Elon Musk has begun training for his anticipated fight against Mark Zuckerberg, sparring with the same partner as his tech rival. Podcaster and AI researcher Lex Fridman, who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, said he was “extremely impressed” with Mr Musk’s strength and technique after practising with him on Monday. The session came just days after Mr Fridman grappled with the Meta boss, who has been learning jiu-jitsu since last year. Both billionaires are expected to face off in a mixed martial arts contest after Mr Musk challenged his tech rival to a “cage match” earlier this month. The 51-year-old Tesla boss has no prior experience with martial arts and claims to not do any exercise beyond picking up his children and “throwing them in the air”. He is a long-time friend of Mr Fridman, who has been practising jiu-jitsu for more than a decade and earned his black belt five years ago. “I did an impromptu training session with Elon Musk for a few hours yesterday,” Mr Fridman wrote on Twitter. “I’m extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground. It was epic.” Mr Musk replied: “That was fun!” Mr Fridman added that he hoped the two tech bosses would continue to train at martial arts but not actually fight each other. Within hours of sparring with his friend, Mr Musk had taken up an offer from UFC legend Georges St-Pierre to train him for the bout. The former two-weight UFC champion is considered one of the greatest ever mixed martial artists, having retired in 2019 after winning belts at welterweight and middleweight. It is not yet clear when the fight between Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg will take place, though the UFC Apex centre in Las Vegas has been proposed as a potential location. The contest has been endorsed by UFC president Dana White, who said last week that both men were “absolutely dead serious” about fighting each other. “This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world,” he said. “Bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records... You don’t have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.” Read More Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg ‘dead serious’ about cage fight, says UFC boss Elon Musk picks UFC legend to train him for Mark Zuckerberg fight Twitter hacker who took over Musk, Obama, Biden accounts gets prison sentence Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg

How often do you think about your belly button health? Probably not enough, at least according to Dr Karan Raj. Dr Raj is one of the most popular health experts on TikTok, regularly keeping his 5.2 million followers updated with videos discussing all manner of things in the medical world. One of his clips has exposed just how dirty our belly buttons can get – and highlighted just how dirty they can become if not properly cleaned. The video is informative – but you might want to look away if gross stuff makes you queasy. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter As he explained that if not properly maintained, the body can produce a “belly button stone” made up of all sorts of gunk. @dr.karanr #duet with @crinc_3 natural ornaments! #schoolwithdrkaran The video begins with a short section from fellow TikToker @crinc_3 which features the caption: "My partner told me they'd never cleaned their belly button because it hurt. So I cleaned it." "All flesh holes can build up with sweat, dead skin cells, oils, clothing fabric, bacteria and forbidden cheese,” Dr Raj said, commenting on the footage. "If not washed out on a regular basis, this material can accumulate and harden into an omphalolith – a belly button stone.” He added: "Belly button stones come in a wide array of colours, it's usually black but can be a light brown." The clip sparked a big reaction from TikTok users, with one writing: “I didn't have a fear of belly buttons until I saw the one behind your head.” Another said: “who else is checking their belly button right now LOL.” One more added: "Not me cleaning my belly button straight after watching this.” 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.

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Facebook users have shared images of cartoon characters wielding weapons, naked celebrities, and child soldiers – all created using the app’s new AI-generated sticker feature. Parent company Meta unveiled the new feature last week, allowing Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Instagram users to generate stickers with artificial intelligence by writing prompts. “I don’t think anyone involved has thought anything through,” 3D artist and illustrator Pier-Olivier Desbiens wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, who used the tool to create stickers with the prompts ‘Waluigi rifle’, ‘child soldier’, ‘Karl Marx large breasts’ and ‘Trudeau buttocks’. “We really do live in the stupidest future imaginable,” he wrote. Another user shared an AI-generated sticker of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones kissing a dog. “It’s completely unhinged,” they wrote. The Independent has reached out to Meta for comment. The new AI stickers are currently only available to a limited number of English-language users, with Meta yet to confirm whether a wider roll out is planned. “Using technology from Llama 2 and our foundational model for image generation called Emu, our AI tool turns your text prompts into multiple unique, high-quality stickers in seconds,” Meta announced in a blog post last week. “This new feature... provides infinitely more options to convey how you’re feeling at any moment.” Meta claims that billions of stickers are sent by Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp users each month, having first introduced the feature in 2013. Other AI-generated image tools, such as OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, have limits in place to prevent misuse. Users are unable to generate images featuring violent content or real people, though other generative AI platforms exist that do not place limitations on the ways content can be generated. In its blog post announcing the new feature, Meta noted that there was a chance that AI tools could be misused, which is why their introduction is being done on a “step by step” basis. “In keeping with our commitment to responsible AI, we also stress test our products to improve safety performance and regularly collaborate with policymakers, experts in academia and civil society, and others in our industry to advance the responsible use of this technology,” the post stated. “We’ll continue to iterate on and improve these features as the technologies evolve and we see how people use them in their daily lives.” Read More Pixel 8: Google unveils ‘AI-centred’ iPhone rival Facebook and Instagram users face monthly fee for ad-free version Zuckerberg says Metaverse can bring back the dead – virtually Meta just took a step towards its dream of the metaverse

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