Text I
Shock of the old: Believe it or not, battery-powered vehicles
have been around since Victorian times.
The history of the electric car is surprisingly enraging. If you
imagine early electric vehicles at all (full disclosure: I didn’t until
recently), it will probably be as the quixotic and possibly dangerous
dream of a few eccentrics, maybe in the 1920s or 1930s, when
domestic electrification became widespread. It’s easy to imagine
some stiff-collared proto-Musk getting bored of hunting and
affairs, eyeing his newly installed electric lights speculatively, then
wreaking untold havoc and mass electrocutions. The reality is
entirely different.
By 1900, a third of all cars on the road in the US were electric;
we’re looking at the history of a cruelly missed opportunity, and it
started astonishingly early. The Scottish engineer Robert Anderson
had a go at an electric car of sorts way back in the 1830s, though
his invention was somewhat stymied by the fact rechargeable
batteries were not invented until 1859, making his crude carriage
something of a one-trick pony (and far less useful than an actual
pony).
It’s debatable whether or not Scotland was ready for this brave
new world anyway: in 1842, Robert Davidson (another Scot, who
had, a few years earlier, also tried his hand at an electric vehicle)
saw his electric locomotive Galvani “broken by some malicious
hands almost beyond repair” in Perth. The contemporary
consensus was that it was attacked by railway workers fearful for
their jobs.
Despite this unpromising start, electric vehicles had entered
widespread commercial circulation by the start of the 20th
century, particularly in the US. Electric cabs crisscrossed
Manhattan, 1897’s bestselling US car was electric and, when he
was shot in 1901, President McKinley was taken to hospital in an
electric ambulance. London had Walter Bersey’s electric taxis, and
Berlin’s fire engines went electric in 1908; the future looked bright,
clean and silent.
By the 1930s, however, the tide had definitively turned against
electric, cursed by range limitations and impractical charging times
while petrol gained the upper hand thanks partly – and ironically –
to the electric starter motor. The Horseless Age magazine, which
vehemently backed the petrol non-horse, would have been
delighted. There was a brief resurgence of interest in the late
1960s, when the US Congress passed a bill promoting electrical
vehicle development, but nothing much actually happened until
the Nissan Leaf sparked interest in 2009. Electric still isn’t quite
there yet, battling infrastructure and battery problems that might
have been familiar to Anderson and friends.
Adapted from The Guardian, Tuesday 24 October 2023, p. 6
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/shock-of-the-old/2023/oct/24/all
In “which vehemently backed” (5th paragraph) the verb is similar
in meaning to:
Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica
a segurança de dados?
Pesquisadores explicam que as novas técnicas de computação abrem novas possibilidades para golpes e invasões cibernéticas
As empresas de computação em nuvem chocaram o mundo com as inteligências artificiais lançadas no ano de 2023. Muitos se maravilharam com o mundo de possibilidades que esses programas inteligentes abriram. Já outros se chocaram com as implicações na área da segurança, direito autoral e na capacidade de distorção da realidade factual que as ferramentas novas proporcionam, e o debate pela regulamentação do uso segue em curso nas casas legislativas de diversos países.
Conforme explica um professor da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, as ferramentas de inteligência artificial abrem novos perigos na área de segurança de dados em dois fronts diferentes. O primeiro deles está na encriptação e na desencriptação dos dados.
“Existe de fato uma briga entre os que querem guardar informação sigilosa de forma segura e os que querem abrir essa informação para decifrar. Existem algoritmos clássicos que fazem isso e que podem ser melhorados com técnicas de inteligência artificial. Em particular, técnicas de aprendizado de máquina, aquelas que usam observações, experimentos, experiências para melhorar o desempenho de algoritmos”, explica o professor.
A outra batalha é travada no meio da engenharia social, ou seja, os usuários mal-intencionados exploram as vulnerabilidades humanas de outros usuários para obter materiais confidenciais, como senhas bancárias, dados de navegação e outras informações de cunho particular.
“As vulnerabilidades podem acontecer na medida em que você tem sistemas artificiais interagindo com os seres humanos. Você pode ter sistemas que, na interação com o usuário, obtêm dados inadvertidamente. Aí, o usuário é levado a revelá-los. Pode haver sistemas que também são feitos para interagir com o usuário de forma adequada, mas têm alguma falha. O usuário pode ser enganado e revelar essas
informações para um outro agente inadequado”, conta ele.
