1 year ago
136 This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
AI representation generator Midjourney blocks porn by banning words astir the quality reproductive system
The news: The fashionable AI representation generator Midjourney bans a wide scope of words astir the quality reproductive strategy from being utilized arsenic prompts, MIT Technology Review has discovered.
What’s included? The database of banned words look to skew predominantly female, including presumption specified arsenic “placenta,” “fallopian tubes,” and “mammary glands.” The institution says it’s banning these words arsenic a stopgap measurement to forestall radical from generating shocking oregon gory contented portion it “improves things connected the AI side.”
Why it matters: Midjourney’s crude banning of prompts relating to reproductive biology highlights however tricky it is to mean contented astir generative AI systems. It besides demonstrates however the inclination for AI systems to sexualize women extends each the mode to their interior organs. Read the afloat story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
How your encephalon information could beryllium utilized against you
Our elder biotech newsman Jessica Hamzelou has been successful Lisbon, Portugal this week to attend a technological league connected encephalon stimulation. Neuroscientists, encephalon surgeons, psychiatrists, and ethicists gathered to sermon however to champion usage the technologies that usage magnetic oregon electrical pulses to alteration the mode our brains work.
We’re inactive getting to grips with however these technologies work, but successful the meantime, immoderate are generating immense amounts of information astir individuals’ brains. There’s a accidental this information could beryllium utilized against radical successful a tribunal of law, making it captious that we commencement reasoning astir these uses, and however to support encephalon data, now. Read the afloat story.
Jessica’s communicative is from The Checkup, her play biotech and wellness newsletter. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 China has cracked down connected ChatGPT access
It was ne'er officially available, but present the workarounds users person been exploiting person been chopped disconnected too. (The Guardian)
+ China is unsurprisingly upbeat astir its ain autochthonal chatbots, though. (Reuters)
+ Baidu’s reply to ChatGPT is coming adjacent month. (CNBC)
+ ChatGPT is everywhere. Here’s wherever it came from. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The US has filed much charges against Sam Bankman-Fried
Including conspiracy to perpetrate slope fraud.(WP $)
+ Prosecutors provided much details connected however his money-spreading governmental schemes worked. (Vox)
+ What’s adjacent for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)
3 AI-generated voices tin instrumentality banking systems
This highlights however susceptible voice-activated information measures present are to hacking. (Motherboard)+ GPT-powered deepfakes are becoming large business. (Fast Company $)
4 Chip makers are warring it retired for national funding
Firms successful the US are jostling to marque their lawsuit for grants. (NYT $)
+ What’s adjacent for the spot industry. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The European Commission has banned unit from utilizing TikTok
It’s disquieted the app is simply a menace to the information of its workers’ devices. (FT $)
6 Migrants are utilizing summons scalpers’ tools to participate the US
Auto clickers capable successful borderline control’s online forms successful the blink of an eye. (Rest of World)
7 How the Buy Nothing question fell apart
The frugal assemblage thrived connected Facebook. Then it tried to leave. (Wired $)
+ Former evangelists are denouncing the radical and are going it alone. (NY Mag $)
8 Jet skis are going electric
They’re a batch much efficient—and quieter.(IEEE Spectrum)
9 Where does virtual world spell from here?
The antheral who coined the connection “metaverse” has thoughts. (FT $)
+ The metaverse is simply a caller connection for an aged idea. (MIT Technology Review)
10 What java without beans tastes similar ☕
It’s being touted arsenic a much sustainable alternative. (Neo.Life)
Quote of the day
"You being the halfway near look of our spending volition mean you giving to a batch of woke crap for transactional purposes."
—How a governmental advisor moving for Sam Bankman-Fried described the kinds of causes helium should fund, Motherboard reports.
The satellite is moving person to a caller acold warfare fought with authoritarian tech
Despite President Biden’s assurances that the US is not seeking a caller acold war, 1 is brewing betwixt the world’s autocracies and democracies—and exertion is fueling it.
Authoritarian states are pursuing China’s pb and are trending toward much integer rights abuses by expanding the wide integer surveillance of citizens, censorship, and controls connected idiosyncratic expression.
And portion democracies besides usage monolithic amounts of surveillance technology, it’s the tech commercialized relationships betwixt authoritarian countries that’s enabling the emergence of digitally enabled societal control. Read the afloat story.
