X users are sharing medical images with Grok chatbot on a massive scale at Elon Musk's urging. Experts warn of privacy risks, as such data is not protected by federal law.
Elon Musk, the owner of the social network X, has called on the platform's users to share medical images with the Grok chatbot to train it. Over the past few weeks, X users have been sending X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and other medical images to the platform's artificial intelligence chatbot. This was reported by The New York Times and UNN.
"It's still early days, but it's already pretty accurate and will be extremely good," Musk wrote in his post.
He believes that if enough users submit their images to , the chatbot will eventually learn to interpret them accurately. Patients will be able to get results faster without waiting for notifications on the portal, or use Grok as a second opinion.
Some users talk about Grok's failures, such as a broken collarbone that was misidentified as a dislocated shoulder. Others praise it: "Checked a brain tumor, not bad at all," one user wrote under a brain scan. Some doctors even played along, wanting to see if the chatbot could confirm their own results.
Social network X plans to integrate Grok AIJul 7 2024, 02:14 PM • 20882 views
Although there have been no similar public appeals from Google's Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT, people can send medical images to these tools as well.
The decision to share sensitive information such as your colonoscopy results with a chatbot has alarmed some medical privacy experts.
"It's very personal information, and you don't know exactly what Grok is going to do with it," said Bradley Malin, a professor of biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University.
According to The New York Times, when you share your health information with doctors or on a patient portal, it is protected by a federal law that protects your personal health information from being shared without your consent. But it only applies to certain organizations, such as doctors' offices, hospitals, and health insurance companies, as well as some companies with whom they do business.
In other words, what you post on social media or elsewhere is not subject to the law.
X can provide users who don't pay for the social network with the ability to use the Grok chatbotNov 11 2024, 04:12 PM • 17957 views
In its privacy policy, Company X stated that it would not sell user data to third parties, but would share it with "related companies." (Despite Musk's offer to share medical images, the policy also states that X does not seek to collect sensitive personal information, including health data.
The foreign ministers of six major European powers will meet in Warsaw to discuss the war in Ukraine and European security. Also on the agenda is the issue of Trump's possible return to power in the United States.
Russia's war against Ukraine, Donald Trump's return to power in the United States, and European security will dominate the talks that foreign ministers of six major European countries will hold in Warsaw on Tuesday, UNN reports citing France 24.
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The meeting will be attended by ministers from Germany, France, Italy, and Poland, with David Lammy from the United Kingdom and Manuel Albares from Spain participating via video link.
In Warsaw, where the talks will follow a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, “possible solutions will be discussed in light of these dramatic events on the other side of our eastern border and on the other side of the Atlantic,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who is hosting the meeting, said Monday.
Given that Russia's invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago and Trump's return to power threatens to radically change US policy, the talks will also discuss “European defense identity and ways to strengthen it,” according to a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“There is a great deal of general concern about the security situation in Europe and, above all, the situation in Ukraine,” said German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Katrin Deschauer.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga was also invited, but will instead travel between Ukraine and the United States.
The meeting will take place immediately after US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles supplied by the US to hit targets in Russia.
The United States allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles against russia – NYTNov 17 2024, 06:16 PM • 43175 views
This move, which has been sharply criticized by Russia, is a major shift in foreign policy and, as noted, may encourage Washington's European allies to follow suit.
But Trump, who has been much more skeptical about US aid to Ukraine, may well change that when he returns to office in January.
Poland, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, welcomed the move, and Sikorski called it a response “in a language that Vladimir Putin understands” to reports that Russia was deploying thousands of North Korean soldiers to assist its war effort.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to say whether his country would approve the use of its missiles.
France also maintained its sanity. On Monday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot reiterated that the prospect of using French missiles remains an “option.
Germany has again refused to supply its long-range Taurus missile system, which Ukraine has long requested, saying it will instead supply Kyiv with 4,000 artificially intelligent drones.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supported the decision despite renewed pressure, as the newspaper notes, pointing to fears of escalation between Russia and the West and warning that Berlin could be directly involved in the conflict.