“A inteligência artificial consegue, com as velhas técnicas, simular situações da vida real. E, nesse sentido, a coisa ficou feia, um cidadão não consegue mais distinguir entre o artificial e o natural e pode ser enganado pela imagem e pela voz. Tudo que é simulado passa a ser quase natural para um cidadão comum.”
Técnicas de autenticação de imagens e documentos podem auxiliar os usuários a não serem enganados com o uso da inteligência artificial. Algumas empresas, por exemplo, já colocam marcas d’água em todos os vídeos que a ferramenta produz, outra maneira de impedir o uso malicioso da IA generativa. E, é claro, crimes cibernéticos também são crimes, e também é papel da Justiça agir nesses casos para punir os criminosos: “Os crimes de falsificação ficam mais fáceis com esses processadores mais potentes. É simulada alguma coisa verdadeira, mas quem é que programa esses simuladores? São pessoas hábeis, com talento para programar, mas é sempre um
ser humano por trás”, conclui o professor.
PEROSSI, J. Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica a segurança de dados? Jornal da USP. Disponível em: https://jornal.usp.br/
radio-usp/na-era-da-inteligencia-artificial-como-fica-a-seguranca-
-de-dados/. Acesso em: 8 maio 2024. Adaptado
Segundo o Manual de Redação da Presidência da Repú-blica, para alcançar a objetividade em um texto oficial, é necessário
Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica
a segurança de dados?
Pesquisadores explicam que as novas técnicas de computação abrem novas possibilidades para golpes e invasões cibernéticas
As empresas de computação em nuvem chocaram o mundo com as inteligências artificiais lançadas no ano de 2023. Muitos se maravilharam com o mundo de possibilidades que esses programas inteligentes abriram. Já outros se chocaram com as implicações na área da segurança, direito autoral e na capacidade de distorção da realidade factual que as ferramentas novas proporcionam, e o debate pela regulamentação do uso segue em curso nas casas legislativas de diversos países.
Conforme explica um professor da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, as ferramentas de inteligência artificial abrem novos perigos na área de segurança de dados em dois fronts diferentes. O primeiro deles está na encriptação e na desencriptação dos dados.
“Existe de fato uma briga entre os que querem guardar informação sigilosa de forma segura e os que querem abrir essa informação para decifrar. Existem algoritmos clássicos que fazem isso e que podem ser melhorados com técnicas de inteligência artificial. Em particular, técnicas de aprendizado de máquina, aquelas que usam observações, experimentos, experiências para melhorar o desempenho de algoritmos”, explica o professor.
A outra batalha é travada no meio da engenharia social, ou seja, os usuários mal-intencionados exploram as vulnerabilidades humanas de outros usuários para obter materiais confidenciais, como senhas bancárias, dados de navegação e outras informações de cunho particular.
“As vulnerabilidades podem acontecer na medida em que você tem sistemas artificiais interagindo com os seres humanos. Você pode ter sistemas que, na interação com o usuário, obtêm dados inadvertidamente. Aí, o usuário é levado a revelá-los. Pode haver sistemas que também são feitos para interagir com o usuário de forma adequada, mas têm alguma falha. O usuário pode ser enganado e revelar essas
informações para um outro agente inadequado”, conta ele.
“A inteligência artificial consegue, com as velhas técnicas, simular situações da vida real. E, nesse sentido, a coisa ficou feia, um cidadão não consegue mais distinguir entre o artificial e o natural e pode ser enganado pela imagem e pela voz. Tudo que é simulado passa a ser quase natural para um cidadão comum.”
Técnicas de autenticação de imagens e documentos podem auxiliar os usuários a não serem enganados com o uso da inteligência artificial. Algumas empresas, por exemplo, já colocam marcas d’água em todos os vídeos que a ferramenta produz, outra maneira de impedir o uso malicioso da IA generativa. E, é claro, crimes cibernéticos também são crimes, e também é papel da Justiça agir nesses casos para punir os criminosos: “Os crimes de falsificação ficam mais fáceis com esses processadores mais potentes. É simulada alguma coisa verdadeira, mas quem é que programa esses simuladores? São pessoas hábeis, com talento para programar, mas é sempre um
ser humano por trás”, conclui o professor.
