Tag Archives: author_name|Cheyenne MacDonald

Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are allowed back on X

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Alex Jones is back on X five years after then-Twitter made the decision to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk — who last year said he wouldn’t unban Jones because of the conspiracy theorist’s insistence on calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax — created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether Jones should be reinstated. 

The poll closed with a majority vote for “Yes.” As of Sunday, Jones’ personal account was once again active, and already retweeting Andrew Tate.

Jones is well known for pushing disturbing conspiracy theories, which in some cases have led to real world harm. He was sued by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who won close to $1.5 billion in legal judgments after testifying in court that they’d been harassed and sent death threats by his followers. But after Jones appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on X last week, the conversation about his ban was reignited.

Responding to one user after the poll closed, Musk wrote, “I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.” The decision comes at a time when X is rapidly losing advertisers because of hate speech on the platform, some of which Musk himself has elevated. Walmart, Apple, IBM and Disney, among others, have recently pulled their ads from X.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/alex-jones-and-his-conspiracy-theories-are-allowed-back-on-x-160419044.html?src=rss

Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are allowed back on X

Posted on by

Alex Jones is back on X five years after then-Twitter made the decision to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk — who last year said he wouldn’t unban Jones because of the conspiracy theorist’s insistence on calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax — created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether Jones should be reinstated. 

The poll closed with a majority vote for “Yes.” As of Sunday, Jones’ personal account was once again active, and already retweeting Andrew Tate.

Jones is well known for pushing disturbing conspiracy theories, which in some cases have led to real world harm. He was sued by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who won close to $1.5 billion in legal judgments after testifying in court that they’d been harassed and sent death threats by his followers. But after Jones appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on X last week, the conversation about his ban was reignited.

Responding to one user after the poll closed, Musk wrote, “I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.” The decision comes at a time when X is rapidly losing advertisers because of hate speech on the platform, some of which Musk himself has elevated. Walmart, Apple, IBM and Disney, among others, have recently pulled their ads from X.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/alex-jones-and-his-conspiracy-theories-are-allowed-back-on-x-160419044.html?src=rss

Amazon asks court to dismiss FTC lawsuit that accuses it of ‘monopolistic practices’

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Amazon filed a motion on Friday in the Western Washington district court asking a judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against it. The FTC along with 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon in September, alleging the company uses monopolistic practices that are unfair to both its competitors and consumers. Amazon is now arguing that the FTC did not provide evidence that its practices have driven up prices or harmed consumers, according to Bloomberg.

The FTC’s lawsuit claims Amazon uses illegal tactics to crush its competition — like punishing sellers who list their products for better prices elsewhere by burying them in search results, and coercing sellers into using Amazon’s own fulfillment service by tying it to Prime eligibility. It also accuses Amazon of inflating prices from 2016-2018 using an algorithmic tool codenamed Project Nessie. These increases added up to more than $1 billion, according to the suit.

In Amazon’s motion for dismissal, per AP, Amazon said it’s only engaging in “common retail practices” that “benefit consumers and are the essence of competition.” Amazon attorney Heidi Hubbard wrote that the suit “implausibly, and illogically, assumes that Amazon’s efforts to keep featured prices low on Amazon somehow raised consumer prices across the whole economy,” according to Bloomberg.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-asks-court-to-dismiss-ftc-lawsuit-that-accuses-it-of-monopolistic-practices-220546149.html?src=rss

Amazon asks court to dismiss FTC lawsuit that accuses it of ‘monopolistic practices’

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Amazon filed a motion on Friday in the Western Washington district court asking a judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against it. The FTC along with 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon in September, alleging the company uses monopolistic practices that are unfair to both its competitors and consumers. Amazon is now arguing that the FTC did not provide evidence that its practices have driven up prices or harmed consumers, according to Bloomberg.

The FTC’s lawsuit claims Amazon uses illegal tactics to crush its competition — like punishing sellers who list their products for better prices elsewhere by burying them in search results, and coercing sellers into using Amazon’s own fulfillment service by tying it to Prime eligibility. It also accuses Amazon of inflating prices from 2016-2018 using an algorithmic tool codenamed Project Nessie. These increases added up to more than $1 billion, according to the suit.

