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☆ Fact Check-Posts misidentify Atlanta jail inmate who died after being ‘eaten alive by insects’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A tweet reads, in part, “Lashawn Thompson (below) died after being devoured by insects and brutalized for 3 months in a filthy cell in the Atlanta jail” (archive.ph/X22vW). He died at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta in September 2022. A search for the photo on the right leads to news reports of a separate incident at an Indiana jail in 2021. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to Reuters requests for comment. The posts share photos of inmates who died in separate incidents at jails in Atlanta and Indiana.

☆ Fed in discussions with banks about managing risks of AI: Waller
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 20 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has “regular discussions” with the banks it supervises about managing the risks associated with artificial intelligence, as more financial institutions utilize AI for customer service applications, fraud monitoring and underwriting, a top official at the U.S. central bank said on Thursday. In prepared remarks, Fed Governor Christopher Waller cautioned that although AI could bring new efficiencies to bank processes, it also involves novel risks, including difficulties detecting problems or biases in large datasets. Waller also said that so-called smart contracts – or self-executing transactions on the blockchain whose results depend on pre-programmed inputs — could hold “considerable promise” to modernize transaction settlements. Still, he noted that smart contracts also pose risks, such as cyber vulnerabilities and bugs. Reporting by Ann Saphir and Hannah Lang; Editing by Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ France's Ynsect to refocus bug business after capital increase
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Sybille De La Hamaide | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Ynsect's Chairman and CEO Antoine Hubert displays mealworms at the laboratory of the insect farm Ynsect, which harvests mealworms for bug-based animal food and fertilizer, in Dole, France, October 22, 2020. Farmed bugs, such as mealworms, are ground down to produce proteins for aquaculture, livestock, pet food, fertilisers and human nutrition. Ynsect will close its Dutch production plant, acquired through the takeover of Protifarm in 2021, which rears a different type of bug, while keeping research activities. In addition the company will cut 38 jobs in France, out of a total of about 360 people, Hubert said. In its latest round of fund raising in 2020 Ynsect brought in more than 315 million euros, of which about 175 million euros was capital and the rest in debt and subsidies.

☆ 35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Francesca Paris | Larry Buchanan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +24 min

People are using ChatGPT and other A.I. Here’s how 35 real people are using A.I for work, life, play and procrastination. People are using A.I to …Plan gardens. Chris Norn Researcher at the University of Washington Two years ago researchers cracked the code on using A.I. When you run a Dungeons & Dragons game, Mr. Green says, you have to be creative, but that almost always means pulling from existing fantasy literature.

☆ ‘Renfield’ Review: Dracula, Worst Boss Ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Count Dracula has been dead for so long and gone through so many iterations — exotic, satanic, romantic — that it’s almost surprising there’s any juice left in the thirsty old boy. Yet here he is again, resurrected by a glorious, vamping Nicolas Cage, swinging a cape, baring his fangs and stealing his every scene. He’s basically toast, and our guy, the Count’s unhappy servant, Renfield (a Nicholas Hoult type, relatable, smooth, good-looking) — after years of groveling and scarfing bugs — has had it. After a century of pop-culture celebrity and box-office success there’s no need: He is what he is, a vampire. He’s also, unsurprisingly given the job’s grisly requirements, a terrible boss, which the movie uses to economically establish how the long-suffering Renfield joins the support group.

☆ Elon Musk dreams of Twitter's AI power
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk's personal AI ambitions. Elon Musk was one of the more prominent names on an open letter calling for a pause in AI development. My teammate Asia Martin points out that Musk's position on AI is contradicted by Twitter's investment in generative AI. Twitter's recent purchase of hardware normally used to develop generative AI products shows the extent of this ambition. Read more on Elon Musk's AI ambitions.

☆ YouTube is shutting down a shopping program it had been quietly testing with influencers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Amanda Perelli | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

YouTube is shutting down a product-tagging shopping tool that it was testing. YouTube was paying some creators to test to the tool, part of a "tag products" pilot program. YouTube is shutting down a tool that let creators tag third-party products in their videos with shoppable links. Recently, TikTok has been quietly rolling out affiliate commissions for US creators in its shopping program. Instagram, on the other hand, shut down its test of a native affiliate program in July 2022, as Insider first reported.

☆ OpenAI to offer users up to $20,000 for reporting bugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 11 (Reuters) - OpenAI, the firm behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, said on Tuesday that it would offer up to $20,000 to users reporting vulnerabilities in its artificial intelligence systems. OpenAI Bug Bounty program, which went live on Tuesday, will offer rewards to people based on the severity of the bugs they report, with rewards starting from $200 per vulnerability. Technology companies often use bug bounty programs to encourage programmers and ethical hackers to report bugs in their software systems. According to details on bug bounty platform Bugcrowd, OpenAI has invited researchers to review certain functionality of ChatGPT and the framework of how OpenAI systems communicate and share data with third-party applications. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ ChatGPT's creator says it's willing to pay you up to $20,000 if you find bugs in its AI chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

OpenAI launched a program on Tuesday that will pay people to find bugs in its AI systems. The "Bug Bounty Program" will pay people $200 to $20,000 depending on the size of bug discovered. In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI unveiled the "Bug Bounty Program" which invites people to report vulnerabilities, bugs, or security flaws they find in the company's systems. The company said it will offer cash rewards ranging between $200 for "low-severity" findings to up to $20,000 for "exceptional discoveries." The Bugcrowd page also outlines a series of issues which will not be rewarded including "Getting the model to say bad things to you" and "Getting the model to write malicious code for you."