PEROSSI, J. Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica a segurança de dados? Jornal da USP. Disponível em: https://jornal.usp.br/
radio-usp/na-era-da-inteligencia-artificial-como-fica-a-seguranca-
-de-dados/. Acesso em: 8 maio 2024. Adaptado
In the excerpt of paragraph 10 “setting up the infrastructure to save is the hardest part”, the term hardest can be replaced, with no change in meaning, by
Could AI save the Amazon rainforest?
It took just the month of March this year to fell an area of forest in Triunfo do Xingu equivalent to 700 football pitches. At more than 16,000 sq km, this Environmental Protection Area (APA) in the southeastern corner of the Brazilian Amazon, in the state of Pará, is one of the largest conservation areas in the world. And according to a new tool that predicts where deforestation will happen next, it’s also the APA at highest risk of even more destruction.
The tool, PrevisIA, is an artificial intelligence platform created by researchers at environmental nonprofit Imazon. Instead of trying to repair damage done by deforestation after the fact, they wanted to find a way to prevent it from happening at all. PrevisIA pinpointed Triunfo do Xingu as the APA at highest risk of deforestation in 2023, with 271.52 sq km of forest in the conservation area expected to be lost by the end of the year. About 5 sq km had already been destroyed in March.
Home to the endangered white-cheeked spider monkey and other vulnerable and near-threatened species, such as the hyacinth macaw and the jaguar, the conservation area is rich in biodiversity often found nowhere else in the world. But its land runs through two municipalities, Altamira and São Félix do Xingu, with some of the highest rates of deforestation in the country. And despite Triunfo do Xingu being protected under Brazilian law, illegal activities – mining, logging, land-grabbing – have ravaged the area, stripping it bare in places.
Nevertheless, with PrevisIA, there is the potential for change. Imazon is now establishing partnerships with authorities across the region, with the aim of stopping deforestation before it starts. Destruction across the Brazilian Amazon is creeping close to an all-time high. According to SAD, Imazon’s Deforestation Alert System, deforestation this March tripled compared to the same month last year, and the first quarter of 2023 saw 867 sq km of rainforest destroyed – the second largest area felled in the past 16 years.
The idea for PrevisIA emerged in 2016, when the team at Imazon analyzed data collected from SAD satellite images. Tired of getting notifications after large swaths of forest had already been cleared, they asked themselves: is it possible to generate short-term deforestation prediction models? “Existing deforestation prediction models were long-term, looking at what would happen in decades,” says Carlos Souza Jr, senior researcher at Imazon and project coordinator of PrevisIA and SAD. “We needed a new tool that could get ahead of the devastation.”Souza and his team began developing a new model capable of generating annual predictions.
They published their findings in the journal Spatial Statistics in August 2017. The model takes a twopronged approach. First, it focuses on trends present in the region, looking at geostatistics and historical data from Prodes, the annual government monitoring system for deforestation in the Amazon. Understanding what has happened can help make predictions more precise. When already deforested
areas are recent, this indicates gangs are operating in the area, so there’s a higher risk that nearby forest will soon be wiped out. Second, it looks at variables that put the brakes on deforestation – land protected by Indigenous and quilombola (descendent of rebel slaves) communities, and areas with bodies of water, or other terrain that doesn’t lend itself to agricultural expansion, for instance – and variables that make deforestation more likely, including higher population density, the presence of settlements and rural properties, and higher density of road infrastructure, both legal and illegal.
“They are the arteries of destruction of the forest,” says Souza, referring to unofficial roads that snake through the Amazon to facilitate illegal industrial activities. “These roads create the conditions for new deforestation.” Monitoring the construction of these roads is crucial to predicting – and eventually preventing – deforestation. According to Imazon, 90% of accumulated deforestation is concentrated within 5.5km of a road. Logging is even closer, with 90% taking place within 3km, and 85% of fires within 5km. Researchers used to comb through thousands of satellite images to see whether they could spot new roads slicing through the biome. With PrevisIA, the work is handed over to an AI algorithm that automates mapping, allowing for quicker analysis and, in turn, more frequent updates. But without a robust computational platform and the ability to update road maps more quickly, PrevisIA couldn’t be put into action. It wasn’t until 2021 that the team at Imazon partnered with Microsoft and Fundo Vale, acquiring the cloud computing power they needed to run the AI algorithm for mapping roads.
