Sdorn Provides Timely and Accurate Technology News, Covering APP, AI, IoT, Cybersecurity, Startup and Innovation.
⎯ 《 Sdorn • Com 》
Konami’s Bloober Team asks fans to be patient for Silent Hill 2 remake
Konami’s Bloober Team asks fans to be patient for Silent Hill 2 remake
Games studio Bloober Team have asked their fans to be patient over their upcoming 'Silent Hill 2' remake.
2023-11-27 23:26
Popular Carbon Credits Fail to Offset Emissions, Probe Shows
Popular Carbon Credits Fail to Offset Emissions, Probe Shows
A popular category of carbon offsets held by a number of major publicly traded companies is significantly more
2023-09-15 07:47
David Sacks: The controversial entrepreneur hosting Ron DeSantis 2024 event with Elon Musk
David Sacks: The controversial entrepreneur hosting Ron DeSantis 2024 event with Elon Musk
David Sacks, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, will host Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an audio chat on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday (24 May) where Mr DeSantis is expected to announce his campaign for 2024 president. Mr Sacks, 50, is a longtime friend of Mr Musk and supporter of Mr DeSantis. Though Mr Sacks’ name is not as prominent as other tech-industry giants, the entrepreneur has a long history of leading and investing in major companies like PayPal, Yammer, Facebook, Airbnb and more. In more recent years, Mr Sacks has become a major donor to political campaigns for individual Republicans like JD Vance and Mr DeSantis. What experience does Mr Sacks have? Mr Sacks – who was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1972 and moved to Tennessee with his family as a child – was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and head of product for PayPal from 1999 until 2002. He has been dubbed part of the “Paypal Mafia”, a group of former PayPal employees who went on to have successful tech companies- like Mr Musk. In 2008, he founded Yammer which became one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service companies to exist. In 2012, Yammer was acquired by Microsft for $1.2 bn. Mr Sacks co-founded the venture capital firm Craft Ventures in 2017, where he remains a partner. He also has the podcast All-In alongside fellow entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. Last year, Mr Sacks was widely reported to be helping out his longtime friend, Mr Musk, behind-the-scenes when his fellow South African-born friend acquired Twitter. What does Mr Sacks believe in? Like Mr Musk, Mr Sacks says he is a proponent of free speech. In a blog post on Medium in 2021, Mr Sacks criticised big tech social media platforms for permanently banning politicians. His belief in free-speech was echoed more recently in an interview with conservative personality Benny Johnson. Mr Sacks accused the media of not allowing anti-vaccine activists and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr to speak freely and questioned critics’ justification of saying Mr Kennedy was spreading misinformation. The entrepreneur also expressed support for Tucker Carlson after he was unexpectedly fired from Fox News. Mr Sacks has also been an outspoken critic of US policy towards Ukraine following the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. In a piece for The American Conservative last year, Mr Sacks proposed a peaceful end to the war which included holding referendums on the future of Donbas and Crimea, both of which were illegally occupied by Russian forces in 2014. On Twitter, Mr Sacks is vocal in criticising the US for its involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and has repeatedly clashed with critics of Vladimir Putin, including former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. In October Mr Musk retweeted an article Mr Sacks wrote for Newsweek in which he argued that continued military support for Ukraine could lead to “Woke War III”. The article itself was a response to the backlash Mr Musk received over a Twitter poll suggesting a peace deal which would strongly favour Russian interests. In his Newsweek article, Mr Sacks wrote: “There will be no peaceful resolution to this conflict that America doesn’t at least have a hand in negotiating, and we should be leading the effort. Instead, we’ve been deferring to the Ukrainians and their maximalist demands, upping the sanctions on Russia as Putin ups his rhetoric against the West.” While he has been criticised for his outspoken views despite lacking a foreign policy background, he has argued that his lack of expertise is actually an advantage: “Not being a member of the MIC [military industrial complex] is clearly an advantage in understanding the conflict.” What political candidates has Mr Sacks supported? Since the 1990s, Mr Sacks has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates according to OpenSecrets. His largest donations have gone toward the PAC supporting GOP Ohio Senator JD Vance, the conservative Purple Good Government PAC, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Republican National Committee. Over the last two years, Mr Sacks has expressed vocal support for Mr DeSantis on Fox News and Twitter as well as donated to his political campaign. Read More Ron DeSantis to launch 2024 presidential bid on Twitter with Elon Musk Can the chaos from Silicon Valley Bank's fall be contained? Casey DeSantis gives cheeky response to reports husband is launching 2024 campaign
