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As experts warn that images, audio and video generated by artificial intelligence could influence the fall elections, OpenAI is releasing a tool designed to detect content created by its own popular image generator, DALL-E. start-up acknowledges that this tool is only a small part of what will be needed to fight so-called deepfakes in the months and years to come. On Tuesday, OpenAI said it would share its new deepfake detector with a small group of disinformation researchers so they could test the tool in real-world situations and help pinpoint ways it could be improved. “This is to kick-start new research,” said Sandhini Agarwal, an OpenAI researcher who focuses on safety and policy. “That is really needed.”

Persons: OpenAI, ”, Sandhini Agarwal

An article on a fake online news outlet that Meta has linked to Russia’s information operations attributed the clashes unfolding on American college campuses to the failures of the Biden administration. A newspaper controlled by the Communist Party of China said the police crackdowns exposed the “double standards and hypocrisy” in the United States when it comes to free speech. On X, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, posted a cartoon of the police arresting a young protester in the guise of the Statue of Liberty. As protests over the war in Gaza have spread across the United States, Russia, China and Iran have seized on them to score geopolitical points abroad and stoke tensions within the United States, according to researchers who have identified both overt and covert efforts by the countries to amplify the protests since they began. There is little evidence — at least so far — that the countries have provided material or organizational support to the protests, the way Russia recruited unwitting Black Lives Matter protesters to stage rallies before the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Persons: Biden, Nasser Kanaani, ” Organizations: Communist Party of, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Locations: Communist Party of China, United States, of, U.S.A, Gaza, Russia, China, Iran

☆ As Press Reports Some Juror Details, Polarized Reactions Take Over
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Opening arguments in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial will not start until next week, but media coverage of the proceedings has already been met with partisan furor. Jury selection, which began on Monday, produced a full 12-person panel by Thursday and ended Friday with the selection of alternates. Over the course of the week, many conservatives claimed that the selection process had been rigged against Mr. Trump, while some progressives argued that the press was releasing too many details about possible jurors, putting them in potential danger. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, has ordered that the names of the potential and selected jurors remain confidential. The proceedings on Friday kicked off with a warning from a court official to reporters and members of the public attending the trial to follow courtroom rules around filming, photographs and technology.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Juan M Organizations: Mr Locations: Manhattan

Within days, millions of TikTok videos using music from Universal artists went mute, and since then guessing which side would blink first has become a media-business parlor game. Backing this up, one study found that TikTok users reported experiencing higher levels of flow than Instagram users. Corey Basch, who analyzed 100 popular TikTok videos with the hashtag mentalhealth for a 2022 study, emerged concerned about the looping effect of the algorithm. Cerave Sales increased by more than 60 percent in 2020 after skin care became a lockdown pastime and TikTok users discovered the drugstore mainstay. Cat Crack Catnip It briefly sold out in 2021 after TikTok users posted videos of their cats going crazy for it.

Persons: randos, TikTok, you’ve, Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, ”, “ Wonka, Barbie, “ Oppenheimer, —, goofing, cavorting, Sue Fleishman, Z’s Walter Cronkite, Spehar, Donald J, Trump, he’s, Caitlin Clark’s, Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, Abbie Richards, Richards, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Fleetwood Mac, Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Drake, Swift, ByteDance, can’t, Mark Warner, hasn’t, Al, ear on, Li Organizations: Fleetwood Mac, Facebook, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros, White, Pew Research Center, YouTube, The New York Times, Kansas City Chiefs, Media, Colgate, Universal Music Group, ByteDance, Intelligence Committee, e Locations: United States, Beijing, Biden’s, TikTok, Singapore, View, Calif, China, American

