Hey, y’all! Just another random, loudmouthed, opinionated, Southern-fried nerdy American living abroad.
This is my lemmy account because I got sick of how unstable kbin dot social was.
Mastodon: @stopthatgirl7
This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.
Flood of AI-Generated Submissions ‘Final Straw’ for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher (www.404media.co)
A small publisher for speculative fiction and roleplaying games is shuttering after 22 years, and the “final straw,” its founder said, is an influx of AI-generated submissions....
Israeli Minister Reportedly Asks IDF To Kill Palestinians Instead Of Arresting Them (www.huffpost.com)
The Israeli Defense Force’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, briefed ministers at a security cabinet meeting last week about recent operations in Gaza, where Israel has been carrying out a military offensive for almost seven months now in response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people and captured...
Discord Shuts Down ‘Spy Pet’ Bots That Scraped, Sold User Messages (www.404media.co)
Discord banned a mass of accounts that were part of a service that scraped and sold user data, including messages posted across servers and what voice channels they joined, 404 Media has learned. The move comes after 404 Media reported on the service, called Spy Pet, last week and verified it was selling access to genuine user...
An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary (www.technologyreview.com)
Thanks to rapid advancements in generative AI and a glut of training data created by human actors that has been fed into its AI model, Synthesia has been able to produce avatars that are indeed more humanlike and more expressive than their predecessors. The digital clones are better able to match their reactions and intonation...
Baltimore County educator framed principal with AI-generated voice, police say (www.thebaltimorebanner.com)
Baltimore County Police arrested****Pikesville High School’s former athletic director Thursday morning and charged him with allegedly using artificial intelligence to impersonate Principal Eric Eiswert, leading the public to believe Eiswert made racist and antisemitic comments behind closed doors....
Tesla’s in its flop era (www.theverge.com)
When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs...
Instagram Advertises Nonconsensual AI Nude Apps (www.404media.co)
Instagram is profiting from several ads that invite people to create nonconsensual nude images with AI image generation apps, once again showing that some of the most harmful applications of AI tools are not hidden on the dark corners of the internet, but are actively promoted to users by social media companies unable or...
Adobe’s ‘Ethical’ Firefly AI Was Trained on Midjourney Images (www.bloomberg.com)
When Adobe Inc. released its Firefly image-generating software last year, the company said the artificial intelligence model was trained mainly on Adobe Stock, its database of hundreds of millions of licensed images. Firefly, Adobe said, was a “commercially safe” alternative to competitors like Midjourney, which learned by...
Speed of AI development is outpacing risk assessment (arstechnica.com)
The increasing power of the latest artificial intelligence systems is stretching traditional evaluation methods to breaking point, posing a challenge to businesses and public bodies over how best to work with the fast-evolving technology....
X automatically changed 'Twitter' to 'X' in domain names, breaking legit URLs (mashable.com)
On Monday, it appears X attempted to encourage users to cease referring to it as Twitter and instead adopt the name X. Some users began noticing that posts viewed via X for iOS were changing any references of "Twitter.com" to "X.com" automatically....
Fake Photos, Real Harm: AOC and the Fight Against AI Porn (www.rollingstone.com)
In 2023, more deepfake abuse videos were shared than in every other year in history combined, according to an analysis by independent researcher Genevieve Oh. What used to take skillful, tech-savvy experts hours to Photoshop can now be whipped up at a moment’s notice with the help of an app. Some deepfake websites even offer...
Elon Musk just gave another Mars speech—this time the vision seems tangible (arstechnica.com)
Elon Musk's X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X's AI chatbot Grok made it up. (mashable.com)
A shocking story was promoted on the "front page" or main feed of Elon Musk's X on Thursday:...
Roku explores taking over HDMI feeds with ads (www.lowpass.cc)
Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing. ...
Google might make users pay for AI features in search results (arstechnica.com)
Google might start charging for access to search results that use generative artificial intelligence tools. That's according to a new Financial Times report citing "three people with knowledge of [Google's] plans."...
TSMC “still assessing” chipmaking facilities after 7.4-magnitude quake hits Taiwan (arstechnica.com)
‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza (www.972mag.com)
In 2021, a book titled “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli...
Court Bans Use of 'AI-Enhanced' Video Evidence Because That's Not How AI Works (gizmodo.com)
A judge in Washington state has blocked video evidence that’s been “AI-enhanced” from being submitted in a triple murder trial. And that’s a good thing, given the fact that too many people seem to think applying an AI filter can give them access to secret visual data.
George Carlin Estate Settles Lawsuit Over AI-Generated Comedy Special (variety.com)
George Carlin‘s estate has settled a lawsuit over an AI-generated imitation of the late comedian, with the creators agreeing to remove it from their YouTube channel and podcast feed....
Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores (gizmodo.com)
Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.
NYC AI Chatbot Touted by Adams Tells Businesses to Break the Law (www.thecity.nyc)
In October, New York City announced a plan to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the business of government. The announcement included a surprising centerpiece: an AI-powered chatbot that would provide New Yorkers with information on starting and operating a business in the city. ...
AI bots hallucinate software packages and devs download them (www.theregister.com)
Several big businesses have published source code that incorporates a software package previously hallucinated by generative AI....
Discord to start showing ads in-app this week - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com)
In early March 2024, Discord revealed that “sponsored quests”, or ads would be added to the platform to help “support game developers” through the popular chat app. ...
