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☆ Hot AI startup ElevenLabs confirms it's raised $19 million from Andreessen Horowitz and GitHub's former CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AI company ElevenLabs has raised $19 million in fresh funding, confirming earlier Insider reporting. Year-old AI voice startup ElevenLabs has raised $19 million in early-stage funding, as venture capital investors rush to back firms in generative AI. Cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski previously told Insider that the startup saw huge potential in the publishing and audiobooks sector. Since launching its beta platform in January 2023, the startup says it has hit 1 million users and generated over 10 years of audio content. Credo Ventures and Concept Ventures, which backed the startup's $2 million pre-seed round, also joined the new round.

Persons: ElevenLabs, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Mike Krieger, Mustafa Suleyman, Brendan Iribe, Mati Staniszewski, Staniszewski Organizations: Venture, Ventures, Concept Ventures Locations: London, New York

☆ Farhad Manjoo on ‘South Park’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Farhad Manjoo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

But it isn’t the topicality of “South Park” that best explains America. In “South Park,” correctness of any sort — religious, scientific, pedagogical, geopolitical or whatever else — is sus. For Donald Trump Jr., “South Park” memes are the height of wit. In 2018 “South Park” even acknowledged that Al Gore was right: ManBearPig turned out to be real. But the damage was done; the monster had already begun to eat the people of South Park.

Persons: topick, ”, Trey Parker, Matt Stone’s, Parker, Stone, Donald Trump’s, Vladimir Putin’s thuggery, Ron DeSantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Stone’s, they’ve, Eric Cartman’s —, Andrew Sullivan, “, Donald Trump Jr, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Cartman, Bob White, Al Gore, ManBearPig Organizations: Trump Locations: America, Colorado, South Park

Then, a deep dive into MrBeast and what his YouTube empire says about the future of the internet. Reddit came along and said, oh, we need to protect Reddit from the rise of these large language models. So I don’t think they’re totally out of the woods. But I don’t think people would say it was a golden age for how safe the platforms fell to use. But I want to challenge you on this, because I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad thing if we have past peak trust and safety.

Persons: kevin roose, you’ve, casey newton, casey newton Yes, I’ve, there’s, kevin roose I’m, Kevin Roose, ” casey newton, Casey Newton, Casey, Reddit, casey newton Right, roose, Steve Huffman, you’re, Kevin, It’s, They’re, casey newton Well, they’ve, we’re, Huffman, “, Redditors, We’ve, Everyone’s, we’ve, I’m, let’s, Sam Walton, Max, kevin roose Hey, kevin roose Oh, kevin roose Max Read, MrBeast, it’s, Jimmy Donaldson, He’s, Willy Wonka, he’s, somethings, haven’t, kevin roose We’ll, We’ll, kevin roose She’s, she’s, kevin roose MrBeast, Jeremiah, jeremiah howard, Jeremiah Howard who’s, Jimmy, Burger, You’re, Stefan Molyneux, PewDiePie, Paul, Let’s, Raman, kevin roose It’s, MrBeast financials, doesn’t, Logan Paul, they’re, Vincent Miller, Jon Hamm’s, Matthew Weiner’s, kevin roose Max, Will, Max Read, ” kevin roose, casey newton Max, Robert F Kennedy, COVID, Kennedy, Instagram, Connor Roy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Elon, Donald Trump, We’re, Jim Jordan, kevin roose Totally, Alex Jones, casey newton Totally, Kate Kalanick, Trump, Tucker Carlson, aren’t, — casey newton, hasn’t, Rachel Cohn, Jen Poyante, Caitlin Love, Alyssa Moxley, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sofia Lanman, Rowan Niemisto, Paula Szuchman, Tam, Nell Gallogly, Kate LoPresi, Jeffrey Miranda Organizations: The New York Times, Twitter, YouTube, Lamborghini, Netflix, Walmart, News, Producers, Meta, Instagram, COVID, Democratic, Washington Post, Apple, Republicans, Facebook, 4chan, Republican Party, Trump, Fox News, Stanford, Davis Locations: Hawaii, Reddit, Greenville , North Carolina, hysterics, New Jersey, New York, Greenville, North Carolina, Central, United States, Bay, San Francisco, Stanford

☆ 'We have now reached a war phase,' wrote Rep Andy Biggs. 'Violent rhetoric' spreading in MAGA-world over Trump indictment.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

MAGA supporters are using violent rhetoric after the news of the indictment of Trump, says a nonprofit. Messaging board users made threats against lawmakers, with some calling for "civil war," Vice News reported. "Perhaps it's time for that Civil War that the damn DemoKKKrats have been trying to start for years now," a member of The Donald, a pro-Trump message board, wrote, per Vice. Responding to a user's prediction of "civil war" on Thursday, another called it "inevitable," saying a conflict is "right around the corner." Violent rhetoric from Trump's far-right supporters followed Trump's previous indictment earlier this year.