LANGLOIS, Jill. Could AI save the Amazon rainforest? The
Guardian, Apr. 29, 2023. Available at: https://www.theguardian.
com/technology/2023/apr/29/could-ai-save-amazon-rainforestartificial-intelligence-conservation-deforestation. Retrieved on:
July 13, 2024. Adapted
From the sixth paragraph of the text, it can be concluded that the model developed by Souza and his team encompassed the following aspects:
Text CG1A2-I
William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England — died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon) was an English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.
Stratford enjoyed a grammar school of good quality, and the education there was free, the schoolmaster’s salary being paid by the borough. No lists of the pupils who were at the school in the 16th century have survived, but it would be absurd to suppose the bailiff of the town did not send his son there. The boy’s education would consist mostly of Latin studies — learning to read, write, and speak the language fairly well and studying some of the Classical historians, moralists, and poets. Shakespeare did not go on to the university, and indeed it is unlikely that the scholarly round of logic, rhetoric, and other studies then followed there would have interested him.
Terence John Bew Spencer, John Russell Brown, and David Bevington.
William Shakespeare. Encyclopedia Britannica (adapted).
About the ideas and the linguistic aspects of text CG1A2-I, choose the correct option.
In the excerpt of paragraph 5 “It also risks violating children’s other rights if this information is used to guide them toward outcomes that are harmful or not in their best interest”, the word if indicates a
Digital technology is everywhere, and it is changing the way citizens behave. From working patterns to the day-to-day services we use and the places we live, there is no aspect of modern life that remains untouched by digital tools and solutions. This represents both the biggest challenge and opportunity for public sector organizations as they seek to engage citizens and create future-proofed, sustainably-minded societies.
The public sector plays a key role in setting the sustainability agenda for society, including the approach to circularity and recycling. While private sector companies can greatly influence the successful achievement of sustainability targets, the public sector bears the responsibility for outlining how society can achieve these goals more broadly at both national and local levels. By embracing the same digital technologies that are transforming their citizens’ lives, public sector organizations can help pivot society towards a more sustainable tomorrow.
In addition, there has been a rise of smart cities and the circular economy. Urban areas account for 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the 100 cities with the greatest footprints account for 18% of global emissions. But there are more than 70 cities worldwide pledging to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Public sector actors can fuel sustainable transformation by releasing capital to invest in sustainable city transformation projects and smart cities. By tapping into the value of data and green infrastructure, smart cities can combat climate risks and become more resilient to the many unexpected events of today’s increasingly unpredictable world. These cities can supportthe decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts by diffusing circular economy approaches to production and consumption.
Internet: <pulse.microsoft.com> (adapted).
Based on the ideas presented in the previous text, as well as on its linguistic aspects, judge the following items.
The text suggests that, although public sector organizations have a minor role in setting the sustainability agenda for society, they have great impact on the successful achievement of sustainability goals.
Using your phone while on the toilet poses significant health risks, as warned by an expert, Dr. Sethi. Despite being a common habit, mindlessly scrolling or using your phone in the bathroom can lead to severe consequences. Dr. Sethi, a Harvard-trained stomach doctor, highlights that this practice, particularly during bowel movements, causes extended sitting that strains the rectum and anus, potentially resulting in hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and rectal prolapse.
Furthermore, using phones in the bathroom makes them a breeding ground for bacteria, surpassing the hygiene levels of a public toilet seat. Dr. Sethi emphasizes the importance of avoiding phone usage while on the toilet or, if unavoidable, suggests disinfecting the phone afterward. Research spanning over a decade has consistently shown that phones harbor a significant amount of germs, including fecal matter.