☆ Dominion can’t bring up January 6 at Fox News defamation trial, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Marshall Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Wilmington, Delaware CNN —Dominion Voting Systems can’t bring up the January 6 insurrection during its upcoming defamation trial against Fox News, a Delaware judge ruled Tuesday, who also revealed at a hearing that he has been receiving death threats. The judge ruled that Fox can’t bring up broadcasts where reporters accurately fact-checked Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, to prove that other broadcasts that amplified those lies weren’t defamatory. The judge also ruled that Fox can’t use internal Dominion emails where its staffers said their products “suck” and were “riddled with bugs,” to prove that there were real concerns about Dominion machines, and therefore Fox didn’t defame Dominion. The judge overseeing Dominion’s case against Fox News also revealed Tuesday that he has received death threats. If Dominion wins, it wants Fox to pay for the beefed-up security measures that it implemented after 2020.

☆ TikTok is subsidizing shipping and hawking 30% discounts as it races to onboard US sellers for its social-shopping service
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sellers told Insider that TikTok Shop is driving real sales, but still has some bugs to work out. Thus, when TikTok emailed her in March to join the US rollout of its e-commerce initiative TikTok Shop, she decided to give it a shot. Unlike with some other e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, TikTok sellers in the US need to handle their own order shipping and fulfillment. TikTok assists in generating shipping labels for new orders, the sellers told Insider. FancyCube is leaning heavily into working with influencers on TikTok Shop, sending them free products and offering them between 10% and 15% commission when their TikTok videos convert into makeup sales.

“Dominion’s defamation claim has nothing to do with the Capitol riot,” Fox’s lawyers argued in the court filings. Depending on how the judge rules, the outcome of these motions could significantly shape the trial, potentially giving one side an advantage. Both Fox and Dominion filed a slew of these pretrial motions last month, but they were under seal. “Fox’s motions attempt to narrow Dominion’s kitchen sink legal approach and return focus to the core issues,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a Thursday statement. Fox has argued that a loss will eviscerate press freedoms, and many scholars agree that the bar should remain high to prove defamation.

☆ Sellers testing TikTok's shopping program say it's offering big discounts and driving sales as the company tries to jumpstart its US e-commerce business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sellers told Insider that TikTok Shop is driving real sales, but still has some bugs to work out. Thus, when TikTok emailed her in March to join the US rollout of its e-commerce initiative TikTok Shop, she decided to give it a shot. "We're seeing a ton of sales through TikTok Shop," Davison told Insider. Unlike with some other e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, TikTok sellers in the US need to handle their own order shipping and fulfillment. Because the program is still in its testing phase, sellers told Insider they've encountered a few hiccups.

☆ Meta's job cuts are gutting customer service, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to call
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

As part of the company's two rounds of layoffs, equaling roughly 21,000 job cuts, Meta gutted wide swaths of its customer service operation, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to contact about their accounts. CNBC spoke with influencers, small businesses and Meta account managers as well as a half-dozen former contractors and former Meta employees about the deterioration in customer service at the company since the job cuts began in November. Holliday said it appears that the only people who get customer service are those who represent a company that's spending heavily on advertising. However, some influencers say Facebook has had such poor customer service that there's no reason to pay for it. After all the problems she's experienced, Karlova questions whether Meta will be able to provide better customer service.

☆ Why Bugs Buzz So Loudly in Our Ears
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Helen Czerski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Physicist Helen Czerski explores the complex science behind familiar phenomena. The birdsong has stepped up a notch, it’s no longer dark when I leave work, and colorful flower buds are peeping out of London’s greenery. Accompanying this cheerful celebration, last week the first fly of the season buzzed in through the window and parked itself on top of a pile of books. Insects are important and I’m happy to share a bit of space with them, but they are astonishingly loud for their size. This one strutted about for a while and disturbed my reading every time it took off.

☆ Synopsys spreads AI throughout its chip design tools
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Synopsys first released an AI tool for one part of the chip design process three years ago, and with customers like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and ST Microelectronics (STM.DE) using the system. The tools Synopsys released Wednesday at its annual user conference in Santa Clara, California, spread much further across the chip design process. Synopsys is in a race with Cadence Design Systems (CDNS.O), its largest competitor, to add AI to chip design software. While some of the Synopsys tools released Wednesday are catching up to Cadence, Karl Freund, principal analyst with Cambrian AI research, said Synopsys is ahead, with more than 100 chips by customers using its AI tools coming to market. "I think they'll probably be at 1,000 (completed chip designs) by the end of the year."