2023-05-24 07:23
MrBeast is the latest celeb calling out AI deepfake scams
MrBeast is the latest celeb calling out AI deepfake scams
MrBeast has become the latest celebrity to tackle AI deepfakes, calling on social media to do more. "Lots of people are getting this deepfake scam ad of me… are social media platforms ready to handle the rise of AI deepfakes? This is a serious problem," the famed YouTuber posted to X/Twitter. MrBeast included a clip that has been circulating online, that shows an AI version of him saying he's giving away iPhones. "You’re one of the 10,000 lucky people who will get an iPhone 15 pro for just $2," the deceiving clip said. "I’m MrBeast and I am doing the world’s largest iPhone 15 giveaway." The clip then encouraged viewers to follow a link to "claim yours now!" It comes after Tom Hanks was targeted by artificial intelligence after one company featured him in a dental advert without his consent. The Hollywood actor was forced to speak out about the fake ad, writing: "There's a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it." The surge of AI scams is nothing new, following an alarming – and more sinister rise – in AI-generated porn, mostly targeting female influencers and celebrities. Billie Eilish previously fell victim to the fake tech in one NSFW incident – which saw a video eventually removed from social media after being viewed 11 million times. A separate incident saw popular Twitch streamer Sweet Anita horrified to learn her face had been used in X-rated material. Worryingly, there's not much legal action that can be taken either. Cybersecurity expert and What the Hack podcast host Adam Levin told Indy100 that "as long as every party involved is a legal adult, there aren’t very many laws on the books to prevent or punish the distribution of illicit content". He claimed "it’s nearly impossible to remove any content published online, pornographic or otherwise," before adding: "That said, if all the parties are known, there may be legally actionable kinds of deepfake porn content." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-10-04 17:23
Madison Beer under fire for posting bikini video flaunting body, deletes it later
Madison Beer under fire for posting bikini video flaunting body, deletes it later
Madison Beer has been posting bikini photos in the past, often facing criticism from haters and trolls
2023-05-10 13:50
The most popular search engine in the world is about to look different
The most popular search engine in the world is about to look different
Google is moving forward with plans to bring AI chat features to its core search engine as it works to keep pace with a wave of new artificial intelligence tools that could threaten the company's dominance online for the first time in decades.
2023-05-11 02:15
The Aura System is a 'smart' way to cycle more safely
The Aura System is a 'smart' way to cycle more safely
Aura is a system of smart devices to help you cycle more safely. The advanced
2023-08-01 23:26
Sports magazine under fire for publishing AI-written articles crediting non-existent authors
Sports magazine under fire for publishing AI-written articles crediting non-existent authors
The Sports Illustrated magazine is under fire for carrying articles written using artificial intelligence, crediting authors who do not seem to exist. The popular magazine said it removed several articles from its website after a report by Futurism accused it of repeatedly publishing articles with fake author names whose profile images were seemingly generated by AI. One such now-deleted article was credited to the name “Drew Ortiz”, who does not seem to exist outside the magazine. The author bio found under the article is allegedly created using AI, the report said. “Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature,” the author’s profile read. The accompanying photo is also found for sale on a website selling AI-generated headshots where he is described as a “neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes”. On questioning the magazine, Futurism said all of the authors with AI-generated portraits disappeared from the magazine’s website without any explanations offered. Sports Illustrated responded to the allegations saying that the articles under question were created by a third-party company – AdVon Commerce – which it said assured the magazine they were written by humans who use a pen name. “We are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership,” Sports Illustrated said, according to The Associated Press, adding that AdVon “assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans”. Some writers and editors at the magazine took to social media to share their thoughts on