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Tapping social media and AI to speed supply chain assistance during disasters
A doctoral candidate at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is lead author of a study in the International Journal of Production Research investigating the ways social media platforms can be leveraged with artificial intelligence (AI) to provide vital communication connecting victims of disaster to outside aid and support.... Read more
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AI is learning from what you said on Reddit, Stack Overflow or Facebook. Are you OK with that?
Post a comment on Reddit, answer coding questions on Stack Overflow, edit a Wikipedia entry or share a baby photo on your public Facebook or Instagram feed and you are also helping to train the next generation of artificial intelligence.... Read more
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Bot-like accounts spreading 'hate' during UK election: NGO
Bot-like social media accounts have spread "disinformation and hate" in tens of thousands of posts viewed an estimated 150 million times during the UK general election campaign, a watchdog investigation revealed Tuesday.... Read more
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'Google is broken': How an algorithm tweak cost livelihoods
Google made major changes to its search algorithm and spam filters earlier this year to get rid of low-quality content—but the effects have proved devastating to some smaller websites.... Read more
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Meta risks fines over 'pay for privacy' model breaking EU rules
The EU accused Facebook owner Meta on Monday of breaching the bloc's digital rules, paving the way for potential fines worth billions of euros.... Read more
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Other countries have struggled to control how kids access the internet. What can Australia learn?
Debate continues to rage in Australia over whether children should (or can) be banned from social media. Following politicians' recent promises to ban those under 16 from the platforms, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has raised concerns that imposing age restrictions could push children to use social media in secret... Read more
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One Tech Tip: Too many passwords to remember? Try using a password manager
Everyone has too many passwords. The credentials we need to remember to navigate online life keep multiplying, not just for frequently used email, banking, social media, Netflix and Spotify logins, but also, say, the little-known e-commerce site you're not sure you'll buy from again.... Read more
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Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years
A pioneering internet messaging service that once boasted 100 million accounts has shut down, a message on the Russian-owned ICQ website said Wednesday.... Read more
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Deepfake, AI or real? It's getting harder for police to protect children from sexual exploitation online
Artificial intelligence (AI), now an integral part of our everyday lives, is becoming increasingly accessible and ubiquitous. Consequently, there's a growing trend of AI advancements being exploited for criminal activities.... Read more
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Security experts find millions of users running malware infected extensions from Google Chrome Web Store
A trio of security experts at Stanford University has found that millions of people are running an infected version of Chrome web browser due to extensions installed from the Google Chrome Web Store (GCWS). Sheryl Hsu, Manda Tran and Aurore Fass have posted a paper to the arXiv preprint server... Read more
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UN launches global principles to combat online hate and demands big tech take action now
The United Nations chief on Monday launched global principles to combat online hate and lies and demanded that big tech companies use their power to reduce the harm they are doing to people and societies around the world.... Read more
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New security loophole allows spying on internet users visiting websites and watching videos
Internet users leave many traces on websites and online services. Measures such as firewalls, VPN connections and browser privacy modes are in place to ensure a certain level of data protection. However, a newly discovered security loophole allows bypassing all of these protective measures.... Read more
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Indonesia says a cyberattack has compromised its data center but it won't pay the $8 million ransom
Indonesia's national data center has been compromised by a hacking group asking for a $8 million ransom that the government won't pay, authorities said Monday.... Read more
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Booking.com sounds alarm on AI-enabled travel scams
As travelers rush to book their summer getaways, Booking.com's internet safety boss says watch out for supercharged AI scams.... Read more
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Surgeon general calls on Congress to require social media warning labels, like those on cigarettes
The U.S. surgeon general has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.... Read more
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AI startup Perplexity wants to upend search business. News outlet Forbes says it's ripping them off
The artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI has raised tens of millions of dollars from the likes of Jeff Bezos and other prominent tech investors for its mission to rival Google in the business of searching for information.... Read more
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What happened to the likes? X is now hiding which posts you like from other users
Social media platform X is now hiding your likes.... Read more
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AI search answers are no substitute for good sources
If you have used Google lately and been lucky—or unlucky—enough to encounter an answer to your query rather than a bunch of links, you have been subjected to something called AI Overviews. This is a new core feature that Google has been rolling out, a move widely anticipated since the... Read more
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Many low-income New Yorkers rely on costly cell plans for internet access
The number of New York households with high-speed internet access rose from 725,000 to 1.3 million between 2017 and 2022, but much of that increase comes exclusively from cellular plans, which could mean that as many as 1.5 million households remain "underconnected," new Cornell research shows.... Read more
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Can AI-generated content be a threat to democracy?