OpenAI Unveils A.I. Technology That Recreates Human Voices (www.nytimes.com)
First, OpenAI offered a tool that allowed people to create digital images simply by describing what they wanted to see. Then, it built similar technology that generated full-motion video like something from a Hollywood movie....
Generative AI Is Coming To Your Home Appliances (www.forbes.com)
Across all industries, organizations are rapidly embracing generative AI. Among them, makers of home appliances like fridges and ovens. Generative AI in your oven? Why not? Ater all, AI has been creeping into our homes for years (think smart lightbulbs and Alexa) – but thanks to generative AI, these interactions will become...
‘IRL Fakes:’ Where People Pay for AI-Generated Porn of Normal People (www.404media.co)
A Telegram user who advertises their services on Twitter will create an AI-generated pornographic image of anyone in the world for as little as $10 if users send them pictures of that person. Like many other Telegram communities and users producing nonconsensual AI-generated sexual images, this user creates fake nude images of...
‘Mamma Mia!’ Stage Star Sara Poyzer Replaced By AI On BBC Show To Recreate Voice Of Dying Person — Update (deadline.com)
The BBC has issued a statement that offers important context to Sara Poyzer’s viral social media posts. The British broadcaster said it is using AI technology in a “highly sensitive documentary” to represent the voice of a person who is nearing the end of their life....
The BBC Won't Use AI to Promote Doctor Who Again After Being Yelled at by Fans (gizmodo.com)
The backlash was immediate, but it didn’t stop the BBC from using text generated by LLMs—and purportedly checked and copy-edited by a human before approval—in two marketing emails and mobile push notifications to advertise Doctor Who. But now, the corporation will stop the experimentation entirely after a wave of official...
Who’s Behind All the ‘Pussy in Bio’ on X? (nymag.com)
Spam is hard. No real platform has solved it completely, and none ever will. Spammers evolve, platforms catch up, spammers evolve again, and so on until the last post is posted and the last user signs out. Individual spam tactics, however, do tend to have short lives, and while PIB won’t be with us forever, it’s notable...
Revealed: a California city is training AI to spot homeless encampments (www.theguardian.com)
Last July, San Jose issued an open invitation to technology companies to mount cameras on a municipal vehicle that began periodically driving through the city’s district 10 in December, collecting footage of the streets and public spaces. The images are fed into computer vision software and used to train the companies’...
Google will start showing AI-powered search results to users who didn't opt in (www.engadget.com)
If you're in the US, you might see a new shaded section at the top of your Google Search results with a summary answering your inquiry, along with links for more information. That section, generated by Google's generative AI technology, used to appear only if you've opted into the Search Generative Experience(SGE) in the Search...
Redditors Vent and Complain When People Mock Their "AI Art" (futurism.com)
Setting aside the usual arguments on the anti- and pro-AI art debate and the nature of creativity itself, perhaps the negative reaction that the Redditor encountered is part of a sea change in opinion among many people that think corporate AI platforms are exploitive and extractive in nature because their datasets rely on...
Fewer people are using Elon Musk’s X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts (www.nbcnews.com)
Data from two research firms and figures published by Musk and X suggest a deteriorating situation for X by some metrics. Musk has marketed it as the world’s “town square,” but in number of users it continues to lag far behind social media rivals that focus on video, such as Instagram and TikTok. ...
Calmara suggests it can detect STIs with photos of genitals -- a dangerous idea | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
You’ve gone home with a Tinder date, and things are escalating. You don’t really know or trust this guy, and you don’t want to contract an STI, so… what now?...
It's Not Safe to Click Links on X (lifehacker.com)
As noted by security researcher Will Dormann, some posts on X purport to lead to a legitimate website, but actually redirect somewhere else. In Dormann's example, an advertisement posted by a verified X user claims to lead to forbes.com. When Dormann clicks the link, however, it takes him to a different link to open a Telegram...
Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers With AI-Generated Text (www.404media.co)
The ChatGPT phrase “As of my last knowledge update” appears in several papers published by academic journals.
AI weapons scanner backtracks on UK testing claims (www.bbc.com)
Evolv Technology makes "intelligent" scanners designed to replace metal detectors by identifying people with concealed guns, knives and bombs....
Keywords tried to make a game using GenAI but said the tech was 'unable to replace talent' (www.gamedeveloper.com)
Global service provider Keywords, which recently worked on acclaimed projects like Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and The Legends of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, conducted an experiment last year....
Amazon's Hidden Chatbot Recommends Nazi Books and Lies About Amazon Working Conditions (www.404media.co)
An Amazon chatbot that’s supposed to surface useful information from customer reviews of specific products will also recommend a variety of racist books, lie about working conditions at Amazon, and write a cover letter for a job application with entirely made up work experience when asked, 404 Media has found.
Ex-Activision CEO Bobby Kotick looks to buy TikTok amid shutdown fears - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com)
TikTok has been at the center of controversy for the United States government in the last few years. Particularly, members of the Senate believe China-based parent company ByteDance could spy on its users and share information with the Chinese Government....
Menstruation cycle tracking app breached users' privacy, B.C. class-action lawsuit alleges (bc.ctvnews.ca)
VANCOUVER - A British Columbia Supreme Court judge says a class-action lawsuit can move forward over alleged privacy breaches against a company that made an app to track users' menstrual and fertility cycles....