不在的監控，壓抑行動和言論自由。去年，加州的舊金山、奧克蘭和柏克萊，以及麻州的薩默維爾和布魯克萊恩等社區，皆明令禁止政府使用此一科技。

“One false match can lead to missed flights, lengthy interrogations, watch list placements, tense police encounters, false arrests or worse,” Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “Government agencies including the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and local law enforcement must immediately halt the deployment of this dystopian technology.”

「一個錯誤的比對，就可能導致錯過班機、冗長的訊問、列入觀察名單、與警察緊張的遭遇、錯誤逮捕甚至更糟的狀況。」美國公民自由聯盟的政策分析師傑．史丹利在聲明中這麼說。「包括聯邦調查局、海關及邊境保護局和地方執法單位等政府機構，必須立即停止部署這項敵托邦科技。」

The federal report is one of the largest studies of its kind. The researchers had access to more than 18 million photos of about 8.5 million people from American mug shots, visa applications and border-crossing databases.

這份聯邦報告是同類報告中規模最大者之一。研究人員取用來自美國嫌犯大頭照、簽證申請及跨越邊境資料庫中，約850萬人的1800萬張以上的照片。

The National Institute of Standards and Technology tested 189 facial-recognition algorithms from 99 developers, representing the majority of commercial developers. They included systems from Microsoft, biometric technology companies like Cognitec, and Megvii, an artificial intelligence company in China.

國家標準及科技研究所測試來自99個開發商的189個臉部辨識演算程式，涵蓋大多數商用開發商，包括微軟系統，生物科技公司如Cognitec，以及中國人工智慧公司曠視科技。

The federal report confirms earlier studies from MIT that reported that facial-recognition systems from some large tech companies had much lower accuracy rates in identifying the female and darker-skinned faces than the white male faces.

這份聯邦報告證實麻省理工學院先前的研究結果，一些大型科技公司的臉部辨識系統，辨識女性和較深膚色臉孔的正確率，比辨識白人男性低得多。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/349075/web/#2L-16321634L

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每日英語跟讀 Ep.780: Severe childhood deprivation reduces brain size, study finds

Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.

研究人員發現，幼年時受到嚴重剝奪的兒童，在成年後，其大腦較小。

The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

這項發現是根據一些年輕人的腦部掃描，他們幼時被收留在羅馬尼亞獨裁者尼古拉‧希奧塞古政權所設立的孤兒院，後來被英國家庭收養。

Now experts say that despite the children having been adopted into loving, nurturing families in the early 1990s, the early neglect appears to have left its mark on their brain structures.

專家們如今說，即便這些孩子已在一九九○年代初被充滿愛心的家庭收養、受到悉心照顧，但幼時的疏於照料，似乎已在他們的大腦結構留下了印記。

“I think the most striking finding is … that the effects on the brain have persisted,” said Prof Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a co-author of the study from King’s College London, who added that the results showed neuroplasticity had limits.

這項研究的共同作者、倫敦大學國王學院的艾德蒙‧索努加─巴克教授表示：「我認為最顯著的發現是……對大腦所造成的影響持續存在」。他補充說，研究結果顯示，「神經可塑性」是有其侷限的。

“The idea that everything is recoverable, no matter what your experience … isn’t necessarily true — even with the best care you can still see those signs of that earlier adversity,” he said.

他說：「認為無論經歷了什麼，一切都得以康復……這種觀念不見得是正確的──即便〔後來〕受到最好的照顧，你還是可以看到幼時的苦難所留下的痕跡」。

The plight of the undernourished children, who had little social contact and received insufficient care, shocked the world when it came to light after the fall of the communist government in 1989.

這些營養不良、少有社會接觸、得不到足夠照料的兒童，其慘況在一九八九年共產黨政府垮台後曝光，震驚了世界。希奧塞古的苛政禁止墮胎及避孕，沒有孩子的人則被課稅。結果造成大量兒童淪落孤兒院，生活在惡劣的環境中。

Ceausescu’s oppressive policies had banned abortion and contraception, while those without children were taxed. As a result, large numbers of children ended up in orphanages living in terrible conditions.