In Amazon’s motion for dismissal, per AP, Amazon said it’s only engaging in “common retail practices” that “benefit consumers and are the essence of competition.” Amazon attorney Heidi Hubbard wrote that the suit “implausibly, and illogically, assumes that Amazon’s efforts to keep featured prices low on Amazon somehow raised consumer prices across the whole economy,” according to Bloomberg.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-asks-court-to-dismiss-ftc-lawsuit-that-accuses-it-of-monopolistic-practices-220546149.html?src=rss

Controversial AI image platform Civitai dropped by its cloud computing provider after reports of possible CSAM

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OctoML says it has ended its business relationship with Civitai days after an investigation by 404 Media revealed the text-to-image platform was being used to generate images that “could be categorized as child pornography.” Civitai previously relied on OctoML’s OctoAI for image generation. While OctoML initially indicated it would continue working with Civitai and introduced new measures to curb the creation of harmful images, 404 Media reported on Saturday that it has now decided to cut ties with the platform altogether.

According to 404 Media’s December 5 report, internal communications showed that OctoML was aware some Civitai users were creating sexually explicit material that included nonconsensual images of real people and pornographic depictions of children. In a followup report this weekend, the publication noted that OctoML rolled out a filter to block the generation of all NSFW content on Civitai before announcing its decision to pull out. Civitai also added new moderation methods in response to the investigation earlier this week, including a mandatory embedding called Civitai Safe Helper (Minor) that bars the model from generating images of children if “a mature theme or keyword is detected,” according to 404.

Andreessen Horowitz-backed Civitai has previously come under scrutiny for its “bounties” feature that challenges users to generate realistic images of real people for rewards. In November, 404 Media found it was being used to make nonconsensual deepfakes of celebrities, influencers and even a private citizen that were, in many cases, sexual in nature. The subjects were primarily women. According to 404 Media, Civitai has since added a filter to prevent the creation of NSFW content featuring “certain” celebrities.

Nevertheless, OctoML — which uses Amazon Web Services’ servers — no longer wants to be involved. In a statement to 404 Media on Saturday, OctoML said, “We have decided to terminate our business relationship with Civitai. This decision aligns with our commitment to ensuring the safe and responsible use of AI.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/controversial-ai-image-platform-civitai-has-been-dropped-by-its-cloud-computing-provider-195530538.html?src=rss

Controversial AI image platform Civitai dropped by its cloud computing provider after reports of possible CSAM

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OctoML says it has ended its business relationship with Civitai days after an investigation by 404 Media revealed the text-to-image platform was being used to generate images that “could be categorized as child pornography.” Civitai previously relied on OctoML’s OctoAI for image generation. While OctoML initially indicated it would continue working with Civitai and introduced new measures to curb the creation of harmful images, 404 Media reported on Saturday that it has now decided to cut ties with the platform altogether.

According to 404 Media’s December 5 report, internal communications showed that OctoML was aware some Civitai users were creating sexually explicit material that included nonconsensual images of real people and pornographic depictions of children. In a followup report this weekend, the publication noted that OctoML rolled out a filter to block the generation of all NSFW content on Civitai before announcing its decision to pull out. Civitai also added new moderation methods in response to the investigation earlier this week, including a mandatory embedding called Civitai Safe Helper (Minor) that bars the model from generating images of children if “a mature theme or keyword is detected,” according to 404.

Andreessen Horowitz-backed Civitai has previously come under scrutiny for its “bounties” feature that challenges users to generate realistic images of real people for rewards. In November, 404 Media found it was being used to make nonconsensual deepfakes of celebrities, influencers and even a private citizen that were, in many cases, sexual in nature. The subjects were primarily women. According to 404 Media, Civitai has since added a filter to prevent the creation of NSFW content featuring “certain” celebrities.

Nevertheless, OctoML — which uses Amazon Web Services’ servers — no longer wants to be involved. In a statement to 404 Media on Saturday, OctoML said, “We have decided to terminate our business relationship with Civitai. This decision aligns with our commitment to ensuring the safe and responsible use of AI.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/controversial-ai-image-platform-civitai-has-been-dropped-by-its-cloud-computing-provider-195530538.html?src=rss

Beeper Mini team says a fix is ‘coming soon’ and promises to extend users’ free trials

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The Beeper Mini team has apparently been working around the clock to resolve the outage affecting the new “iMessage on Android” app, and says a fix is “very close.” And once the fix rolls out, users’ seven-day free trials will be reset so they can start over fresh. Beeper Mini was released earlier this week, and seemed an especially promising entrant due to its unique approach to bridging the iMessage-Android gap. The app, reportedly the result of a 16-year-old’s work to reverse-engineer iMessage, routes messages directly through Apple’s own servers, making it more secure than some of the other options out there.