☆ Riding Rage Over Israel to Online Prominence
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jackson Hinkle has cultivated an online persona so incendiary that he has been kicked off YouTube, Twitch and Instagram. Along the way, he has employed false or misleading content, promoted manipulated images and made comments that watchdog organizations have denounced as antisemitic. He calls himself an American patriot even as he praises American adversaries, including Vladimir V. Putin, Xi Jinping and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “DROP A LIKE if you stand with IRAN in the face of ISRAELI TERRORISM!” he wrote last week on X after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed several Iranian military officials. A day later he addressed the Houthi leadership in Yemen over video, praising the group for its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Persons: Jackson Hinkle, Vladimir V, Putin, Xi Jinping, Ali Khamenei, ” Organizations: YouTube Locations: Israel, American, IRAN, Syria, Yemen, Red

☆ China, Russia and Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

America’s biggest adversaries evidently want Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election. Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way! !” The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what China and Russia hope to gain from a second Trump term. Trump has suggested that he will end this support.

Persons: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin’s, Trump, Tiffany Hsu, Steven Lee Myers, Donald J, Biden, Biden …, ”, “ MAGA, Mr, Trump’s, Putin Organizations: Trump Locations: Beijing, China, Russia, Ukraine

☆ An A.I. Researcher Takes On Election Deepfakes
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Cade Metz | Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For nearly 30 years, Oren Etzioni was among the most optimistic of artificial intelligence researchers. But in 2019 Dr. Etzioni, a University of Washington professor and founding chief executive of the Allen Institute for A.I., became one of the first researchers to warn that a new breed of A.I. And by the middle of last year, he said, he was distressed that A.I.-generated deepfakes would swing a major election. He founded a nonprofit, TrueMedia.org in January, hoping to fight that threat. The tools, available from the TrueMedia.org website to anyone approved by the nonprofit, are designed to detect fake and doctored images, audio and video.

Persons: Oren Etzioni, Etzioni Organizations: University of Washington, Allen Institute for A.I, TrueMedia.org

☆ China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials. The accounts signal a potential tactical shift in how Beijing aims to influence American politics, with more of a willingness to target specific candidates and parties, including Mr. Biden. In an echo of Russia’s influence campaign before the 2016 election, China appears to be trying to harness partisan divisions to undermine the Biden administration’s policies, despite recent efforts by the two countries to lower the temperature in their relations. Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way! !” The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Persons: Donald J, Biden, Trump, ”, “ MAGA, Mr, Trump’s Organizations: Trump, Biden Locations: Beijing, China

☆ The Islamic State Claimed the Moscow Attack. The Kremlin Is Still Blaming Others.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even before the deadly toll of the attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday became clear, officials in Russia linked it to the war against Ukraine and a broader conflict with the West. Ninety minutes after first reports of the attack, Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former president and the deputy chairman of the Kremlin’s security council, darkly hinted at “terrorists of the Kyiv regime.”The claim of responsibility by the Islamic State did little to temper the Kremlin’s narrative, which has unspooled in a torrent of unsupported accusations and baseless, even fanciful conspiracy theories spread across social media. When President Vladimir V. Putin said “radical Islamists” had carried out the attack, he called it “just an element in a series of attempts of those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” an explicit reference to Ukraine and the upheaval that year that led to the illegal annexation of Crimea. “They need a ‘Big Lie,’” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in New York, who has written extensively on Russian politics and propaganda.

Persons: Dmitri A, Medvedev, Vladimir V, Putin, “, ”, ’ ”, Nina Khrushcheva Organizations: Ukraine, West, New School Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kyiv, Ukraine, Crimea, “, New York

☆ In Big Election Year, A.I.’s Architects Move Against Its Misuse
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

is used in a year stacked with major elections around the world. start-up, joined its peers by prohibiting its technology from being applied to political campaigning or lobbying. In a blog post, the company, which makes a chatbot called Claude, said it would warn or suspend any users who violated its rules. It added that it was using tools trained to automatically detect and block misinformation and influence operations. “We expect that 2024 will see surprising uses of A.I.