Despite these health warnings, over 65% of adults take their phones into the bathroom, with Spain having the highest usage rates (nearly 80%) and Germany the lowest (just under 55%). Interestingly, younger age groups, particularly those aged 26-41 and 18-25, are most likely to engage in this unhygienic behavior. Apart from health concerns, there’s the practical risk of dropping the phone into the toilet, with a fifth of respondents in the United States admitting to this mishap.
Internet: <www.mirror.co.uk> (adapted).
Based on the previous text, judge the following items.
The correct translation of the excerpt “Furthermore, using phones in the bathroom makes them a breeding ground for bacteria” to Portuguese is Além disso, usar telefones no banheiro faz deles um terreno fértil para bactérias.
Does Snoozing Your Alarm Really Increase Sleepiness?
Snoozing the alarm doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll feel groggy the rest of the day. But it’s important to get as much sleep as you can. Getting up early in the morning is no easy task for plenty of people. That’s why alarms are important — they ensure that you wake up at your desired time. However, nobody can deny how tempting it is to try and squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep.
According to a survey, about 57 percent of people snooze in the morning, which is defined as needing multiple alarms to wake up. If you set a single alarm and snooze it repeatedly or set several alarms at regular intervals until the time you absolutely need to get up, you are a snoozer. Waking up on the first alarm is commonly recommended, but does it really make a difference if you are woken up by one alarm compared to several ones? In a recent sleep study, researchers examine how snoozing affects an individual’s health and sleep.
According to the study, people snooze for a variety of reasons. Most of the participants said that they just can’t get up with only the first alarm. Some say they snooze because they feel comfortable in bed, while others do it because they feel less tired when they do get up. A researcher said that snoozing might be a sign that people are waking up because of important scheduled activities — like school or work — rather than because they have adequately rested.
Internet: <www.discovermagazine.com> (adapted)
According to the preceding text, judge the following items.
For a lot of people, getting up early in the morning is considered to be a hard task.
Text I
Shock of the old: Believe it or not, battery-powered vehicles
have been around since Victorian times.
The history of the electric car is surprisingly enraging. If you
imagine early electric vehicles at all (full disclosure: I didn’t until
recently), it will probably be as the quixotic and possibly dangerous
dream of a few eccentrics, maybe in the 1920s or 1930s, when
domestic electrification became widespread. It’s easy to imagine
some stiff-collared proto-Musk getting bored of hunting and
affairs, eyeing his newly installed electric lights speculatively, then
wreaking untold havoc and mass electrocutions. The reality is
entirely different.
By 1900, a third of all cars on the road in the US were electric;
we’re looking at the history of a cruelly missed opportunity, and it
started astonishingly early. The Scottish engineer Robert Anderson
had a go at an electric car of sorts way back in the 1830s, though
his invention was somewhat stymied by the fact rechargeable
batteries were not invented until 1859, making his crude carriage
something of a one-trick pony (and far less useful than an actual
pony).
It’s debatable whether or not Scotland was ready for this brave
new world anyway: in 1842, Robert Davidson (another Scot, who
had, a few years earlier, also tried his hand at an electric vehicle)
saw his electric locomotive Galvani “broken by some malicious
hands almost beyond repair” in Perth. The contemporary
consensus was that it was attacked by railway workers fearful for
their jobs.
Despite this unpromising start, electric vehicles had entered
widespread commercial circulation by the start of the 20th
century, particularly in the US. Electric cabs crisscrossed
Manhattan, 1897’s bestselling US car was electric and, when he
was shot in 1901, President McKinley was taken to hospital in an
electric ambulance. London had Walter Bersey’s electric taxis, and
Berlin’s fire engines went electric in 1908; the future looked bright,
clean and silent.
By the 1930s, however, the tide had definitively turned against
electric, cursed by range limitations and impractical charging times
while petrol gained the upper hand thanks partly – and ironically –
to the electric starter motor. The Horseless Age magazine, which
vehemently backed the petrol non-horse, would have been
delighted. There was a brief resurgence of interest in the late
1960s, when the US Congress passed a bill promoting electrical
vehicle development, but nothing much actually happened until
the Nissan Leaf sparked interest in 2009. Electric still isn’t quite
there yet, battling infrastructure and battery problems that might
have been familiar to Anderson and friends.