Sikorski: the most important talks on the war in Ukraine will be held in WarsawNov 16 2024, 10:00 AM • 34341 view
Russia has lost 724,050 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Nov. 19.
This number includes 1,610 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 9,382 tanks, 19,092 armored fighting vehicles, 29,548 vehicles and fuel tanks, 20,632 artillery systems, 1,252 multiple launch rocket systems, 999 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 329 helicopters, 19,111 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced the preparation of a new military aid package for Ukraine. The aid will include artillery, air defense, armored vehicles and other necessary equipment.
The United States will announce a new military aid package for Ukraine “in the coming days,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced at a UN Security Council briefing on the occasion of a thousand days of Russian aggression against Ukraine on November 18, UNN reports.
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“Let me be clear: when this war is over, a sovereign, independent, democratic Ukraine will control its internationally recognized territory and continue on its path to join Euro-Atlantic institutions like NATO,” the US ambassador said.
Until then, and at the direction of the President, the United States will continue to increase security assistance to Ukraine, including artillery, air defense, armored vehicles, and other necessary equipment and munitions. And in the coming days, we will announce additional security assistance to Ukraine
– Thomas-Greenfield emphasized.
Because, in her words, “in the end, support for Ukraine in Congress and beyond cannot and should not be a partisan issue.” “The struggle for democracy and human rights transcends petty politics and outlives any leader or term,” the US ambassador pointed out.
The Pentagon is preparing to transfer $7.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine by the end of Biden's termNov 15 2024, 02:10 AM • 15103 views
Hong Kong's High Court sentenced 45 opposition leaders to prison terms of up to 10 years. The verdict is related to charges of “undermining state security” by participating in protests against Chinese influence.
The High Court of Hong Kong has handed down a verdict sentencing 45 leading opposition figures to prison terms of up to 10 years. This was reported by the Reuters, according to UNN.
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The decision caused a wide international outcry and was another step in the crackdown on democracy in Asia's financial center. Critics believe that the verdict is a serious blow to the rule of law and civil liberties that Hong Kong relies on as an important element of its international reputation.
The people convicted on Tuesday were among the leaders of the democracy movement in Hong Kong and participated in peaceful protests aimed at protecting the region's autonomy and against the influence of the Chinese authorities. The trials against them began after the introduction of new laws in 2020 restricting political freedoms in the city. The convicted individuals were accused of "undermining state security" by organizing or participating in illegal protests and other forms of political activity that did not meet the new standards set by China.
The verdict was another stage in the escalation of repression in Hong Kong, where several opposition parties and civil society organizations have been banned or restricted in recent years. International observers and human rights activists believe that these actions indicate Beijing's tightening control over the former British protectorate and the actual elimination of democratic institutions in Hong Kong.
A boat with passengers sank in the Congo: 78 people dead, dozens missingOct 4 2024, 05:48 PM • 19007 views
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed on Nov. 18 that a riot control agent known as CS has been used in Ukraine, as evidence mounts that Russia has scaled up its attacks using chemical weapons in recent months.
The United Nations watchdog OPCW's first confirmation about the tear gas usage comes as Russia has intensified its use of chemical agents since the beginning of the year to advance forward across Ukraine's front line.
Russian drones throw gas grenades into dugouts or trenches in an attempt to force Ukrainian soldiers out into the open field, making them easy prey for drone or artillery attacks.
The U.S. and the U.K. have confirmed Russia's deployment of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers, slapping sanctions on Russia's troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense, their chief, Russian Defense Ministry scientific centers, and companies involved.
The Ukrainian military has reported that it recorded over 4,600 cases of Russia using gas attacks on the battlefield since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, including 323 incidents in November.