Persons: MAGA, Trump, —, Donald Trump, Andy Biggs menacingly, Clay Higgins, Donald, Rolling Stone, General Merrick Garland's, Trump's Organizations: Messaging, Service, Trump, Republican, Arizona Rep, Prosecutors, National Archives, Truth, Rolling, Democracy Inc, 4chan, NBC News, ADI Locations: Louisiana, Miami, New York

☆ In Battle Over A.I., Meta Decides to Give Away Its Crown Jewels
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Cade Metz | Mike Isaac | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As a race to lead A.I. heats up across Silicon Valley, Meta is standing out from its rivals by taking a different approach to the technology. Driven by its founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta believes that the smartest thing to do is share its underlying A.I. Google, OpenAI and others have been critical of Meta, saying an unfettered open-source approach is dangerous. “We want to think more carefully about giving away details or open sourcing code” of A.I.

☆ Lawsuit alleges that social media companies promoted White supremacist propaganda that led to radicalization of Buffalo mass shooter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Zenebou Sylla Artemis Moshtaghian | Zenebou Sylla | Artemis Moshtaghian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

New York CNN —A wrongful death lawsuit filed against several social media companies Friday alleges that social media lent to the radicalization of the gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, last May. “However, the social media platforms that radicalized him, and the companies that armed him, must still be held accountable for their actions. Speaking to CNN Sunday, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown commended some of the victims’ families and survivors for tackling extremism on social media platforms. We deliberately designed Snapchat differently than traditional social media platforms and don’t allow unvetted content to go viral or be algorithmically promoted. The lawsuit alleges that social media platforms “Meta, Alphabet, Reddit and 4chan earned advertising revenue from hosting and amplifying” Gendron’s video on their platforms.

☆ Opinion: Six experts imagine an internet that women actually want
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Cnn Opinion | As Equals | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Women still have less access to the internet, with men being 21% more likely to be online than women globally. One reason for this is because being a girl, teenager, woman, trans or non-binary person makes us victims of digital violence. An internet women want is one where there is no fear to comment, to express an opinion, or publish photos of our bodies -- and where there are no limits simply because you are a woman on the internet. Women stood together internationally when Iranian women cut their hair , showing how the internet politicises women, sparks debates and builds international solidarity. Therefore, an internet that women want -- and that works for women -- needs to start by being affordable for women.

☆ Bored Ape NFT creators win case against copycat artist
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Elle Reeve | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Crypto company Yuga Labs has won its claims of trademark infringement against artist Ryder Ripps who copied their NFTs in what he called a protest of their racially offensive imagery. Ripps told CNN he would appeal. But critics commented on social media that some of the Bored Apes contained what looked like references to posts on the website 4chan, which has become a hub of extremism, and pointed out that apes are an old trope in racist imagery. “Once the court adopted the plaintiff’s framing of the case, it was clear what was going to happen: the plaintiff wins everything basically,” he said. “There was an underlying really important point that the defendants are trying to make about the possibility that there was some kind of Nazi glorification in the overall collection NFT collection for the Bored Ape Yacht Club,” Goldman said.

☆ Jack Teixeira's alleged Discord leaks show why the US should not give Top Secret clearances to 21-year-olds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Nevertheless, that looks to be the US intelligence community's approach to handling classified information. The tangled views of Jack Teixeira, who was indicted Friday in connection with leaking hundreds of classified documents to a private Discord server, are still coming into focus. There are classified phone systems, email systems, fiber optic cables, and a Wikipedia clone. Aside from the question of how many people have access to secrets, it's also worth considering how many of those supposed secrets belong on classified systems at all. Who was tracking the whereabouts of the volume of secret files he appears to have sent to the printer?

☆ MAGA-world is rushing to defend Jack Teixeira, the accused Pentagon leaker who allegedly dumped secret documents online to impress his teenage gamer buddies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The leak represents the worst military intelligence breach in roughly a decade. To them, Teixeira is a martyr for revealing the truth about the stalemated war in Ukraine to the American people. "Tonight, the news media are celebrating the capture of the kid who told Americans what's actually happening in Ukraine," Carlson said. The leaks could hurt Ukraine on the battlefieldThe leak of the documents allegedly perpetrated by Teixeira represents the worst US military intelligence breach in roughly a decade. The secret documents offered details on US spying on friends and foes alike, many of which pertained to the war in Ukraine.