In the not-too-distant future, most of the information people consume on the internet will be influenced by artificial intelligence, a Northeastern expert says.... Read more
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TikTok fails 'disinformation test' before EU vote, study shows
Wildly popular social network TikTok approved adverts containing political disinformation ahead of European polls, a report showed Tuesday, flouting its own guidelines and raising questions about its ability to detect election falsehoods.... Read more
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X formally allows X-rated content on platform
Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, has updated its rules to officially allow adult and graphic content on the platform.... Read more
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Google makes fixes to AI-generated search summaries after outlandish answers went viral
Google said Friday it has made "more than a dozen technical improvements" to its artificial intelligence systems after its retooled search engine was found spitting out erroneous information.... Read more
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One Tech Tip: Want to turn off Meta AI? You can't—but there are some workarounds
If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you've probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.... Read more
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AI browser plug-ins to help consumers improve digital privacy literacy, combat manipulative design
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing artificial intelligence tools that help consumers understand how they are being exploited as they navigate online platforms. The goal is to boost the digital literacy of end users so they can better control how they interact with these websites.... Read more
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Researchers build AI to save humans from the emotional toll of monitoring hate speech
A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new machine-learning method that detects hate speech on social media platforms with 88% accuracy, saving employees from hundreds of hours of emotionally damaging work.... Read more
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Is the internet really forever? Link rot requires infrastructure changes and human collaboration to solve
It's happened to all of us at one point while browsing the web—somewhere along the way, you click on a broken link and get a message saying that the web page you are looking for doesn't exist.... Read more
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Using smart devices to schedule on-demand public transportation can save time and money
Suburban residents often face challenges receiving reliable and accessible bus transit—riders often complain about infrequent schedules and long waiting times. Often, transit agencies are unable to provide additional buses because population density in such areas is usually low.... Read more
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Extremist communities continue to rely on YouTube for hosting, but most videos are viewed off-site, research finds
It's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of the online video-sharing platform YouTube. After all, is there really a limit to cute pet videos?... Read more
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Social media companies make significant child privacy and safety changes as a result of UK legislation
New legislation and regulations are driving social media companies such as Meta and TikTok to make major child safety and privacy changes, according to a new report launched in the House of Lords on Monday, 20 May 2024.... Read more
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AI chatbots are intruding into online communities where people are trying to connect with other humans
A parent asked a question in a private Facebook group in April 2024: Does anyone with a child who is both gifted and disabled have any experience with New York City public schools? The parent received a seemingly helpful answer that laid out some characteristics of a specific school, beginning... Read more
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'Incognito Market' founder arrested in New York
A 23-year-old man from Taiwan has been arrested on charges of selling tens of millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs online through a site on the dark web known as the "Incognito Market."... Read more
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What Google AI means for you—and your search results
Google recently unveiled plans to integrate its search engine with artificial intelligence (AI).... Read more
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The 'dead internet theory' makes eerie claims about an AI-run web. The truth is more sinister
If you search "shrimp Jesus" on Facebook, you might encounter dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI) generated crustaceans meshed in various forms with a stereotypical image of Jesus Christ.... Read more
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Can we rid artificial intelligence of bias?
Artificial intelligence built on mountains of potentially biased information has created a real risk of automating discrimination, but is there any way to re-educate the machines?... Read more
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Orphan articles: The 'dark matter' of Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the largest platform for open and freely accessible knowledge online yet, in a new study, EPFL researchers have found that around 15% of the content is effectively invisible to readers browsing within Wikipedia. They have developed a new tool to help overcome this. The work is published on... Read more
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The tentacles of retracted science reach deep into social media: A simple button could change that
In 1998, a paper linking childhood vaccines with autism was published in the journal, The Lancet, only to be retracted in 2010 when the science was debunked.... Read more
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New browser extension empowers users to fight online misinformation
Most people agree that the spread of online misinformation is a serious problem. But there is much less consensus on what to do about it.... Read more
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EU probes Facebook, Instagram over child protection
The EU on Thursday opened a formal investigation into Facebook and Instagram on suspicion the platforms owned by Meta are causing addictive behavior in children.... Read more
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Google's AI search revamp puts publishers in a quandary
Google's use of artificial intelligence to sum up answers to search queries has publishers wondering if traffic to their websites will wither.... Read more
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Net neutrality, and why it's vital to the future of the internet
It was on, then off, and now "net neutrality" is back on again.... Read more
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Amazon's satellite internet network Project Kuiper plans new Everett facility
Amazon will open a new logistics center in Everett, Washington, for its broadband satellite network, Project Kuiper, expanding its ability to design, test and manufacture satellites in the Puget Sound region.... Read more
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Google unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic
Google on Tuesday rolled out a retooled search engine that will frequently favor responses crafted by artificial intelligence over website links, a shift promising to quicken the quest for information while also potentially disrupting the flow of money-making internet traffic.... Read more
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EU to encourage influencers to have 'positive' impact
The EU announced steps Tuesday to encourage influencers to post content that has a "positive" impact on society, as concerns rise over disinformation in a fragmented information landscape.... Read more
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Global analysis of 30M hydrogen energy tweets shows increase from 2015 Paris Agreement
Australia's hydrogen energy-related discussion on Twitter (now X) is now ranked seventh globally, according to an analysis of 30.7 million tweets conducted by QUT researchers.... Read more
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Q&A: Researcher discusses the importance of visualizing undersea fiber-optic cables
The internet is kind of like drinking water, says UC Berkeley Professor Nicole Starosielski. Most of us don't think much about how it's delivered to our houses or wherever we need it, until we can't get it.... Read more
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Prototype browser extension adds Wikipedia-like citations on YouTube to curb misinformation
While Google has long been synonymous with search, people are increasingly seeking information directly through video platforms such as YouTube. Videos can be dense with information: text, audio, and image after image. Yet, each of these layers presents a potential source of error or deceit. When people search for videos... Read more
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TikTok to start labeling AI-generated content as technology becomes more universal
TikTok will begin labeling content created using artificial intelligence when it's uploaded from outside its own platform.... Read more
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Gatekeepers of the internet: Why there's no such thing as 'free' internet
Whether you're apping someone or scrolling through Instagram… all your online behavior is being monitored. In fact, others decide what you actually see. Ph.D. candidate Aleksandre Zardiashvili investigated the impact of online advertising and the power of the companies behind it.... Read more
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Breastfeeding moms sent photos, videos to purported lactation consultant on Facebook: Now they fear it was a scam
Sleep-deprived and anxious about feeding their babies, tens of thousands of moms in Illinois and elsewhere recently turned to a variety of Facebook groups offering support for breastfeeding, pumping breast milk and postpartum care.... Read more