the matter. “Along with basic principles of honesty, trust, journalistic ethics, etc. – I take seriously the weight of a Sports Illustrated byline. It meant something to me long before I ever dreamed of working here. This report was horrifying to read,” Emma Baccellieri, a staff writer for the magazine, posted on X. “The practices described in the story published today do real damage to the credibility of the hardworking humans I have been honored to work with for the past nine years,” Mitch Goldich, a writer and editor at Sports Illustrated, said. Sports Illustrated’s workers’ union said it was “horrified” by the Futurism story. “We, the workers of the SI Union, are horrified by a story on the site Futurism, reporting that Sports Illustrated's parent company, The Arena Group, has published Al-generated content under Si's brand with fabricated bylines and writer profiles. If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” it said in a statement. “We demand answers and transparency from Arena group management about what exactly has been published under the SI name,” the Sports Illustrated Union said. Sports Illustrated and AdVon did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. This is not the first time a news outlet has drawn criticism for posting AI-generated content. Last year CNET came under fire for using AI to create news articles about financial service topics which the company attributed to “CNET Money Staff”. Readers could only learn that AI was used to publish the article if they clicked on the author attribution. After the incident came to light, CNET’s then-editor Connie Guglielmo said over 70 such machine-generated stories were posted on the website. “The process may not always be easy or pretty, but we’re going to continue embracing it, and any new technology that we believe makes life better,” Mr Guglielmo said. Read More UK, US and other governments try and stop AI being hijacked by rogue actors Putin targets AI as latest battleground with West Researchers warned of dangerous AI discovery just before OpenAI chaos YouTube reveals bizarre AI music experiments Breakthrough device can transform water entirely Elon Musk mocked for trying to resurrect QAnon Pizzagate conspiracy
2023-11-29 13:25
Japan to give Toyota $841 million support for domestic EV battery output
Japan to give Toyota $841 million support for domestic EV battery output
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan will give Toyota up to $841 million in subsidies for the automaker's investment in domestic production of
2023-06-16 12:21
Find out why these TVs are such great value
Find out why these TVs are such great value
In the current Smart TV market, there is a war going on for your eyeballs.
2023-06-28 14:27
Spotify clarifies position on whether it will ban AI-powered music
Spotify clarifies position on whether it will ban AI-powered music
The boss of Spotify has said he would not completely ban content generated by artificial intelligence from the music streaming service. Daniel Ek told the BBC he thought there were legitimate use cases for the technology in music, but that it should not be used to impersonate real artists without their consent. He said there were three “buckets” of AI use in music: tools such as auto-tune, which he said was acceptable; software which impersonated artists, which was not; and a more controversial middle ground where AI-generated music was inspired by a specific artist but did not directly mimic them. But he said the issue would likely be debated for “many, many years”. “You can imagine someone uploading a song, claiming to be Madonna, even if they’re not. We’ve seen pretty much everything in the history of Spotify at this point with people trying to game our system,” he said. “We have a very large team that is working on exactly these types of issues.” Spotify does not allow content from its platform to be used to train AI models. Last month, Irish singer Hozier said he would consider striking over the threat of AI to the music industry, and a number of other artists have spoken out about their concerns about the use of technology in creating music. Regulators worldwide are stepping up their scrutiny of AI, given its explosion into general use worldwide and fears over its impact on jobs, industry, copyright, the education sector and privacy – among many other areas. We've seen pretty much everything in the history of Spotify at this point with people trying to game our system Daniel Ek, Spotify The UK will host a safety summit on the potential opportunities and threats posed by AI in November. Read More Spotify makes AI voice clones of podcasters and uses them to speak other languages Spotify CEO Daniel Ek denies existence of alleged artist streaming scheme Streaming service Deezer signs Universal Music royalty deal to prioritise musicians over AI
2023-09-26 22:19
Mitutoyo America Corporation Releases New LH600F/FG Height Gage
Mitutoyo America Corporation Releases New LH600F/FG Height Gage
AURORA, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--
2023-06-13 20:16