☆ Big U.S. intelligence leak was by gun enthusiast in 20s -Washington Post
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 12 (Reuters) - The person who leaked U.S. classified documents prompting a national security investigation is a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked on a military base, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing fellow members of an online chat group. The Post based its report, which did not name the person, on interviews with two members of the Discord chat group. The Department of Defense and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. U.S. national security agencies and the Justice Department are investigating the release to assess the damage to national security and relations with allies and other countries, including Ukraine. Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Idrees Ali Editing by Don Durfee and Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The man who may have leaked top-secret Pentagon documents was a fit and armed military guy who controlled a group of young gamers united by their worship of guns and God: WaPo
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He was the leader of a group of young gamers who loved guns, military gear, and God, per the outlet. As early as 2020, OG began sending the classified information to his Discord server, which was once named "Thug Shaker Central," per The Post. And at least 10 documents were later sent to another Discord server dedicated to the video game "Minecraft," Toler reported. "He said something had happened, and he prayed to God that his event would not happen," one of the young Discord members told The Post. The "Thug Shaker Central" server has been deleted, Bellingcat reported.

☆ Leaked Pentagon documents appeared on a 'Minecraft' Discord server weeks before officials knew about a breach: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Leaked Pentagon documents appeared on Discord servers weeks before the received official attention. At least 10 documents appeared on the server "Minecraft Earth Map" on March 4, Bellingcat reported. At least 10 such documents were posted in March on a Discord server dedicated to the "Minecraft " video game, Bellingcat investigator Aric Toler reported. Wow_Mao told The New York Times he does not spend much time managing his Discord server but admits he could have moderated it better. The analyst cited conversations with several members of the Discord server, who sent him images of the documents.

☆ Hot AI startup ElevenLabs, founded by ex-Google and Palantir staff, is set to raise $18 million at a $100 million valuation. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck it used for its $2 million pre-seed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

London-based ElevenLabs is set to raise $18 million after securing a $2 million round in January. ElevenLabs, a hot artificial intelligence startup, is set to raise $18 million at a $100 million valuation, months after announcing its $2 million pre-seed round in January. ElevenLabs synthesizes speech "that takes context into account and conveys it accordingly," Staniszewski told Insider in January after the firm announced its pre-seed round. The pre-seed round was led by Czech-based early-stage venture capital firm Credo Ventures, which has previously backed UiPath and Apiary. Check out the 14-slide deck ElevenLabs used to raise its pre-seed funding.

☆ What's in the leaked Pentagon documents that could hurt Ukraine and has US officials panicking
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( John Haltiwanger | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Dozens of secret Pentagon documents were leaked online in recent weeks. Many of the documents appear to be intelligence briefing materials on a wide range of subjects, dating back to around early March. When were the documents leaked and who leaked them? But Bellingcat reported that some of the materials date back to January and may have been leaked online earlier. Leaked documents claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to attack Russian troop deployments inside Russia with drones.

☆ China could cross a red line and start arming Russia if Ukraine pulls off a major counterattack, leaked Pentagon papers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Leaked US documents reveal what could prompt China to begin arming Russia, reports say. A Ukrainian attack on Russia using NATO weapons could be a red line for China, they say. The US Defense Department documents posted online appear to contain extensive discussion of the Ukraine conflict, and of China's military plans and capabilities. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2021, China has trodden a careful path, seeking to portray itself as neutral in the conflict. The leaked papers suggest that it is attacks within Russia itself that would draw China into the war.

☆ Factbox: What is known about latest leak of U.S. secrets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Here is what we know and do not know about what appears to be the gravest leak of U.S. secrets in years:ARE THE DOCUMENTS REAL? Materials marked that way would have been seen by thousands of people with security clearances. But because not all of the documents are marked FVEY, U.S. officials believe whoever leaked them could be American. - China: Predictions about how China would respond to Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, along with details about British plans in the Indo-Pacific region. - South America: Information about Brazilian officials' plan to visit Moscow in April to discuss a Ukraine mediation scheme.

☆ U.S. searches for source of highly classified intel leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Following disclosure of the leak, Reuters has reviewed more than 50 documents labeled "Secret" and "Top Secret" that first appeared last month on social media websites, beginning with Discord and 4Chan. Some giving battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine appeared to have been altered to minimize Russian losses. Some documents are marked "NOFORN," meaning they cannot be released to foreign nationals. One of the documents, dated Feb. 23 and marked "Secret," outlines in detail how Ukraine's S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate. Such closely-guarded information could be of great use to Russian forces, and Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks.