Previous studies involving the adoptees have shown they had marked cognitive difficulties as children — although these improved considerably into adulthood — while they also had high rates of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, as adults, high levels of anxiety and depression.

先前對這些被收養者的研究顯示，他們在兒童時期就有明顯的認知困難（雖然這些問題在成年後已有顯著改善），也有很高的機率患有注意力不足過動症（ADHD），以及在成年後患有焦慮及憂鬱症。

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sonuga-Barke and colleagues told how they carried out brain scans and other measures of 67 Romanian adoptees who had spent between three and 41 months living in severe deprivation as children. At the time of the scans the adoptees were between 23 and 28 years old.

索努加─巴克及其同仁在《美國國家科學院院刊》上寫道，他們對六十七名羅馬尼亞被收養者進行腦部掃描和其他測量，這些被收養者童年時曾生活在嚴重缺乏照顧的情況中，為期三個月至四十一個月不等。他們在接受腦部掃描時，年齡在二十三至二十八歲之間。

The team also took brain scans from 21 adults of a similar age who had been born and adopted in the UK before they were six months old. The results revealed the Romanian adoptees had on average an 8.6 percent smaller brain overall than their UK peers. The team also found the size of the reduction was linked to the length of time spent in the Romanian orphanages: each additional month was linked to a 3cm3 lower total brain volume. “The more deprivation they had, the smaller their brains are,” said Sonuga-Barke.

研究小組另外也對二十一個年齡相仿的成人進行了腦部掃描，這些人是在英國出生，並在六個月大之前被收養。結果顯示，被收養的羅馬尼亞人，其大腦之平均大小，比那組英國同齡者小了百分之八點六。研究小組還發現，大腦所減少的體積，與在羅馬尼亞孤兒院中所待的時間長短有關：在孤兒院的時間每增加一個月，大腦的總體積便減少三立方公分。索努加─巴克說：「他們被剝奪得越多，大腦就越小」。

The team’s analysis showed the smaller brain size explained the reduced IQ and, at least in part, the higher rates of ADHD found among the Romanian adoptees.

研究小組的分析顯示，較小的大腦可解釋為何其智商較低，以及至少部分解釋了，為何被收養的羅馬尼亞人患有ADHD的比率較高。

Prof Denis Mareschal, from Birbeck, University of London, said the study highlighted the importance of providing enriched environments in early infancy and childhood.

倫敦大學伯貝克學院的丹尼斯‧馬勒沙教授說，這項研究凸顯出在嬰幼兒早期與兒童時期提供富足環境的重要性。

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/01/14/2003729181/2

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每日英語跟讀 Ep.779: 7.5 billion-year-old meteorite contains oldest material ever found on Earth

Scientists analyzing a meteorite that fell down onto an Australian village in 1969 have discovered that the rock contained many particles of stardust that existed before our solar system was formed, dating them to around 7.5 billion years ago, making them the oldest material ever found on the Earth. The study findings have been published in the American scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

科學家對一九六九年墜落在澳洲的一顆隕石進行分析，發現其中含有許多在太陽系形成前就已存在的星塵，最久遠者更可追溯到約七十五億年前，是迄今在地球上能找到的最古老物質。研究結果刊登於美國國家科學院院刊。

The meteorite that was analyzed fell to the Earth in the area around the village of Murchison in Victoria, Australia on Sept. 28, 1969. A team of scientists from the US and Switzerland placed ground particles of the meteorite in acid to remove all the material, leaving only the stardust. They then measured the length of time that this stardust would have been exposed to cosmic rays, in order to determine its age.

這顆被分析的隕石是在一九六九年九月二十八日墜落於澳洲維多利亞省默奇森附近。來自美國及瑞士的研究團隊將隕石磨碎後溶於酸中，只留下其中的星塵，並測量這些星塵暴露於宇宙射線下的時間，以確定其年齡。

According to Philipp Heck, the primary author of the study, they determined that 90 percent of the stardust in the meteorite was dated to between 4.6 billion and 5.5 billion years ago, with the remaining 10 percent being over 5.5 billion years old, of which the oldest was around 7.5 billion years old. By comparison, the solar system started to form around 4.6 billion years ago.

