Month: June 2024
FCC chair asks telecoms companies to prove they’re actually trying to stop political AI robocalls
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has drafted a series of letters to nine major telecom companies, including AT&T and Comcast, to ask if they’re actually doing anything about AI political robocalls. AI-generated voices are getting pretty good at mimicking humans and we’ve already seen this technology in action, when an audio deepfake urged voters to skip the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
“We know that AI technologies will make it cheap and easy to flood our networks with deepfakes used to mislead and betray trust. It is especially chilling to see AI voice cloning used to impersonate candidates during elections. As AI tools become more accessible to bad actors and scammers, we need to do everything we can to keep this junk off our networks,” wrote Rosenworcel.
It’s worth noting that all AI robocalls were banned back in February, political or not, but the big telecom companies have yet to announce any enforcement plans. The mandate, however, does give State Attorneys General the ability to prosecute those involved in the robocalls.
Rosenworcel has also been trying to force political campaigns to disclose whether or not they used AI in TV or radio ads, as reported by US News & World Report. The proposed plan, however, has faced opposition from the Republican chair of the Federal Election Commission. Chairman Sean Cooksey wrote in a letter to Rosenworcel that the plan would overwrite the authority of the FEC to enforce federal campaign law, prompting a legal challenge.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fcc-chair-asks-telecoms-companies-to-prove-theyre-actually-trying-to-stop-political-ai-robocalls-184227549.html?src=rss
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has drafted a series of letters to nine major telecom companies, including AT&T and Comcast, to ask if they’re actually doing anything about AI political robocalls. AI-generated voices are getting pretty good at mimicking humans and we’ve already seen this technology in action, when an audio deepfake urged voters to skip the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
“We know that AI technologies will make it cheap and easy to flood our networks with deepfakes used to mislead and betray trust. It is especially chilling to see AI voice cloning used to impersonate candidates during elections. As AI tools become more accessible to bad actors and scammers, we need to do everything we can to keep this junk off our networks,” wrote Rosenworcel.
It’s worth noting that all AI robocalls were banned back in February, political or not, but the big telecom companies have yet to announce any enforcement plans. The mandate, however, does give State Attorneys General the ability to prosecute those involved in the robocalls.
Rosenworcel has also been trying to force political campaigns to disclose whether or not they used AI in TV or radio ads, as reported by US News & World Report. The proposed plan, however, has faced opposition from the Republican chair of the Federal Election Commission. Chairman Sean Cooksey wrote in a letter to Rosenworcel that the plan would overwrite the authority of the FEC to enforce federal campaign law, prompting a legal challenge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fcc-chair-asks-telecoms-companies-to-prove-theyre-actually-trying-to-stop-political-ai-robocalls-184227549.html?src=rss
The Majority of Gen Z Describe Themselves as Video Content Creators
For the first two decades of the social internet, lurkers ruled. Among Gen Z, they’re in the minority, according to survey data from YouTube. From a report: Tech industry insiders used to cite a rule of thumb stating that only one in ten of an online community’s users generally post new content, with the masses logging on only to consume images, video or other updates. Now younger generations are flipping that divide, a survey by the video platform said. YouTube found that 65 percent of Gen Z, which it defined as people between the ages of 14 and 24, describe themselves as video content creators — making lurkers a minority.
The finding came from responses from 350 members of Gen Z in the U.S., out of a wider survey that asked thousands of people about how they spend time online, including whether they consider themselves video creators. YouTube did the survey in partnership with research firm SmithGeiger, as part of its annual report on trends on the platform. YouTube’s report says that after watching videos online, many members of Gen Z respond with videos of their own, uploading their own commentary, reaction videos, deep dives into content posted by others and more. This kind of interaction often develops in response to videos on pop culture topics such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” or the Fallout video game series. Fan-created content can win more watch time than the original source material, the report says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
For the first two decades of the social internet, lurkers ruled. Among Gen Z, they’re in the minority, according to survey data from YouTube. From a report: Tech industry insiders used to cite a rule of thumb stating that only one in ten of an online community’s users generally post new content, with the masses logging on only to consume images, video or other updates. Now younger generations are flipping that divide, a survey by the video platform said. YouTube found that 65 percent of Gen Z, which it defined as people between the ages of 14 and 24, describe themselves as video content creators — making lurkers a minority.
The finding came from responses from 350 members of Gen Z in the U.S., out of a wider survey that asked thousands of people about how they spend time online, including whether they consider themselves video creators. YouTube did the survey in partnership with research firm SmithGeiger, as part of its annual report on trends on the platform. YouTube’s report says that after watching videos online, many members of Gen Z respond with videos of their own, uploading their own commentary, reaction videos, deep dives into content posted by others and more. This kind of interaction often develops in response to videos on pop culture topics such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” or the Fallout video game series. Fan-created content can win more watch time than the original source material, the report says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tempur-Pedic Luxe Breeze Review 2024: Maximum Cooling at a Premium Price
The Luxe Breeze is Tempur-Pedic’s most high-end mattress. It sleeps cool while providing cradling comfort, but is it worth the money?
