The actor’s likeness was used in an online advertisement without her permission
Scarlett Johansson has taken legal action against an AI app that used her name and likeness in an AI-generated advertisement without her permission.
The 22-second ad, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, by an image generating app called Lisa AI: 90’s Yearbook & Avatar, used real footage of Johansson to generate a fake image and dialogue for her.
Continue reading...Founder of FTX platform, 31, painted by prosecution as scammer and liar who defrauded customers out of billions of dollars
Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud trial neared its end with closing arguments on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court following weeks of testimony that lifted the veil of FTX’s stunning collapse – and a broader murkiness surrounding digital currency markets. The prosecution quickly painted Sam Bankman-Fried as an unabashed scammer rather than the image of the wayward math nerd proffered by the defense throughout the trial, saying he created a “pyramid of deceit” with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.
Assistant US attorney Nicholas Roos also used Bankman-Fried’s own testimony against him.
Continue reading...Payments group and TV shopping channel change small print after financial regulator steps in
The City regulator has taken action after finding that customers of two leading buy now, pay later providers were “at risk of harm” because of potentially unfair and unclear small print.
The US-based online payments group PayPal and the TV shopping channel QVC have changed the terms of their contracts after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expressed “concern” over the impact to customers.
Continue reading...Disgraced former CEO of crypto exchange FTX admits to disparaging regulators on third day of testimony
Sam Bankman-Fried testified in his own blockbuster crypto trial again Monday, with prosecutors grilling the one-time crypto mogul about the many discrepancies between his public and private claims about crypto-exchange FTX.
Bankman-Fried appeared to have had a haircut over the weekend, just in time for prosecutors to start their cross examination and question whether his famously unkempt hair was part of a deliberate, anti-style “tech genius” persona.
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Bankman-Fried gives details about the day FTX went bankrupt
Days after Binance’s sale of FTT, the cryptocurrency issued by FTX, and CoinDesk’s story on the multibillion-dollar hole in Alameda Research’s balance sheet, there was a rush of customer withdrawals, Bankman-Fried said.
Continue reading...Motorists locked inside their cars, while an NHS doctor said her BMW iX accelerated to 65mph and then crashed
An electric car owner has claimed her vehicle’s autopilot engaged without warning and accelerated to 65mph, zigzagged across the road and caused a serious crash, the Guardian can reveal.
The alleged incident involved a doctor, Ravpreet Kaur, who was travelling in Buckinghamshire with her son in the family’s £80,000 BMW iX. Her husband said they were lucky to escape unhurt.
Continue reading...Policing minister Chris Philp suggests target of more than 200,000 searches over next six months
Police are being encouraged to double their use of retrospective facial recognition software to track down offenders over the next six months.
Policing minister Chris Philp has written to force leaders suggesting the target of exceeding 200,000 searches of still images against the police national database by May using facial recognition technology.
Continue reading...Bankman-Fried says his biggest mistake was not implementing a dedicated risk management team for crypto trading platform FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to making management mistakes while at the helm of FTX, his former multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire, during testimony in his defense at trial.
“I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes,” Bankman-Fried, 31, said in sharing his version of the rise and fall of crypto trading platform FTX. The biggest mistake, he said, was not implementing a dedicated risk management team.
Continue reading...Fellow tech company Intel ‘reviewing regulations’ as timing of move brought forward
The chip designer Nvidia has said the US has told it to immediately halt the export of some of its high-end artificial intelligence chips to China as regulators advanced the deadline.
The restrictions were supposed to come into effect 30 days after 17 October, when the Biden administration announced measures to stop countries, including China, Iran and Russia, from receiving advanced AI chips designed by Nvidia and others.
Continue reading...A 17-year-old with a passion for robotics has produced a cheaper utensil that uses sensors to cancel out hand tremors
The motivation for his invention came to Aarrav Anil last year when he saw his uncle Arjun, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggle to eat. Some food spilled out of his mouth, the rest splattered on his clothes. Arjun attempted to keep his dignity but the frustration forced the retired civil servant, who is in his 70s, to give up and call his helper to feed him.