Persons: chatbot, Bard, Anthropic, Claude, “, ” Organizations: Google

☆ Chinese Influence Campaign Pushes Disunity Before U.S. Election, Study Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Chinese influence campaign that has tried for years to boost Beijing’s interests is now using artificial intelligence and a network of social media accounts to amplify American discontent and division ahead of the U.S. presidential election, according to a new report. The campaign, known as Spamouflage, hopes to breed disenchantment among voters by maligning the United States as rife with urban decay, homelessness, fentanyl abuse, gun violence and crumbling infrastructure, according to the report, which was published on Thursday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research organization in London. An added aim, the report said, is to convince international audiences that the United States is in a state of chaos. Artificially generated images, some of them also edited with tools like Photoshop, have pushed the idea that the November vote will damage and potentially destroy the country.

Organizations: U.S, Institute for Strategic Locations: United States, London

☆ Google Joins Effort to Help Spot Content Made With A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Google, whose work in artificial intelligence helped make A.I.-generated content far easier to create and spread, now wants to ensure that such content is traceable as well. The tech giant said on Thursday that it was joining an effort to develop credentials for digital content, a sort of “nutrition label” that identifies when and how a photograph, a video, an audio clip or another file was produced or altered — including with A.I. The announcement follows a similar promise announced on Tuesday by Meta, which like Google has enabled the easy creation and distribution of artificially generated content. Its Bard chatbot is connected to some of the company’s most popular consumer services, such as Gmail and Docs. On YouTube, which Google owns and which will be included in the digital credential effort, users can quickly find videos featuring realistic digital avatars pontificating on current events in voices powered by text-to-speech services.

Persons: Meta Organizations: Google, Adobe, BBC, Microsoft, Sony, Meta, YouTube

☆ From Opposite Sides of War, a Hunt for Elusive Facts
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The first reports of the Hamas attack were already fusing with rumors, sweeping into social media feeds and private chat groups in an emotionally charged and largely unverified mass. Mr. Schatz, one of the best-known disinformation researchers and fact checkers in Israel, rushed back home to his computer, knowing he had little time to stop the false claims from metastasizing. In a way, he was already too late. Since the initial attack, disinformation watchdogs in the region have been overwhelmed by unfounded narratives, manipulated media and conspiracy theories. The content has spread in enormous volumes at great speed: video game clips and old news reports masquerading as current footage, attempts to disavow authentic photos as artificially generated, inaccurate translations and false accusations distributed in multiple languages.

Persons: . Schatz Locations: Israel, metastasizing

☆ New Hampshire officials to investigate A.I. robocalls mimicking Biden.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | More About Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Voters in New Hampshire received robocall messages over the weekend in a voice that was most likely artificially generated to impersonate President Biden’s, urging them not to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, according to the state attorney general’s office. The fake recordings, which told listeners that “your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” were manipulated to seem as if they had been sent by an officer of a Democratic committee, the office said. The attorney general’s office stressed that voting in the primary would not rule out voters from also casting ballots in the general election in November. “These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and to suppress New Hampshire voters,” the office said in a statement. “New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”

Persons: Biden’s, ”, “ Organizations: Democratic, New, New Hampshire voters, “ New Locations: New Hampshire, “ New Hampshire

Climate Action Against Disinformation found that, in every month since COP27, the hashtag #climatescam generated more retweets and likes than #climatecrisis and #climateemergency on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Researchers attributed much of #climatescam’s traction to a small group of influential accounts, which they said tended to be far more vocal about climate denial on X than on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Some of the sites pushing climate disinformation made money from ads — a revenue stream that researchers said was enabled by more than 150 advertising exchanges owned by some of the largest tech companies. The marketplaces, which largely use automated auctions to buy and sell online ads, placed ads on at least 15 websites known for hosting climate denial content, according to the report. Doing so flouted policies set up by many of the exchanges to block climate denial content and other disinformation from being monetized.

Persons: Bean, ” Organizations: Twitter, Facebook Locations: Russia, China, United States

Suspicious videos that began circulating in Taiwan this month seemed to show the country’s leader advertising cryptocurrency investments. Her mouth appeared blurry and her voice unfamiliar, leading Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to deem the video to be almost certainly a deepfake — an artificially generated spoof — and potentially one created by Chinese agents. For years, China has pummeled the Taiwanese information ecosystem with inaccurate narratives and conspiracy theories, seeking to undermine its democracy and divide its people in an effort to assert control over its neighbor. Now, as fears over Beijing’s growing aggression mount, a new wave of disinformation is heading across the strait separating Taiwan from the mainland before the pivotal election in January. Perhaps as much as any other place, however, the tiny island is ready for the disinformation onslaught.