Without naming Russia nor directly confronting Moscow for violating the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW said that samples from both the grenade and the soil sample retrieved from a September incident at a specific trench "contained the riot control agent 2-Chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile, known as CS."
While often used to disperse riots and considered nonlethal, the OPCW says that tear gas, including CS, is "considered chemical weapons if used as a method of warfare."
The samples — which underwent separate testing in two OPCW-designated laboratories — were collected from a trench "located along the confrontation lines with the opposing troops" in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to the report.
The OPCW said in the Nov. 18 report that the watchdog's Director-General, Ambassador Fernando Arias, "expressed grave concern over the findings."
"All 193 OPCW Member States, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have committed never to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons," Arias said.
He stressed that the parties have declared that "any use of chemical weapons is totally unacceptable and would violate the legal norms and standards of the international community."
Earlier in May, OPCW said that Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of deploying chemical weapons, but "the information provided to the Organization so far by both sides, together with the information available to the Secretariat, is insufficiently substantiated."
Kyiv's rising concerns over unidentified gas
While Russia's usage of chemical agents has slightly decreased since August, when 447 cases were recorded by the Ukrainian military within a month, Kyiv has been concerned about unidentified gas being deployed against its soldiers.
Lacking "hundreds" of complex detectors that cost $100,000 to $600,000 to identify the chemicals used by Russian troops, the Ukrainian military has struggled to name the new or mixed types of gas to find a solution on how to protect its personnel, Ukrainian Colonel Artem Vlasiuk told the Kyiv Independent in October.
Of the 323 recorded cases of Russia's chemical attacks in October, all except 15 incidents were "unidentified," according to Vlasiuk from the Support Forces' Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Command, a branch of the army responsible for inspecting chemical warfare.
The officer said that Ukraine struggled to identify the new types of gas because it lacked sophisticated high-end detector technology to diagnose beyond the few prototypes in its library — which includes CS, CN, chloropicrin, and ammonia.
It is often very difficult to send specialists to the front line for evidence collection, as it would mean risking their lives by having them walk kilometers to reach the positions. And when soldiers come under gas attacks, gathering the remains of the grenades used is usually not the priority.
The concerns over the unidentified gas come as dozens of Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the Kyiv Independent across the front over the summer acknowledged their lack of preparedness to face chemical warfare. Many said they were only given the poor quality Soviet-era gas masks and that they do not take it to positions because they are skeptical of its effectiveness.
Often, comparing the danger of chemical agents to KAB guided-aerial bombs, artillery, and precise FPV drones, the infantrymen interviewed often downplayed the threat of gas — arguing that they had more chance of being killed or wounded by conventional arms.
At least three Ukrainian soldiers died from Russia's gas attacks, and almost 2,100 soldiers sought medical care after such incidents, according to the Support Forces. Many more could have gone unrecorded.
Over the past day, the occupiers shelled 8 communities in Sumy region, causing 110 explosions. In Velykopysarivska community, two private houses were damaged as a result of attacks by FPV drones and artillery.
Enemy troops fired a series of shots at the border areas of Sumy region, including settlements. 48 attacks were recorded, resulting in 110 explosions. This was reported by the Sumy Regional Military Administration, UNN reports.
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Several communities in the region were shelled, including Khotyn, Yunakivka, Bilopil, Krasnopil, Velykopysarivsk, Shalyhyne, Esman and Seredyno-Budsk.
In the Velykopysarivska community, Russian troops attacked with FPV drones, carrying out 7 explosions. As a result of these attacks, two private houses were damaged. Grenade launchers (20 explosions) and artillery shelling (6 explosions) also took place on the territory of the community.
In the Khotyn community, 10 mines were dropped, and artillery shelling was recorded (4 explosions). In the Krasnopilska community, Russians carried out several attacks, including the dropping of unmanned aerial vehicles (9 explosions), an attack by FPV drones (7 explosions), grenade launcher attacks (3 explosions), mortar attacks (2 explosions) and artillery fire (2 explosions).
