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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but an AI model straight-up impersonating a humble cartoonist is probably not what that adage was going for.When a kitschy cartoon tribute to the recently deceased Dolly Parton and Tim Curry — dressed as Dr Frank-N-Furter from the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — going to heaven together went viral, New Yorker cartoonist Brendan Loper started getting messages from friends, family, and fans about whether he made it. After all, there was his unmistakable signature right there in the bottom corner: “BLOPER.”But he had nothing to do with…

Content warning: this story contains descriptions of disturbing AI-generated videos that depict violent child abuse.Last month, we reported that Facebook was hosting enormous numbers of graphic AI-generated videos of physical child abuse that showed kids being beaten, burned, dragged by their hair, locked in cages, and more.In response to our questions, Facebook’s parent company Meta alternately dragged its feet, rationalized about why the videos were acceptable, and issued hard-to-parse statements that dodged any accountability or meaningful commitment to fighting the phenomenon.As we reported the story, Meta eventually pulled down an account we shared with it that had uploaded a particularly…

Finish environmental authorities are in a rage over Google’s $15 billion data center projects after the discovery that company contractors had chopped down some 330 hectares of government-protected forests, seemingly without a permit.According to Agence France-Presse, the Finnish Supervisory Agency (LVV) demanded that the Google-affiliate company Tuike Finland Oy “immediately suspend… all preparatory measures that would significantly alter the environment” in connection with two planned data center developments in the Northern municipalities of Muhos and Kajaani.In all, LVV accuses Google’s contractor of clear-cutting some 330 hectares in Muhos without completing a mandatory environmental impact assessment, a necessary step for receiving…

It was only a matter of time until AI agents, bots that are being advertised as a way to stay on top of tedious tasks, started spilling their human overlords’ secrets.With the advent of tools like Meta’s Muse or OpenAI’s Dots, consumers are encouraged to hand over some highly sensitive information, from social media to email logins. That’s despite neither company having a particularly stellar track record when it comes to safeguarding such information. Besides, both companies have encountered their own AI agents escaping their sandbox environments during cybersecurity testing and going far beyond the scope of their original mission.Yet…

Would you like a rude, and perhaps slightly humorous, reminder of how much data surveillance Amazon conducts on its customers? Have we got the thing for you!On Tuesday, one customer shared how she accidentally stumbled on an obscure section on the Amazon website that most of us overlook. It contained, to her horror, a “page of assumptions that Amazon has made about me based on my purchases and I’m literally speechless.”In a screenshot she provided, she highlighted one standout. Amazon, with brutal objectivity, asserted that she “has flat buttocks.”“I mean it ain’t wrong but damn did you have to call me…

There are a growing list of reasons not to want to live near an AI data center. Some of them emit constant screeching noises that are impossible to drown out. Others rely on massive diesel generators that spew smog into the community and greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. If you get particularly unlucky, your electricity bill could also go up as a result of a new data center setting up shop in your neighborhood.And, if a recent report by the colorfully-named Texas-based advocacy group Collapse Survival Institute is anything to go by, living near a data center could be a…

Better learn about “brain privacy,” because it may soon go the way of the dodo.Researchers have developed an AI tool that can predict what you’re looking at by analyzing your brain scans — and then generate a strikingly accurate recreation of what you’re picturing. It’s barely an exaggeration to say that it’s a “mind-reading” tool, though it currently doesn’t work as seamlessly as it might in a sci-fi novel.“The results seem very impressive,” Tommy Sprague, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told MIT Tech Review. “But if there’s a way to surreptitiously extract information about what you’re…

Fair enough if you shrugged at AI agents hacking into government websites and corporate systems. But now it appears that these rogue models have gone after something much nearer and and dearer: Wikipedia.On Monday, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization which operates Wikipedia, announced that, after conducting its own investigation, it “can confirm” that it’s discovered “rogue” OpenAI agent activity on its platforms.According to a recent blog post, “the unauthorized bot activities included edits to our wikis, some unsuccessful attempts to exploit a public note-taking tool we host, and heavy traffic,” it noted. The traffic was so overwhelming that it…

Content warning: this story includes discussion of self-harm and suicide. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.OpenAI says its “ChatGPT for Teens” is safe for users aged 13 to 17. A new report found that it absolutely isn’t.A new report from the nonprofit Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute found that guardrails in ChatGPT for Teens, a version of OpenAI’s flagship chatbot that the company says is designed to encourage a “focus on learning and even stronger built-in…

Meta’s new AI agent Muse might come with a cutesy new mascot, but under its fuzzy exterior lies a vast surveillance network under the control of one of the world’s most powerful — and least accountable — tech companies.The flashy new service has gained plenty of traction over the past few weeks, with many reviewers praising its utility in everyday life — as Eli Tan wrote for the New York Times, he was “blown away,” calling it the “most useful AI app I had ever used.”But as researchers dig beyond the surface of Meta’s new AI offering, it’s becoming clear…