The Luxe Breeze is Tempur-Pedic’s most high-end mattress. It sleeps cool while providing cradling comfort, but is it worth the money?
Mere days before its debut, the Ariane 6 rocket loses a key customer to SpaceX
“I am impatiently waiting to understand what reasons could have led Eumetsat to such a decision.”
Enlarge / The flight hardware core stage for Europe’s new rocket, Ariane 6, is moved onto the launch pad for the first time. A launch is due to occur on July 9, 2024. (credit: ESA-M. Pédoussaut)
In a shocking announcement this week, the European intergovernmental organization responsible for launching and operating the continent’s weather satellites has pulled its next mission off a future launch of Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket. Instead, the valuable MTG-S1 satellite will now reach geostationary orbit on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in 2025.
“This decision was driven by exceptional circumstances” said Phil Evans, director general of the organization Eumetsat. “It does not compromise our standard policy of supporting European partners, and we look forward to a successful SpaceX launch for this masterpiece of European technology.”
The decision, taken at a council meeting of Eumetsat’s 30 member nations on Wednesday and Thursday, comes less than two weeks before the debut of the Ariane 6 rocket, scheduled for July 9.
Will Core i9 crashing debacle stop gamers from buying Intel’s next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs? This motherboard maker is worried it might
Is there a danger that the CPU instability saga might color the perception of Arrow Lake? It’s far from unthinkable.
Intel’s well-documented issues with its high-end 13th-gen and 14th-gen CPUs crashing or being generally unstable with PC games could cast a cloud over sales of the firm’s next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs.
Or it is the warning from a motherboard maker following the ongoing saga that has been dragged out over the course of this year, with complaints from Core i9 processor owners and various advice from Intel, including recommended settings for mitigation and a recent BIOS fix. (The latter addressed a bug in the microcode for the Enhanced Thermal Velocity Boost feature of these CPUs, which Team Blue admitted could contribute to the crashing issues).
At any rate, Wccftech reports that ZDNet in Korea has spoken to a representative of an unnamed motherboard manufacturer who, under cover of anonymity, raised concerns about how this whole episode could impact Intel’s next-gen desktop CPU sales.
They are quoted as saying: “If the stability issue is not clearly resolved, consumer distrust will increase, and sales of ‘Arrow Lake,’ a new processor for desktop PCs that Intel plans to release in the fourth quarter, will decrease.”
(Image credit: Intel)
Analysis: The danger of tainted perception for Intel
Obviously, we must take this report with a good deal of caution, but really – is this revelation surprising? We’d argue that it isn’t, although what is surprising, or certainly unusual, is that a motherboard maker would come forward with such a statement – sprinkle seasoning as noted – underlining the gravity of the situation as it has unfurled.
Indeed, we’re struggling to remember a more confusing and thorny hardware-related issue in more recent PC history. Fingers of blame have been pointed here and there, while gamers who’ve spent a lot of money on top-end silicon have been suffering at the hands of crashes, which have undoubtedly been very frustrating.
While the problem has been resolved in a fashion, root causes still haven’t been nailed down precisely and the mentioned mitigations have a performance trade-off that enthusiasts who buy the likes of Intel’s Core i9 desktop processors are not going to be happy with, either. Although clearly, dropping some frames is a better alternative to persistent instability when gaming.
So, with that in mind, is it believable that this debacle could dent the computing public’s confidence in Intel’s CPUs? We think it’s possible, and logically, if Intel doesn’t come up with a definitive solution relatively soon, this could cast shadows of doubt for those looking at Arrow Lake for a next-gen CPU.
While not everyone has been affected by these gremlins by any means, the complaints are numerous enough, and the controversy will have registered without a doubt. And even though Arrow Lake is a very different beast to current Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs from Intel – and looks like it will take power usage down to a tamer level, anyway – that won’t matter to the average PC buyer, most likely. Never mind relative power consumption figures, the danger is they’ll just have heard chatter along the lines of “well don’t buy Intel they’re unstable” or similar sentiments, which could be quite damaging for Team Blue.
We shall see, but Intel is already on the back foot in the battle of the best CPUs for the next generation, given that Ryzen 9000 CPUs are now imminent, and there’s even the prospect that AMD’s 9000X3D models – which will be great for gamers – could turn up before Arrow Lake does later in 2024 (or at least around the same time).
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