The sight of his uncle’s tremors shaking the spoon so violently inspired Aarrav, 17, from Bengaluru, south India, to turn to robotics. He locked himself in his room with microcontrollers, sensors, motors, and a 3D printer. What emerged was a prototype of a smart spoon that is now undergoing trials at the RV College of Physiotherapy in Bengaluru.
Continue reading...Complaint filed in California accuses company of knowingly inducing children and teenagers into addictive social media use
The attorneys general of dozens of US states are suing Instagram and its parent company Meta over their impact on young users, accusing them of contributing to a youth mental health crisis through the addictive nature of their social media platforms.
Filed in federal court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, the lawsuit claims Meta, which also operates Facebook, has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its platforms and knowingly induced young children and teenagers into addictive and compulsive social media use.
Continue reading...Exclusive: The AFP told Senate estimates it is now aware the PimEyes and FaceCheck.ID platforms may have been tested for operational purposes on around 10 occasions
The Australian federal police have tested a controversial facial recognition search engine, possibly for operational use.
Documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws show hundreds of connections between AFP devices and the website PimEyes between 1 January and 4 August this year.
Continue reading...Tax audits and land use inquiries follow company founder announcing run for Taiwan presidency
China’s tax authorities have launched multiple investigations into the company that makes the iPhone, months after its billionaire founder announced he would run in Taiwan’s presidential elections.
Foxconn faces tax audits of its operations in China, as well as investigations into land use in two Chinese provinces, according to reports by local media.
Continue reading...Big tech firms attempting to ‘capture’ meeting of heads of government, says Connor Leahy
One of the executives invited to Rishi Sunak’s international AI safety summit next month has warned that the conference risks achieving very little, accusing powerful tech companies of attempting to “capture” the landmark meeting.
Connor Leahy, the chief executive of the AI safety research company Conjecture, said he believed heads of government were poised to agree a style of regulation that would allow companies to continue developing “god-like” AI almost unchecked.
Continue reading...Parent company Meta says bug caused ‘inappropriate’ auto-translations and was now fixed while employee says it pushed ‘a lot of people over the edge’
Meta has apologised after inserting the word “terrorist” into the profile bios of some Palestinian Instagram users, in what the company says was a bug in auto-translation.
The issue, which was first reported by 404media, affected users with the word “Palestinian” written in English on their profile, the Palestinian flag emoji and the word “alhamdulillah” written in Arabic. When auto-translated to English the phrase read: “Praise be to god, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”
Continue reading...Finnish telecoms group aims to cut costs as demand for mobile network equipment slumps
Nokia has announced plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs over the next three years as it slashes costs after a worse-than-expected slump in demand for its mobile network equipment.
The Finnish technology company said the plans to cut 16% of its 86,000-strong global workforce were part of efforts to cut costs by €1.2bn by the end of 2026. The cuts were announced as the company revealed a 70% drop in third-quarter profits, which fell to €133m (£116m) compared with €428m a year earlier.
Continue reading...Digit will begin its time on the floor by shifting empty tote boxes amid concerns humans will be shifted out of jobs
Amazon is experimenting with a humanoid robot as the technology company increasingly seeks to automate its warehouses.
It has started testing Digit, a two-legged robot that can grasp and lift items, at facilities this week. The device is first being used to shift empty tote boxes.
Continue reading...Streaming company announces plans to increase prices as profits rise, even as Hollywood strikes threaten to affect programming
Netflix announced its global crackdown on password sharing was working and unveiled plans to increase prices as it announced its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.
The streaming media company added 8.8 million new subscribers over the last three months, far better than expected and up from 2.4 million in the same quarter last year. The increase came even as a strike by Hollywood actors and writers threatened to affect the rollout of new shows.
Continue reading...Official at Finnish intelligence service says espionage attempts have increased since Ukraine invasion
Finland has had increased online espionage attempts from Russia since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, security services have said.
Supo, the Finnish security and intelligence service, said the country faced various threats from Russia, including cyberattacks and disinformation.
Continue reading...Platform owned by Elon Musk says subscription trial is aimed at combating bots on the service
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has begun rolling out a US$1 annual charge to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines in a move the service owned by Elon Musk says is aimed at combating bots.
Fortune first reported the subscription plan, which costs US$1 a year for access to key functions including tweeting, replying, retweeting and liking. After Fortune’s report, X revealed the details.
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