☆ How this 26-year-old went from running bitcoin trading desks in Taco Bells to creating the largest crypto exchange in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +28 min

Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice just before meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Accra, Ghana. Chris MauriceFrom there, Yellow Card users can send or receive digital cash in eligible markets. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice in Accra, Ghana loading cash onto his Mobile Money account, MoMo. Yellow Card has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since launching in 2019 and has about 220 employees – mostly in Africa. A resident checks his phone outside a mobile money kiosk in the Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.

☆ How drag was pushed back into the shadows in Tennessee
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Now, a Tennessee law restricting drag in front of minors is due to come into force on April 1. Several planned drag events were canceled over the winter after protests, and many venues felt forced to make previously family-friendly drag shows into adults-only events. Drag performers and venue owners say they are worried about their livelihoods and their rights of free expression. The Starbucks say there is no such thing as family-friendly drag; drag performers cite Bugs Bunny, Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedies and the Robin Williams film "Mrs. Doubtfire" among counterexamples. Outside of public Pride events, most Tennessee drag performers largely work in clubs and bars that admit only those over 18.

☆ Inmates in North Korean prisons are raped, beaten, and starved, watchdog finds. Some eat roaches and rats just to survive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A new watchdog report details widespread abuse and torture within North Korea's penal system. The report focuses heavily on the specific cases of three victims who were jailed for trying to leave North Korea, or for helping others leave the country. It added that this was one of 987 such incidents documented across the penal system. A North Korean soldier stands on the bank of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, April 12, 2013. Korea Future's findings are in line with forms of abuse that are cited in a recent UN report detailing the human rights situation in North Korea.

☆ ChatGPT Helped Win a Hackathon
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Kim S. Nash | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The ChatGPT AI bot has spurred speculation about how hackers might use it and similar tools to attack faster and more effectively, though the more damaging exploits so far have been in laboratories. In its current form, the ChatGPT bot from OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence startup backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft Corp., is mainly trained to digest and generate text. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Cybersecurity news, analysis and insights from WSJ's global team of reporters and editors. PREVIEWTwo security researchers from cybersecurity company Claroty Ltd. said ChatGPT helped them win the Zero Day Initiative’s hack-a-thon in Miami last month. At the contest, Mr. Moshe and his partner succeeded all 10 times they tried, winning $123,000.

☆ Tesla owner says his app unlocked a stranger's car — and let him drive off with it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla owner Rajesh Randev says he accidentally drove off in someone else's Tesla. Sometimes, you can even jump in and drive somebody else's electric car, according to Canada-based Tesla owner Rajesh Randev. As he sees it, his Tesla phone app granted him access to someones else's Tesla, he told the paper. The other Tesla driver involved in the mixup was able to unlock Randev's parked car using his Tesla key card, according to the Post. That way, he was able to find Randev's phone number on a document inside the car and inform him of the snafu.

☆ A German company is offering Ukraine the benefit — and burden — of being the first military to get its brand-new tank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Prominent German defense firm Rheinmetall is offering Ukraine its new Panther Kf51 tank. Rheinmetall DefenceRheinmetall is reportedly negotiating with Ukraine to build a tank factory there, though it's not clear whether it would produce the Panther or the older Leopard 2 tank. The Kf51 Panther is a new tank with some old features. A German Leopard 2 tank in Munster in May 2019. Like the next-generation Abrams tank, the Panther's turret can be unmanned, with its crew operating the vehicle behind the thicker armor of the tank's hull.

☆ Forget ChatGPT, the AI Revolution Is Coming to Fix Your Email Inbox
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Like any tech, AI tools can run into bugs. On many occasions, Shortwave's summary tool refused to produce more than a sentence or two, leaving it no more useful than the subject line. A more-pressing concern for me, however, is what the presence of AI in email would mean for privacy. Because tech like ChatGPT collects and processes far more data than previous AI tools, Conitzer expects it to be regulated for not only privacy but also systemic biases. And if Shortwave's AI tool is any indication, I'm convinced it's our future.

☆ Are Butterflies Wildlife? Depends Where You Live.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

The creatures are simply left out of state conservation statues, or their situation is ambiguous. “State agencies are really at the forefront of conservation for wildlife,” said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, a nonprofit group that advocates for insect conservation. Sometimes, aquatic insects come under the purview of state wildlife agencies. But across the states without insect authority, officials are often reluctant to broach adding it, Mr. Winton said. Seven of the states without insect conservation authority are in the West, which has felt the effects of climate change intensely.

[1/5] View of boats stuck in a sea with invasive green water hyacinth weed at the Hartbeespoort dam, informally known as "Harties", a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, February 16, 2023. REUTERS/Shafiek TassiemHARTBEESPOORT, South Africa, March 1 (Reuters) - The Hartbeespoort dam in South Africa used to be brimming with people enjoying scenic landscapes and recreational water sports. Now, the visitors are greeted to the sight of boats stuck in a sea of invasive green water hyacinth weed. Scientists and community members have, however, found a unique way to deal with the invasion by introducing a water hyacinth eating bug called Megamelus scutellaris. The insect army has previously reduced the expanse of water hyacinths to a mere 5% on the dam, Coetzee said.

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