☆ US searches for source of highly-classified intel leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"The focus now is on this being a U.S. leak, as many of the documents were only in U.S. hands," Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters in an interview. Following disclosure of the leak, Reuters has reviewed more than 50 documents labeled "Secret" and "Top Secret" that first appeared last month on social media websites, beginning with Discord and 4Chan. One of the documents, dated Feb. 23 and marked "Secret," outlines in detail how Ukraine's S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate. Such closely-guarded information could be of great use to Russian forces, and Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks. The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it was in touch with the Defense Department and began a probe into the leak.

☆ Ukraine Moves to Prevent Leaks After Purported Top-Secret U.S. Documents Appear Online
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Yaroslav Trofimov | Nancy A. Youssef | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ukraine said Friday it would take new measures to prevent potential leaks of its war plans as the Pentagon investigates social-media posts that purport to reveal highly classified U.S. government documents on Kyiv’s preparations for a spring offensive. At least six images of documents, some of them marked “Top Secret,” were published on Thursday by pro-Kremlin war commentators on Telegram. Some of the images, which can only be viewed by those with authorized clearance, appeared Wednesday on the 4chan online-messaging board. At least one document was altered in a Russian Telegram post to lower estimates of Russian losses and inflate Ukrainian casualties.

☆ Snoop Dogg, his ape and a question of celebrity hype
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Elle Reeve | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The Bored Apes became some of the most famous NFTs after a series of celebrities said they got one. The Bored Ape crazeSnoop Dogg performs with his Bored Ape character, Dr. Bombay, in February 2023. He sold his versions as RR/BAYC with an accompanying website that detailed claims the Bored Apes contained references to racist memes on 4chan, a troll website. In March 2022, Snoop invested in Yuga Labs, and the month after, he invested in MoonPay. In the VMAs video, Eminem turns into a white ape wearing “hip hop clothes,” while Snoop becomes a cheetah-fur ape wearing a “pimp coat,” according to Yuga Labs’ description.

☆ AI is so hot that top-tier funds are fighting to back tiny seed-stage startup ElevenLabs at valuation of around $100 million, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A16z is among a raft of top-tier funds battling to invest in a tiny British AI startup, sources say. London-based ElevenLabs closed a $2 million pre-seed round two months ago but is set to raise again. The deal is testament to the hype that surrounds AI startups following the release of ChatGPT last year. Andreessen Horowitz is among a raft of top-tier investors fighting to lead a round into a tiny AI startup that will value it at around $100 million as investor hype around the technology intensifies, sources say. Now, the startup is set to raise new funds again, in part due to its rapid growth in revenue, three London-based investors said.

☆ Meta will keep releasing AI tools despite leak claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 6 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) on Monday said it will continue to release its artificial intelligence tools to approved researchers despite claims on online message boards that its latest large language model had leaked to unauthorized users. Facebook owner Meta maintains a major AI research arm and last month released LLaMA, short for Large Language Model Meta AI. Unlike some rivals such as OpenAI, which keeps tight wraps on its technology and charges software developers to access it, Meta's AI research arm shares most of its work openly. But AI tools also contain the potential for abuse, such as creating and spreading false information. "It’s Meta's goal to share state-of-the-art AI models with members of the research community to help us evaluate and improve those models," Meta said.

☆ A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A couple in Canada reportedly lost $21,000 from a scammer claiming to be a lawyer and their son. Benjamin Perkin told The Washington Post his parents thought the AI-generated voice was him. Perkin told the Post the voice was "close enough for my parents to truly believe they did speak with me." Scams involving AI technology predate the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI bots going viral right now. "AI tools that generate authentic-seeming videos, photos, audio, and text could supercharge this trend, allowing fraudsters greater reach and speed," she said.

☆ ‘Dilbert’ to return on Scott Adams’ subscription service
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Scott Adams, the comic creator who was dropped by hundreds of publications after his recent racist comments, tweeted that “Dilbert Reborn” will launch exclusively on his subscription site on March 13. Since his comments, Adams said on Twitter that he was only “advising people to avoid hate” and suggested that the cancellation of his cartoon indicates free speech in America is under assault. Dilbert is a comic strip that largely lampoons office cubicle culture. Hundreds of newspapers across the country and Andrews McMeel Universal, the company that syndicates “Dilbert,” dropped the comic after Adams’ offensive comments about Black Americans triggered an uproar. In a shocking rant on YouTube, Adams effectively encouraged segregation, calling Black Americans a “hate group” and suggesting that White people should “get the hell away” from them.

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