Neural mining due diligence

Discussion 2049/10/07
1

It was here, but now it’s gone. I’m here with receipts!

Yesterday, Anse Daems’ article had a section called “Neural mining discovery.” Today that section is called “G6 data collection discovery.” (This is consistent with the info swap we’ve seen elsewhere.) Here’s what was there when the page was fresh:

In September 2040, Daems profiled Sunil Cariappa in his role as organiser of the Canadian pilot programme of G6. Cariappa had requested Daems for the profile because of their previous collaboration on the WNW reporting about the CMD pandemic.

While reviewing materials for the profile in Pipeline, WNW’s internal tool for constructing knowledge graphs to connect disparate pieces of information, Daems found a deleted reference to an older WNW article about the neural colloid trials that Zhupao had conducted in Canada between July 2038 and May 2039. [2] The article mentioned a possible connection between multiple participants in the Canadian colloid trials and a reported rise in cases of neuroglycopenia, which were later diagnosed as CMD.

After discovering more recent cases of neuroglycopenia that were being similarly confused with CMD, Daems attributed them to the prolonged continuous use of colloids, which are powered by biobatteries that oxidise glucose in the brain. This indicated that the colloids in the Canadian trials and the G6 pilot programmes were being pinged for live montages for periods that far exceeded the requirements of medical neurostimulation or CMD-specific biosurveillance.

In response, Daems reached out to Cariappa, expressing her belief that Connie Muren had discovered the mass neural mining and was “taken out” by Zhupao for planning to reveal it. Cariappa worked with Efua Amankwah-Crouse to investigate the matter and found that G6 was being used to train semantic thought models on neurometric and neurobehavioural data that was being mined through the colloids intended to diagnose CMD.

Daems reported their discovery to Sajjadi, arguing that Zhupao’s failure to disclose the neural mining constituted a breach of Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) because the development of neurometrics could turn the acquired neural data into personally identifiable information. Sajjadi organised a WNW investigation in collaboration with Daems and Amankwah-Crouse, which was published on November 1st 2040. [3]

Zhupao responded by issuing a full disclaimer and suing WNW for libel, which led to financial difficulties for the company. On November 13th 2040, Sajjadi was replaced by Sebastian Rummens, who immediately launched a significant restructuring of WNW that included the dismissal of Daems. [4]

And here are the associated citations, which are also now gone:
2. Anbarasu, O. (November 2038). “Neural colloid implants greatly improve efficacy of medical neurostimulation, patients reporting ‘immediate relief’.” World News Wire. :leftwards_arrow_with_hook:
3. Daems, A; Sajjadi, E; Ariyawansa, P. (November 2040). “Gathering your thoughts: a new frontier of extractive capitalism.” World News Wire. :leftwards_arrow_with_hook:

Cariappa’s page changed too; I’ll put that in a reply for readability.

2 Likes
2

The other neural mining change happened on Sunil Cariappa: Project Walkout

The second paragraph used to read:

Cariappa and Amankwah-Crouse found that the G6 DNCs were being used to train semantic thought models on neurometric and neurobehavioural data, which was being actively mined through the medical colloids intended to diagnose cases of CMD. Cariappa believed the CCP to be responsible and suggested they inform Xu, but Amankwah-Crouse was reluctant to contact him.

It’s been replaced by the “85 quintillion databases…public and private sources…social media/surveillance/financial/etc.” information. No citations were involved.

2 Likes
3

And yet another new neural mining reference, this time buried in the middle of the plot synopsis on the Skynet article:

The next day, Sarah and Kyle visit Sarah’s resistance friend Ginger, who is working on a virus like the one Kyle described. Deducing from a few uncanny tics that Skynet is impersonating Ginger, Kyle shoots her to the dismay of Sarah, who angrily beats him until he shows her the mark of a recent colloid implant on Ginger’s arm. After finding a copy of Ginger’s files that Skynet overlookeddue to Ginger’s habit of evadingneural mining, Sarah convinces Kyle to infiltrate Tokyo’s G6 hub and upload the virus, bringing down the network and stopping Skynet from ever emerging.

Neural mining

Neural mining is the process of obtaining bulk data from implanted neural colloids for the purposes of training artificial intelligence (AI) models to reconstruct real-time speech and semantic thought patterns from brain activity. In 2040, Zhupao was accused of illegally engaging in mass neural mining through G6.

I wonder how long this one will stay up, and what, if anything, will replace it.

2 Likes
4

I was too late to catch any of these mentions, so thank you for your due diligence!

I’m especially intrigued by the context of neural mining being used as a plot point in Skynet. I haven’t seen it myself so I can’t say for sure, but the film does seem to respect the basic reality of how colloids and G6 work in society (time-travelling brain-jumping AIs aside).

If that’s the case, that means there are ways of concealing sensitive information that even neural mining (and by extension Skynet) can’t pick up, which implies concealing it from oneself. How does Ginger manage to actively keep a copy of her own files hidden in a location that she then has no recollection of? It almost sounds like she had a way to give herself a blankout, except blankouts only started happening four years after Skynet came out… that we know of.