Persons: Tsai Ing Organizations: Criminal Locations: Taiwan, China

X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pause their marketing campaigns after its owner, Elon Musk, endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory this month. They list how much ad revenue X employees fear the company could lose through the end of the year if advertisers do not return. On Friday, X said in a statement that $11 million in revenue was at risk and that the exact figure fluctuated as some advertisers returned to the platform and others increased spending. The company said the numbers viewed by The Times were either outdated or represented an internal exercise to evaluate total risk. X is also running ad campaigns during the holiday period to try to make up for revenue shortfalls.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, X, Musk’s, Linda Yaccarino, ” Leesha Anderson, ”, Uber, Jack, Netflix’s, Chris Christie, it’s Elon Musk, Yaccarino, ” X, “, ’, Ms, “ Lean, Tiffany Hsu Organizations: The New York Times, IBM, Apple, Disney, X, Microsoft, The Times, Twitter, Netflix, Google, NBC Universal, NBC, Press, Republican, Media, National Football League, New York Times, Athletic Locations: ”, Gaza, Israel

More major advertisers have paused their spending on X, the social media service formerly known as Twitter, as the backlash continued over Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X. The spending freeze comes as X has fought to win back advertisers who were wary of spending on the platform after Mr. Musk took it over a year ago and said he would loosen content moderation rules. The organization followed accounts that posted the content, then refreshed the X timeline until ads appeared, X said in a blog post. Only one of the nine posts highlighted by Media Matters violated its content moderation rules, X added. “Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified.

Persons: X, Musk, ” Mr, Robert Bowers, Andrew Bates, Hitler, ” X, Joe Benarroch, ”, Angelo Carusone, “ Musk, ” Ryan Mac Organizations: Elon, Warner Bros, Sony, IBM, Apple, Lionsgate, Paramount Global, CBS, Twitter, White, Media Matters, Nazi Party, X Corp, Media, “, ” Media Locations: Israel, Pittsburgh

The blowback over Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X gathered steam on Friday, as several major advertisers on his social media platform cut off their spending after his comments. Disney said it was pausing spending on X, as did Lionsgate, the entertainment and film distribution company. They followed IBM, which cut its spending with X on Thursday. Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, has been under scrutiny for months for allowing and even stoking antisemitic abuse on the site. Jewish groups have compared the statement in the original post to a belief known as replacement theory, a conspiracy theory that posits that nonwhite immigrants, organized by Jews, intend to replace the white race.

Persons: Disney, Musk, ” Mr, Robert Bowers Organizations: Elon, Lionsgate, Apple, IBM, Twitter Locations: Israel, Pittsburgh

TikTok, accused of elevating pro-Palestinian content, blamed “unsound analysis” of hashtag data. Some Instagram and Facebook users circulated a petition accusing the platforms’ parent company, Meta, of censoring pro-Palestinian posts, which Meta attributed to a technical bug. Antisemitic content swarmed onto X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and run by the billionaire Elon Musk. The major tech companies have long offered some degree of access, but researchers said that now seems to be shrinking. TikTok has been accused of amplifying pro-Palestinian videos through its powerful algorithmic feed and of failing to address antisemitic content.

