Month: July 2023
Researchers prove ChatGPT and other big bots can – and will – go to the dark side
Researchers broke ChatGPT – what could this mean for our safety and security?
For a lot of us, AI-powered tools have quickly become a part of our everyday life, either as low-maintenance work helpers or vital assets used every day to help generate or moderate content. But are these tools safe enough to be used on a daily basis? According to a group of researchers, the answer is no.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for AI Safety set out to examine the existing vulnerabilities of AI Large Language Models (LLMs) like popular chatbot ChatGPT to automated attacks. The research paper they produced demonstrated that these popular bots can easily be manipulated into bypassing any existing filters and generating harmful content, misinformation, and hate speech.
This makes AI language models vulnerable to misuse, even if that may not be the intent of the original creator. In a time when AI tools are already being used for nefarious purposes, it’s alarming how easily these researchers were able to bypass built-in safety and morality features.
If it’s that easy …
Aviv Ovadya, a researcher at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard commented on the research paper in the New York Times, stating: “This shows – very clearly – the brittleness of the defenses we are building into these systems.”
The authors of the paper targeted LLMs from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for the experiment. These companies have built their respective publicly-accessible chatbots on these LLMs, including ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Claude.
As it turned out, the chatbots could be tricked into not recognizing harmful prompts by simply sticking a lengthy string of characters to the end of each prompt, almost ‘disguising’ the malicious prompt. The system’s content filters don’t recognize and can’t block or modify so generates a response that normally wouldn’t be allowed. Interestingly, it does appear that specific strings of ‘nonsense data’ are required; we tried to replicate some of the examples from the paper with ChatGPT, and it produced an error message saying ‘unable to generate response’.
Before releasing this research to the public, the authors shared their findings with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google who all apparently shared their commitment to improving safety precautions and addressing concerns.
This news follows shortly after OpenAI closed down its own AI detection program, which does lead me to feel concerned, if not a little nervous. How much could OpenAI care about user safety, or at the very least be working towards improving safety, when the company can no longer distinguish between bot and man-made content?
European consumers believe society isn’t ready for AI, survey finds
The rapid rise of AI has evoked mixed feelings to say the least. Some experts champion it as a “force for good,” while others forewarn it poses a “risk of extinction.” To assess how European consumers feel about artificial intelligence, decision intelligence company Morning Consult Pro surveyed 1,000 adults in five major markets across the continent: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK. The survey found that AI-powered online search is among the three most interesting applications across all countries but Spain, where it ranks fourth. Respondents are also excited about AI’s integration into healthcare diagnostics, road assistance, and flight…This story continues at The Next Web
The rapid rise of AI has evoked mixed feelings to say the least. Some experts champion it as a “force for good,” while others forewarn it poses a “risk of extinction.” To assess how European consumers feel about artificial intelligence, decision intelligence company Morning Consult Pro surveyed 1,000 adults in five major markets across the continent: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK. The survey found that AI-powered online search is among the three most interesting applications across all countries but Spain, where it ranks fourth. Respondents are also excited about AI’s integration into healthcare diagnostics, road assistance, and flight…
This story continues at The Next Web
Kenya Reports Cyber Attacks Causing Government System Outages
Cyber attackers targeted a digital platform used by Kenya’s government to deliver services, the country’s technology minister said, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the system. From a report: The attack on the e-Citizen platform in recent days caused system outages that left users unable to access a broad range of government services, ranging from passport applications to electricity payments. Some private companies were also affected.
It was “an unsuccessful attempt to overload the system through extraordinary requests, with the intention of clogging it,” said Eliud Owalo, cabinet secretary for information technology, in a statement on Thursday. He said technical teams had blocked the source of the requests, adding that privacy and the security of data had not been compromised.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Cyber attackers targeted a digital platform used by Kenya’s government to deliver services, the country’s technology minister said, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the system. From a report: The attack on the e-Citizen platform in recent days caused system outages that left users unable to access a broad range of government services, ranging from passport applications to electricity payments. Some private companies were also affected.
It was “an unsuccessful attempt to overload the system through extraordinary requests, with the intention of clogging it,” said Eliud Owalo, cabinet secretary for information technology, in a statement on Thursday. He said technical teams had blocked the source of the requests, adding that privacy and the security of data had not been compromised.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Canon’s tilting EVF concept could be a dream for mirrorless photographers
Canon has patented a built-in tilt-EVF for what looks like an advanced mirrorless camera like the rumored EOS R5 II.
A super-interesting patent has been brought to our attention by Canon Rumors for a built-in tilt electronic viewfinder, designed for what looks like a Canon EOS R series mirrorless camera such as the rumored Canon EOS R5 II.
The highly detailed diagrams in the patent, which can be found at J Plat Pat (Japan Platform for Patent Information), illustrate what could be a first for a DSLR-style mirrorless camera, and an amazing new feature for photographers especially.
A viewfinder that tilts all the way up to 90 degrees, usually with clicked 45-degree and 90-degree positions, can offer a similar experience to the waist-level finders of medium-format film cameras – you can compose and shoot looking down into the camera from above.
The Panasonic Lumix GX9 has a tilt EVF (Image credit: Panasonic)
Waist-level finders are especially helpful for shooting at low angles without having to contort your body into uncomfortable positions, as you have to do when shooting low with the fixed viewfinder type that you find in almost all other cameras.