Adapted from The Guardian, Tuesday 24 October 2023, p. 6
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/shock-of-the-old/2023/oct/24/all
The author’s account discloses an evolution that can be
understood as being:
Text 1A2-II
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. About 6-7 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with T. cruzi. The disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American countries, where it has been mostly transmitted to humans and other mammals by contact with feces or urine of triatomine bugs (vector-borne), known as kissing bugs, among many other popular names, depending on the geographical area.
Chagas disease is named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, a Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909. Chagas disease was once entirely confined to continental rural areas of the Region of the Americas (excluding the Caribbean islands). Due to increased population mobility over previous decades, most infected people now live in urban settings and the infection has been increasingly detected in the United States of America, Canada, and many European and some African, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific countries.
Chagas disease’s transmission is caused by T. cruzi parasites, which are mainly transmitted by contact with feces/urine of infected blood-sucking triatomine bugs. Normally they hide during the day and become active at night when they feed on animal blood, including human blood. They usually bite an exposed area of skin such as the face (hence its common name, kissing bug), and the bug defecates or urinates close to the bite. The parasites enter the body when the person instinctively smears the bug’s feces or urine into the bite, other skin breaks, the eyes, or the mouth. T. cruzi can also be transmitted by consumption of food or beverages contaminated with T. cruzi through, for example, contact with feces or urine of infected triatomine bugs or common opossums. This kind of transmission typically causes outbreaks with more severe cases and mortality; passage from an infected mother to her newborn during pregnancy or childbirth; blood or blood product transfusion from infected donors; some organ transplants using organs from infected donors; and laboratory accidents.
Internet: (adapted).
Regarding the transmission of Chagas disease, according to text 1A2-II, judge the following items.
I Blood product transfusion from infected donors can transmit the disease.
II The also called kissing bug’s feces and urine carry the protozoan parasite.
III Infected pregnant women cannot contaminate their babies during pregnancy or childbirth.
IV Contaminated food or drinks can transmit Chagas disease to people.
Choose the correct option.
Could AI save the Amazon rainforest?
It took just the month of March this year to fell an area of forest in Triunfo do Xingu equivalent to 700 football pitches. At more than 16,000 sq km, this Environmental Protection Area (APA) in the southeastern corner of the Brazilian Amazon, in the state of Pará, is one of the largest conservation areas in the world. And according to a new tool that predicts where deforestation will happen next, it’s also the APA at highest risk of even more destruction.
The tool, PrevisIA, is an artificial intelligence platform created by researchers at environmental nonprofit Imazon. Instead of trying to repair damage done by deforestation after the fact, they wanted to find a way to prevent it from happening at all. PrevisIA pinpointed Triunfo do Xingu as the APA at highest risk of deforestation in 2023, with 271.52 sq km of forest in the conservation area expected to be lost by the end of the year. About 5 sq km had already been destroyed in March.
Home to the endangered white-cheeked spider monkey and other vulnerable and near-threatened species, such as the hyacinth macaw and the jaguar, the conservation area is rich in biodiversity often found nowhere else in the world. But its land runs through two municipalities, Altamira and São Félix do Xingu, with some of the highest rates of deforestation in the country. And despite Triunfo do Xingu being protected under Brazilian law, illegal activities – mining, logging, land-grabbing – have ravaged the area, stripping it bare in places.
Nevertheless, with PrevisIA, there is the potential for change. Imazon is now establishing partnerships with authorities across the region, with the aim of stopping deforestation before it starts. Destruction across the Brazilian Amazon is creeping close to an all-time high. According to SAD, Imazon’s Deforestation Alert System, deforestation this March tripled compared to the same month last year, and the first quarter of 2023 saw 867 sq km of rainforest destroyed – the second largest area felled in the past 16 years.
The idea for PrevisIA emerged in 2016, when the team at Imazon analyzed data collected from SAD satellite images. Tired of getting notifications after large swaths of forest had already been cleared, they asked themselves: is it possible to generate short-term deforestation prediction models? “Existing deforestation prediction models were long-term, looking at what would happen in decades,” says Carlos Souza Jr, senior researcher at Imazon and project coordinator of PrevisIA and SAD. “We needed a new tool that could get ahead of the devastation.”Souza and his team began developing a new model capable of generating annual predictions.