But, only days after its release, Beeper Mini users on Friday found that they could no longer send and receive messages, sparking questions about whether Apple intervened and put a stop to it. In an update posted on social media, the team said it’s deregistered users’ phone numbers from iMessage while it works to fix the issue. That may not be the end of the immediate headaches caused by the outage, though. “Annoyingly, the iPhone Messages app ‘remembers’ that you were a blue bubble for 6-24 hours before falling back to SMS,” the Beeper Mini team wrote, “so it’s possible that some messages will not be delivered during this period.”

While Beeper says a fix is coming soon, it may still have a greater struggle ahead if Apple actually was behind the shutdown. The chat app costs $2 a month after the seven-day free trial and offers end-to-end encryption for messages sent between Android and iMessage users. In a statement to Engadget yesterday, Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky said, “If it's Apple, then I think the biggest question is — if Apple truly cares about the privacy and security of their own iPhone users, why would they try to kill a service that enables iPhones to send encrypted chats to Android users?”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beeper-mini-team-says-a-fix-is-coming-soon-and-promises-to-extend-users-free-trials-171310651.html?src=rss

Kiss’ final show ended with a performance by digital avatars made to immortalize the band

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Kiss’ final live performance at Madison Square Garden in New York last night also turned out to be the first for the band’s successors — four digital avatars that will play on in the real members’ retirement from physical shows. Kiss concluded the last show of its “The End of the Road” tour by introducing the new virtual band, which then performed “God Gave Rock And Roll To You.”

The avatars weren’t just straight replicas of the current band members — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer — but interpretations of them “as fantasy-based superheroes,” said Pophouse Entertainment, which partnered with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic for their creation. And, it says that’s just “one of the many and varied ways in which Kiss will live on as digital performers through their avatars in the future.” Industrial Light & Magic also created the digital avatars of ABBA (or ABBAtars) for the ongoing ABBA Voyage show in London.

No specific plans for the virtual band have been announced just yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see similar Kiss experiences pop up in the near future. Gene Simmons, who founded Kiss alongside Paul Stanley, said the move will keep the band “forever young and forever iconic,” while Stanley called it a way to “see Kiss immortalized” and take the group “to a completely different level beyond being just a music band.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/kiss-final-show-ended-with-a-performance-by-digital-avatars-made-to-immortalize-the-band-210024877.html?src=rss

Google is reportedly pushing the launch of its Gemini AI to 2024

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Google has canceled its Gemini launch events scheduled for next week and now plans to launch its GPT-4 competitor in January, according to The Information. The company teased Gemini at I/O 2023, touting it then as a foundational model with “impressive multimodal capabilities” early in its training.

Google initially planned to debut it before the end of the year in an unusually timed launch between the holidays — which it didn’t publicly announce — but sources told The Information that Gemini was struggling with non-English queries, prompting CEO Sundar Pichai to delay its release. Gemini is intended to be able to handle a broad range of applications, combining different types of data like images and text for more advanced tasks. In May, Google said, “Once fine-tuned and rigorously tested for safety, Gemini will be available at various sizes and capabilities.”

Gemini is expected to bring improvements to Google’s existing AI and AI-enhanced products too, like Bard, Google Assistant and Search. But, given the significance of this release and the dominance rival OpenAI already has in the space, it seems Google isn’t going to risk rushing Gemini out the door.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-reportedly-pushing-the-launch-of-its-gemini-ai-to-2024-173444507.html?src=rss

Amazon is swallowing its pride to ensure its internet satellites get to orbit on time

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Amazon announced on Friday that it’s signed a contract with SpaceX to deliver batches of its Project Kuiper satellites to low Earth orbit in 2025. SpaceX is undoubtedly Amazon’s biggest competitor as it breaks into the satellite internet space, and already has a constellation of over 4,000 Starlink satellites in operation. It’s also a rival of Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos that has its own rockets in development. But when it comes to launches, SpaceX’s pace and the reliability of its Falcon 9 rocket is unmatched.

The contract with SpaceX is for three Falcon 9 launches, Amazon said in a blog post. They’re expected to lift off in mid-2025. Amazon is planning to start customer pilots of its Project Kuiper satellite internet service by the end of next year, and will soon start deploying the fleet that will support it. It launched its first two prototype satellites in October. The company already has deals for upcoming launches on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket, Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn — all of which have been hit by development delays and may or may not make their first flights between this year and next.

Amazon said in its announcement that “the additional launches with SpaceX offer even more capacity to support our deployment schedule.” The company has said its Project Kuiper constellation will consist of 3,236 satellites, at least half of which must be in operation by summer 2026 to comply with its FCC license.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-swallowing-its-pride-to-ensure-its-internet-satellites-get-to-orbit-on-time-222906412.html?src=rss