Mortar (7 explosions) and artillery shelling (10 explosions) took place in Bilopilska community. Yunakivska community also suffered artillery strikes that resulted in 2 explosions.
In Esmanska community, the enemy dropped explosives from a UAV (6 explosions), artillery shelling (1 explosion) and an attack by FPV drones (1 explosion). Seredyna-Budska community was attacked by FPV drones (2 explosions), and Shalyhyna community – mortar shelling and FPV drone attack (9 mines and 2 explosions).
Massive shelling is expected in Sumy region: Konotop mayor saysOct 15 2024, 07:27 PM • 47037 views
Matthew Miller, Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, refused to comment on media reports about Ukraine's alleged authorisation to use ATACMS missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.
Source: Matthew Miller's comments at a briefing on Monday, 18 November, as reported by European Pravda
Details: When asked to comment on media reports about the authorisation of strikes deep into Russia, Miller said, "I donʼt have any policy updates today."
He recalled the role of the United States in supporting Ukraine, including creating the Contact Group to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its actions.
Quote from Matthew Miller: "We have made clear that we will always adapt and adjust the capabilities that we provide to Ukraine when it's appropriate to do so. And you have seen us back that up with steps that we have taken over the several years."
Miller refused to discuss the authorisation of ATACMS strikes against Russia and was asked to comment on the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement on the matter, which warned the US against escalating the "conflict".
However, the US Department of State reminded that "it has been Russia that has escalated the conflict time and time again."
Quote from Matthew Miller: "And that includes just in the recent month when Russia recruited the deployment of more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers who are now on the front lines in Kursk, engaging in combat operations against the Ukrainian military. That is a major escalation by Russia."
Background: Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that the United States has allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory to a depth of 300 kilometres.
Ruben Amorim has reportedly made Galatasaray star Yunus Akgun ‘a key target ahead of the January transfer window’ despite what Enzo Maresca had to say about the winger while he was on loan at Leicester last season.
Amorim will take charge of his first Manchester United game against Ipswich on Sunday, but rumours of moves from the Red Devils in the transfer market have been rife since he was announced as the new manager at the start of the month. We’re up to 12 ‘first signings’ so far.
Leicester fans may well be surprised by his supposed interest in Akgun after the Galatasaray winger started just nine games for the Foxes in the Championship last season, contributing one goal and three assists in his 23 appearances.
But according to TEAMtalkhe’s been identified by Amorim as a ‘key target’ for the January transfer window.
Turkish outlet Sabah claim Amorim had the versatile forward on his transfer shortlist at Sporting and ‘added Akgun the to his wish list as soon as he moved to Man Utd’ having relayed his ‘positive opinion’ on the player to the Red Devils recruitment team.
The scouts are now said to be tracking Akgun at Amorim’s request and will keep an eye on his displays in the lead up to the January window.
The 24-year-old – who scored a stunning goal against Tottenham in the Europa League – is under contract at Galatasaray until 2026 and is valued by Transfermarkt at just £5m.
Maresca, who was manager of Akgun at Leicester last season, claimed he didn’t hand the winger more game time as he wasn’t convinced he was at the physical level to compete efficiently in English football.
Speaking in the days before handing Yunus 90 minutes against Huddersfield, Maresca said: “Yunus is struggling a little bit with the rhythm, probably because he said in Turkey the rhythm is a little bit low. Here it’s more quick, the pace of the game.
“He is struggling. He’s had a muscle problem, now it’s better. I like Yunus, I would like to give him more minutes, but he needs to adjust and understand how English football is, that it’s more physical.”
Akgun told reporters in December that he had eyes for the Premier League.
“I came to the UK to play for Leicester believing and hoping and knowing that we will play in the Premier League,” Akgun said in December.
“My main aim, obviously, is for us to become champions here at Leicester and go up to the Premier League. I will be doing my best to help make that happen.”
The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post