They published their findings in the journal Spatial Statistics in August 2017. The model takes a twopronged approach. First, it focuses on trends present in the region, looking at geostatistics and historical data from Prodes, the annual government monitoring system for deforestation in the Amazon. Understanding what has happened can help make predictions more precise. When already deforested
areas are recent, this indicates gangs are operating in the area, so there’s a higher risk that nearby forest will soon be wiped out. Second, it looks at variables that put the brakes on deforestation – land protected by Indigenous and quilombola (descendent of rebel slaves) communities, and areas with bodies of water, or other terrain that doesn’t lend itself to agricultural expansion, for instance – and variables that make deforestation more likely, including higher population density, the presence of settlements and rural properties, and higher density of road infrastructure, both legal and illegal.
“They are the arteries of destruction of the forest,” says Souza, referring to unofficial roads that snake through the Amazon to facilitate illegal industrial activities. “These roads create the conditions for new deforestation.” Monitoring the construction of these roads is crucial to predicting – and eventually preventing – deforestation. According to Imazon, 90% of accumulated deforestation is concentrated within 5.5km of a road. Logging is even closer, with 90% taking place within 3km, and 85% of fires within 5km. Researchers used to comb through thousands of satellite images to see whether they could spot new roads slicing through the biome. With PrevisIA, the work is handed over to an AI algorithm that automates mapping, allowing for quicker analysis and, in turn, more frequent updates. But without a robust computational platform and the ability to update road maps more quickly, PrevisIA couldn’t be put into action. It wasn’t until 2021 that the team at Imazon partnered with Microsoft and Fundo Vale, acquiring the cloud computing power they needed to run the AI algorithm for mapping roads.
LANGLOIS, Jill. Could AI save the Amazon rainforest? The
Guardian, Apr. 29, 2023. Available at: https://www.theguardian.
com/technology/2023/apr/29/could-ai-save-amazon-rainforestartificial-intelligence-conservation-deforestation. Retrieved on:
July 13, 2024. Adapted
In the fragment in fourth paragraph of the text “Nevertheless, with PrevisIA, there is the potential for change”, the word in bold can be associated with the idea of
Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica
a segurança de dados?
Pesquisadores explicam que as novas técnicas de computação abrem novas possibilidades para golpes e invasões cibernéticas
As empresas de computação em nuvem chocaram o mundo com as inteligências artificiais lançadas no ano de 2023. Muitos se maravilharam com o mundo de possibilidades que esses programas inteligentes abriram. Já outros se chocaram com as implicações na área da segurança, direito autoral e na capacidade de distorção da realidade factual que as ferramentas novas proporcionam, e o debate pela regulamentação do uso segue em curso nas casas legislativas de diversos países.
Conforme explica um professor da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, as ferramentas de inteligência artificial abrem novos perigos na área de segurança de dados em dois fronts diferentes. O primeiro deles está na encriptação e na desencriptação dos dados.
“Existe de fato uma briga entre os que querem guardar informação sigilosa de forma segura e os que querem abrir essa informação para decifrar. Existem algoritmos clássicos que fazem isso e que podem ser melhorados com técnicas de inteligência artificial. Em particular, técnicas de aprendizado de máquina, aquelas que usam observações, experimentos, experiências para melhorar o desempenho de algoritmos”, explica o professor.
A outra batalha é travada no meio da engenharia social, ou seja, os usuários mal-intencionados exploram as vulnerabilidades humanas de outros usuários para obter materiais confidenciais, como senhas bancárias, dados de navegação e outras informações de cunho particular.
“As vulnerabilidades podem acontecer na medida em que você tem sistemas artificiais interagindo com os seres humanos. Você pode ter sistemas que, na interação com o usuário, obtêm dados inadvertidamente. Aí, o usuário é levado a revelá-los. Pode haver sistemas que também são feitos para interagir com o usuário de forma adequada, mas têm alguma falha. O usuário pode ser enganado e revelar essas
informações para um outro agente inadequado”, conta ele.
“A inteligência artificial consegue, com as velhas técnicas, simular situações da vida real. E, nesse sentido, a coisa ficou feia, um cidadão não consegue mais distinguir entre o artificial e o natural e pode ser enganado pela imagem e pela voz. Tudo que é simulado passa a ser quase natural para um cidadão comum.”