這項研究的第一作者赫克指出，結果發現隕石中有百分之九十的星塵可追溯到四十六億至五十五億年前，其餘一成則有逾五十五億年的歷史，其中最古老者約有七十五億年歷史。作為對比，太陽系大約是在四十六億年前開始形成。

Although this stardust is the oldest material discovered thus far on Earth, Heck believes that there is even more material older than the solar system in the Murchison meteorite and in other meteorites, it’s just that they have yet to be discovered by scientists.

雖然成功發現迄今地球上最古老的物質，但赫克相信，默奇森隕石及其他隕石中還有更多比太陽系更古老的物質，只是還沒有被科學家發現。

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/01/20/2003729528

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Summary:

This article talks about how “addictive” media is and how the tide is turning, in that people want to disconnect more. This issue is ours alone though and we can cut our usage easily.

Full article here: https://www.15mins.today/blog/734-addicted-to-screens-that-s-really-a-you-problem

Vocabulary and Sample Sentences:

Enthrall v. : something that takes up all your attention

1. Did the new movie enthrall you?

Enticement n.: persuade someone to do something through a reward

1. Is receiving free samples an enticement to buy something?

Crib (sheet): Written answers usually used to cheat by students

1. Have you ever used a crib sheet?

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每週In-TENSE文法跟讀，就在https://www.15mins.today/in-tense

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On Jan. 8, cyber security company Check Point Software Technologies announced that its research had discovered serious security vulnerabilities with video messaging app TikTok. The research found that a hacker could send a spoofed SMS message to a TikTok user containing a malicious link which, if clicked, would enable the attacker to assume control of the user’s account, allowing the hacker to upload videos and make a user’s private videos public.

報導指出，Check Point本月八日發布的研究報告發現，TikTok存在嚴重的安全漏洞，駭客可以透過這些漏洞，向TikTok使用者發送帶有惡意連結的訊息，而其他使用在點擊連結後，駭客就能夠控制他們的帳戶，包括上傳影片或訪問私密影片。

An additional security loophole exposed by Check Point’s researchers would allow a bad actor to retrieve personal information saved on user accounts. According to media reports, TikTok was made aware of Check Point’s research in November last year, and by Dec. 15 had deployed a fix for the vulnerabilities.

另外，透過另外一個安全漏洞，Check Point研究人員也可以從該公司網站上，取得TikTok使用者帳戶的個人訊息；報導指出，對此TikTok表示，公司在去年十一月了解到Check Point的研究，並表示已在十二月十五日之前修復所有漏洞。

Check Point’s Head of Product Vulnerability Research, Oded Vanunu, says that the vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers were all core to TikTok’s systems. The company also tested how easy it would be to hack into TikTok user accounts. It discovered that certain app functions, including sending video files and documents, contained security flaws.

Check Point產品漏洞研究主管瓦努努(Oded Vanunu)向該報指出，研究人員發現，這些漏洞都存在TikTok系統的核心部分；Check Point也檢驗了入侵TikTok使用者帳戶的容易程度，發現應用程式中的各項功能包括發送影片、文件等，都存在安全問題。

The last two years has seen explosive growth for TikTok within the US market, making the app a rare success story in the West for a Chinese technology company. However, some US lawmakers have raised concerns over the potential for covert eavesdropping. Meanwhile, the five main branches of the US military have already banned the app’s use on government-issued devices over fears it could compromise national security. Additionally, US security officials have called on military personnel and their family members to remove the app from their personal devices.

TikTok過去兩年在全美爆炸式增長，也成為中國科企在西方取得成功的罕見案例，但也有議員對TikTok提出安全隱憂，認為該程式可能會遭到竊聽；先前美軍五大軍種也已可能產生的國安風險為由，相繼宣布禁止與政府有關的任何裝置使用抖音，也呼籲軍方及家屬私人手機移除抖音。

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/01/22/2003729641

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