tools

“Exploring the Possibility of AI for Safeguarding Youthful Internet Users in the UK”

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The tools would be part of a wider set of proposals Ofcom is putting together focused on online child safety. Consultations for the comprehensive proposals will start in the coming weeks with the AI consultation coming later this year, Ofcom said. AI researchers are finding ever-more sophisticated ways of using AI to detect, for example, deep fakes, as well as to verify users online. It found that 32% of the kids reported that they’d seen worrying content online, but only 20% of their parents said they reported anything. Among children aged 16-17, Ofcom said, 25% said they were not confident about distinguishing fake from real online.

“The Impact of Alphabet X’s Bellwether AI on Foreseeing Natural Disasters”

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The Google parent’s moonshot factory X this week officially unveiled Project Bellwether, its latest bid to apply technology to some of our biggest problems. Here that means using AI tools to identify natural disasters like wildfire and flooding as quickly as possible. “Right now, our analysts have to spend time sorting through images to find the ones that cover the areas most affected by natural disasters,” the Guard’s Col. Brian McGarry notes. Google has been exploring the use of machine learning models and AI to predict natural disasters for some time now. Project Bellwether’s partnership with the National Guard could well prove an important validation of that work.

Unlocking the Power of AI: How CommentSold’s Live Selling Startup Creates Socially-Savvy Shoppable Clips

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The “AI ClipHero” feature creates short clips from livestreamed selling events, which often last for hours. “Shoppable ‘explainer’ videos are the most powerful video commerce medium right now, with TikTok and Instagram becoming the primary way Gen Z discovers, learns about products and purchases products. However, creating shoppable videos [requires] significant production times,” CommentSold CEO Guatam Goswami told TechCrunch. AI-powered clipping software isn’t new, but not many companies have developed AI-powered tools specifically designed for live commerce. Since launching in 2017, CommentSold now helps over 7,000 small- and mid-sized businesses deliver live shopping and e-commerce experiences.

“Exclusive Interview with Reddit’s Chief Product Officer: Enhancing User Experience through Improved Translations, Enhanced Moderation, and Advanced Developer Tools”

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After its IPO, the platform is planning a slew of product features for the year ahead, and — spoiler alert — most of them are powered by AI. “I think the IPO was an important milestone, but we’re just focused on building for our users,” Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Baht told TechCrunch. Reddit’s product roadmap includes faster loading times, more tools for moderators and developers, and an AI-powered language translation feature to bring Reddit to a more global audience. According to Reddit’s IPO filing, in December 2023, 50% of Reddit’s daily active unique users were from non-U.S. countries. The company will build on those updates with other new tools, like an LLM that’s trained on moderators’ past decisions and actions.

Exploring the Impact of AI and Marketing Tools on Audience Growth: LinkedIn’s Premium Company Pages Testing

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LinkedIn quietly started to post information describing its new Premium Company Page six days ago. Pricing for premium company pages is not immediately disclosed, but it appears admins of pages that are eligible for it can see it. The Premium Company Page subscription in some ways will look very familiar, in that it taps into well-known LinkedIn mechanics. Testimonials, which LinkedIn has really promoted as a feature on profile pages for individuals, also get a push here: admins can display these prominently at the top of their premium pages. Last but not least, with LinkedIn big on verification lately, and here too a Page can get a golden badge with a premium subscription.

Snap to Enhance Image Protection with Watermarks Generated by AI-Powered Technology

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Social media company Snap said Tuesday that it plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images on its platform. Other tech giants such as Microsoft, Meta, and Google have also taken steps to label or identify images created with AI-powered tools. Currently, Snap allows users to create or edit AI-generated images with Snap AI for paid users and a selfie-focused feature called Dreams. The company also added context cards with AI-generated images from tools like Dream selfies to better inform the user. In February, Snap partnered with HackerOne to stress its AI image-generation tools by adapting a bug bounty program.

“Enterprises Embrace Open-Source Generative AI Tools: Intel and Beyond Take the Lead”

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The Linux Foundation today announced the launch of the Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA), a project to foster the development of open, multi-provider and composable (i.e. modular) generative AI systems. Now, OPEA’s members are very clearly invested (and self-interested, for that matter) in building tooling for enterprise generative AI. Domino offers a suite of apps for building and auditing business-forward generative AI. And VMWare — oriented toward the infrastructure side of enterprise AI — last August rolled out new “private AI” compute products.

Mozilla’s study reveals continuing inadequacies in Big Tech’s advertising disclosure measures

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Efforts by tech giants to be more transparent about the ads they run are — at very best — still a work in progress, according to a report looking at ads transparency tools. The report’s top-line conclusion is that platforms’ ad oversight tools are falling short of delivering the intended transparency and democratic accountability in a critical year for elections globally. Judging by the report findings, something similar may be playing out in platforms’ early responses to DSA demands for ads transparency. “Major gaps”They do note there has been some developments since they carried out their transparency tools tests. But, as the report suggests, it’s all too easy for platforms to inject intentional friction into transparency tools, whether by restrictive design or sloppy implementation or both.

New tools from Spotify allow users to remix songs, according to screenshots

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Spotify is working on mixing tools that would allow users to remix songs on the streaming service, according to screenshots captured by tech veteran and app researcher Chris Messina. The screenshots indicate that the mixing tools would be available under a new “Music Pro” premium subscription tier. While Spotify’s mixing tools can’t get rid of this issue altogether, they could help remedy it to a certain extent. It’s not surprising that Spotify is developing mixing tools, especially as sped-up songs and mashups are having a moment thanks to TikTok. According to TikTok’s 2023 year-end report, the most popular songs on the app were sped-up remixes of songs.

“Revolutionizing Security Tools with Simbian’s AI Integration”

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After leaving Nvidia in 2010, Kumar pivoted to cybersecurity, eventually co-founding Fortanix, a cloud data security platform. Leveraging AI, Simbian can automatically orchestrate and operate existing security tools, finding the right configurations for each product by taking into account a company’s priorities and thresholds for security, informed by their business requirements. A separate study found that organizations now juggle on average 76 different security tools, leading IT teams and leaders to feel overwhelmed. In addition to automatically configuring a company’s security tools, the Simbian platform attempts to respond to “security events” by letting customers steer security while taking care of lower-level details. But that assumes Simbian’s AI doesn’t make mistakes, a tall order, given that it’s well established that AI is error-prone.