Técnicas de autenticação de imagens e documentos podem auxiliar os usuários a não serem enganados com o uso da inteligência artificial. Algumas empresas, por exemplo, já colocam marcas d’água em todos os vídeos que a ferramenta produz, outra maneira de impedir o uso malicioso da IA generativa. E, é claro, crimes cibernéticos também são crimes, e também é papel da Justiça agir nesses casos para punir os criminosos: “Os crimes de falsificação ficam mais fáceis com esses processadores mais potentes. É simulada alguma coisa verdadeira, mas quem é que programa esses simuladores? São pessoas hábeis, com talento para programar, mas é sempre um
ser humano por trás”, conclui o professor.
PEROSSI, J. Na era da inteligência artificial, como fica a segurança de dados? Jornal da USP. Disponível em: https://jornal.usp.br/
radio-usp/na-era-da-inteligencia-artificial-como-fica-a-seguranca-
-de-dados/. Acesso em: 8 maio 2024. Adaptado
In the excerpt of paragraph 6 “Moreover, creating a financial cushion […] can help you avoid turning to credit cards”, the word moreover indicates a(n)
Digital technology is everywhere, and it is changing the way citizens behave. From working patterns to the day-to-day services we use and the places we live, there is no aspect of modern life that remains untouched by digital tools and solutions. This represents both the biggest challenge and opportunity for public sector organizations as they seek to engage citizens and create future-proofed, sustainably-minded societies.
The public sector plays a key role in setting the sustainability agenda for society, including the approach to circularity and recycling. While private sector companies can greatly influence the successful achievement of sustainability targets, the public sector bears the responsibility for outlining how society can achieve these goals more broadly at both national and local levels. By embracing the same digital technologies that are transforming their citizens’ lives, public sector organizations can help pivot society towards a more sustainable tomorrow.
In addition, there has been a rise of smart cities and the circular economy. Urban areas account for 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the 100 cities with the greatest footprints account for 18% of global emissions. But there are more than 70 cities worldwide pledging to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Public sector actors can fuel sustainable transformation by releasing capital to invest in sustainable city transformation projects and smart cities. By tapping into the value of data and green infrastructure, smart cities can combat climate risks and become more resilient to the many unexpected events of today’s increasingly unpredictable world. These cities can supportthe decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts by diffusing circular economy approaches to production and consumption.
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Based on the ideas presented in the previous text, as well as on its linguistic aspects, judge the following items.
The segment “more than”, in the last sentence of the third paragraph, can be correctly replaced with over than without changing the meaning of the text.
Text 1A2-II
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. About 6-7 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with T. cruzi. The disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American countries, where it has been mostly transmitted to humans and other mammals by contact with feces or urine of triatomine bugs (vector-borne), known as kissing bugs, among many other popular names, depending on the geographical area.
Chagas disease is named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, a Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909. Chagas disease was once entirely confined to continental rural areas of the Region of the Americas (excluding the Caribbean islands). Due to increased population mobility over previous decades, most infected people now live in urban settings and the infection has been increasingly detected in the United States of America, Canada, and many European and some African, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific countries.
Chagas disease’s transmission is caused by T. cruzi parasites, which are mainly transmitted by contact with feces/urine of infected blood-sucking triatomine bugs. Normally they hide during the day and become active at night when they feed on animal blood, including human blood. They usually bite an exposed area of skin such as the face (hence its common name, kissing bug), and the bug defecates or urinates close to the bite. The parasites enter the body when the person instinctively smears the bug’s feces or urine into the bite, other skin breaks, the eyes, or the mouth. T. cruzi can also be transmitted by consumption of food or beverages contaminated with T. cruzi through, for example, contact with feces or urine of infected triatomine bugs or common opossums. This kind of transmission typically causes outbreaks with more severe cases and mortality; passage from an infected mother to her newborn during pregnancy or childbirth; blood or blood product transfusion from infected donors; some organ transplants using organs from infected donors; and laboratory accidents.
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Choose the option in which is presented an expression that could correctly replace “Due to” (third sentence of the second paragraph of text 1A2-II).