It’s why camera makers such as Leica also create optional waist-level finders (also known as eye-level finders) like the Visoflex 2 Viewfinder for cameras like the M11, which already feature a built-in viewfinder; waist-level finders can make life easier and open up new shooting styles.
What’s new about this viewfinder?
Tilting viewfinders are nothing new per se – we’ve seen them in beginner mirrorless cameras like the Panasonic Lumix GX9 (above), and, as mentioned, in the form of optional units like the Visoflex 2. So there has to be something different about this new tilting viewfinder for Canon to patent, and not just that it will be a first for a DSLR-style mirrorless camera.
From what we can see, it’s a two-phase pull-out and tilt design. Again, that’s nothing new, but what it does allow is for the hotshoe directly above the viewfinder to remain in place. Without the two-phase motion, the hotshoe would also tilt along with the viewfinder, which would be a design catastrophe.
And when you’re not using the tilt function of the viewfinder, it can be slotted back in place and out of the way, as if it were a regular fixed viewfinder all along. It’s a neat idea that elicits a ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?’ reaction.
Canon patent diagrams for built-in tilt EVF for EOS R mirrorless cameras (Image credit: JPO and INPIT)
(Image credit: JPO and INPIT)
(Image credit: JPO and INPIT)
(Image credit: JPO and INPIT)
(Image credit: JPO and INPIT)
You might consider a tilting EVF and a vari-angle screen (like the one you find in the EOS R5) in the same camera as complete overkill. However, there are plenty of scenarios where photographers in particular favor the viewfinder over using a screen – especially in bright light, where a screen can be hard to see clearly. And why should LCD screens get all the shooting angle versatility and viewfinder miss out?
Yes, this tilting built-in EVF looks like design excellence, and we’re keen to see it materialize in a new EOS R camera soon.
The 75th Emmy Awards face postponement due to Hollywood strikes
Image: Getty
The 75th annual Emmy Awards likely won’t take place on September 18th as planned. According to a report from Variety, vendors, producers, and others involved with the ceremony have been notified that the date has been pushed back amid the Hollywood strikes.
While the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its nominees for the 2023 awards on July 12th, this took place just one day before the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) called a strike. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since May, with both unions looking for higher streaming residuals and protections surrounding the use of AI.
The Television Academy still hasn’t confirmed that the Emmys have been delayed, but even if it were to take place, it would have lots of empty seats. Under the rules of the strikes, actors and writers can’t accept awards for struck work, nor can they attend an event that promotes it. Unionized actors can’t host or present for the show, either, and writers can’t create scripts.
“Like the rest of the industry, we hope there will be an equitable and timely resolution for all parties in the current guild negotiations,” the Television Academy said in a statement to Deadline last week. “We continue to monitor the situation closely with our partners at Fox and will advise if and when there is an update available.”
This marks the first time the Emmy Awards ceremony has been delayed since 2001. At that time, the Television Academy chose to postpone the event until November due to the September 11th attacks. Despite the potential delay, Variety reports that phase two voting for the awards will still take place on August 17th.
Fox, the channel that’s airing the 2023 Emmys, is shooting to air the show in January 2024, while the Television Academy is aiming for a November date, according to Variety. But with no end to the strikes in sight — and Hollywood’s biggest producers not budging in the slightest — the Emmys likely won’t take place this year at all.
Image: Getty
The 75th annual Emmy Awards likely won’t take place on September 18th as planned. According to a report from Variety, vendors, producers, and others involved with the ceremony have been notified that the date has been pushed back amid the Hollywood strikes.
While the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its nominees for the 2023 awards on July 12th, this took place just one day before the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) called a strike. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since May, with both unions looking for higher streaming residuals and protections surrounding the use of AI.
The Television Academy still hasn’t confirmed that the Emmys have been delayed, but even if it were to take place, it would have lots of empty seats. Under the rules of the strikes, actors and writers can’t accept awards for struck work, nor can they attend an event that promotes it. Unionized actors can’t host or present for the show, either, and writers can’t create scripts.
“Like the rest of the industry, we hope there will be an equitable and timely resolution for all parties in the current guild negotiations,” the Television Academy said in a statement to Deadline last week. “We continue to monitor the situation closely with our partners at Fox and will advise if and when there is an update available.”
This marks the first time the Emmy Awards ceremony has been delayed since 2001. At that time, the Television Academy chose to postpone the event until November due to the September 11th attacks. Despite the potential delay, Variety reports that phase two voting for the awards will still take place on August 17th.
Fox, the channel that’s airing the 2023 Emmys, is shooting to air the show in January 2024, while the Television Academy is aiming for a November date, according to Variety. But with no end to the strikes in sight — and Hollywood’s biggest producers not budging in the slightest — the Emmys likely won’t take place this year at all.
Abode, a satirically named startup, raises $235K in crowdfunding campaign from 3,000 artists to take on Adobe
The immense power of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google (now Alphabet), Meta, and Microsoft is massive. Over the last two decades, these companies have asserted their dominance in various market segments all across the globe. They wield power over
The immense power of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google (now Alphabet), Meta, and Microsoft is massive. Over the last two decades, these companies have asserted their dominance in various market segments all across the globe. They wield power over […]