Persons: TikTok, Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, “ We’re, ”, Megan A, Brown, —, Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, Musk, Osama bin Laden, America ”, Isabelle Frances, Wright, Moustafa Ayad, Ms, Frances, Jamie Favazza, Meta, Sukrit Venkatagiri, standwithIsrael Organizations: Facebook, Tech, Meta, Twitter, University of Michigan, IBM, Institute for Strategic, Swarthmore College Locations: Israel, United States, U.S, Beijing

☆ A.I. Muddies Israel-Hamas War in Unexpected Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Stuart A. Thompson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Some observers on social media quickly dismissed it as an “A.I.-generated fake” — created using artificial intelligence tools that can produce photorealistic images with a few clicks. Several A.I. specialists have since concluded that the technology was probably not involved. Since Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7, disinformation watchdogs have feared that fakes created by A.I. tools, including the realistic renderings known as deepfakes, would confuse the public and bolster propaganda efforts.

Locations: Israel

The Consequences of Elon Musk’s Ownership of XNow rebranded as X, the site has experienced a surge in racist, antisemitic and other hateful speech. Research conducted in part by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that anti-Semitic tweets in English more than doubled after Mr. Musk’s takeover. Keeping X at the center of public debate is exactly Mr. Musk’s goal, which he describes at times with a messianic zeal. Even worse, the article argued, Mr. Musk’s changes appear to be boosting the engagements of the most contentious users. A month into Mr. Musk’s ownership, the platform stopped enforcing its policy against Covid-19 misinformation.

Persons: Elon Musk, ”, “, Musk’s, —, Musk, Tim Chambers, ” Mr, Chambers, Tesla, lockdowns, Thierry Breton, Mr Organizations: Elon, Twitter, “ Twitter, Hamas, Dewey, Group, Defamation, Research, Institute for Strategic, Commission, Kremlin, Pentagon, Tufts, Rutgers, Montclair, 4chan, Harvard Kennedy School, Covid, Media, Mr, Commission's Digital Services, Services, Defamation League, European Union Locations: Musk’s, Russia, China, Israel, Ukraine, Iran, guardrails

☆ A New Report Documents How Easily Children Can Access Graphic Images of the War
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | More About Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Meta, which owns Instagram, addressed its efforts to balance safety and speech in a blog post about the war on Friday. It noted that it established a special operations center with expert monitors working in Hebrew and Arabic, who removed or flagged more than 795,000 pieces of harmful content in the first three days of the conflict. The company also said that Instagram allows users to control how much sensitive content they are recommended. The platform said it is automatically detecting and removing graphic and violent content, placing opt-in screens over disturbing images and adding restrictions to its livestreaming function amid the hostage situation. (Hamas accounts have been blocked by platforms like Instagram and TikTok but remains active on Telegram.)

Persons: ” Isabelle Frances, Wright, TikTok Organizations: USA

ChatGPT can now generate images — and they are shockingly detailed. On Wednesday, OpenAI, the San Francisco artificial intelligence start-up, released a new version of its DALL-E image generator to a small group of testers and folded the technology into ChatGPT, its popular online chatbot. Called DALL-E 3, it can produce more convincing images than previous versions of the technology, showing a particular knack for images containing letters, numbers and human hands, the company said. By adding the latest version of DALL-E to ChatGPT, OpenAI is solidifying its chatbot as a hub for generative A.I., which can produce text, images, sounds, software and other digital media on its own. Since ChatGPT went viral last year, it has kicked off a race among Silicon Valley tech giants to be at the forefront of A.I.

Persons: ”, Aditya Ramesh, ChatGPT Locations: OpenAI, San Francisco, ChatGPT

Representatives for the company declined to comment on its business. In the days after Mr. Buffett’s death, retail and marketing experts said his legacy would continue to lure his fans — known as Parrot Heads, along with their children, called parakeets — and others to his businesses. “It’s definitely a lifestyle associated with him and his personality and his music that he created,” said Barbara Kahn, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. But, she said, because his business is “bigger than just that, it could definitely live on.”Mr. Buffett’s original idea for Margaritaville was “to expand the opportunity for as many people to experience the lifestyle immortalized in his iconic song as possible,” according to the statement on the company’s website. The company had $2.2 billion in gross annual revenue last year.

Persons: Buffett’s, —, It’s, ”, Barbara Kahn, Mr, Margaritaville, Dolly Parton Organizations: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Locations: Belize, Pigeon Forge, Tenn

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