A Boring Dystopia
- YouTube offers virtual trophies so you can feel bad about quitting premium
I started a free trial and cancelled it immediately to have no ads while on holiday. Didn't realize they are offering some illusion of achievements as a "reward" for your attention, doubling as a FOMO weapon for when you want to quit.
- Amazon Workers Say They Struggle to Afford Food and Renttime.com Amazon Workers Say They Struggle to Afford Food and Rent
A national study asked U.S. employees about their economic wellbeing.
- Solar Storm Knocks Farms Offline
Due to a dependence on GPS, large scale farms are now hackable/disruptable.
- Shoppers Drug Mart Recruiting Volunteers to Staff Stores
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/21284770
> Role Description > > This is a part-time on-site volunteer role at Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto, ON. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for assisting with various tasks and providing support to the staff. This may include helping customers find products, restocking shelves, organizing inventory, and maintaining a clean and organized store environment. Your role as a volunteer is crucial in ensuring that our customers have a positive and seamless shopping experience. > > > !
- Not only is this not how anyone writes, I do not understand why anyone would want to read anything that sounds anything like this
hey there fellow posters
i've recently posted the "Not only is this not how anyone writes, I do not understand why anyone would want to read anything that sounds anything like this" post to my lemmy, reddit, or twitter, and let me tell you, it's been a total game-changer
i know this isn't particularly novel but it's just so depressing we have to read this dogshit everywhere now
- Farmers Hiding Bird Flu Cases in Cattle from the FedGovwww.notus.org Farmers Are Hiding Likely Bird Flu Cases in Cows From the Federal Government
Dairy farmers don’t trust the federal government to prioritize their economic needs and have become increasingly polarized following the COVID-19 pandemic.
This has a real "hide the zombie bite from your friends" feel to it, albeit on a much grander scale.
- Kessler Syndrome and YOU
Kessler Syndrome would end space travel and satellite communications for generations. It's worth taking a look at this group and its work.
- Google has an idea to prevent phone scams, but it'll mean allowing its AI to listen in on your callswww.businessinsider.com Google has an idea to prevent phone scams, but it'll mean allowing its AI to listen in on your calls
Google hopes its Gemini AI can provide real-time scam alerts during phone calls. But it'll mean allowing its AI to listen to your conversations.
Google promised to keep data from the phone calls private.
- Students borrowing from the federal government this fall will face the highest interest rate in more than a decadewww.nbcnews.com Students borrowing from the federal government this fall will face the highest interest rate in more than a decade
While the rate level is set by a pre-determined formula, the Obama administration was able to retroactively reset interest rates through a bipartisan effort in 2013.
- Los Angeles renters now need $117K a year to live comfortably, study sayswww.ktla.com Los Angeles renters need $117K a year to live comfortably, study says
Rent prices around the nation continued to climb in April, but costs are especially burdensome for Angelenos, who need to make in excess of $100,000 a year to comfortably live and pay their landlor…
- The cost-of-living crisis is so bleak that some Gen Zers genuinely fear becoming homelessfortune.com The cost-of-living crisis is so bleak that some Gen Zers genuinely fear becoming homeless
Only around one-third of workers expect to be more financially secure next year than they are now, a new report finds.
- How Chinese AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russianwww.bbc.com How AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russian
A YouTuber falls victim to generative AI on Chinese social media, but the ramifications stretch beyond China.
cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/12110745
> "I don't want anyone to think that I ever said these horrible things in my life. Using a Ukrainian girl for a face promoting Russia. It's crazy.” > > Olga Loiek has seen her face appear in various videos on Chinese social media - a result of easy-to-use generative AI tools available online. > > “I could see my face and hear my voice. But it was all very creepy, because I saw myself saying things that I never said,” says the 21-year-old, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. > > The accounts featuring her likeness had dozens of different names like Sofia, Natasha, April, and Stacy. These “girls” were speaking in Mandarin - a language Olga had never learned. They were apparently from Russia, and talked about China-Russia friendship or advertised Russian products. > > “I saw like 90% of the videos were talking about China and Russia, China-Russia friendship, that we have to be strong allies, as well as advertisements for food.” > > One of the biggest accounts was “Natasha imported food” with a following of more than 300,000 users. “Natasha” would say things like “Russia is the best country. It’s sad that other countries are turning away from Russia, and Russian women want to come to China”, before starting to promote products like Russian candies. > > This personally enraged Olga, whose family is still in Ukraine. > > But on a wider level, her case has drawn attention to the dangers of a technology that is developing so quickly that regulating it and protecting people has become a real challenge. > > From YouTube to Xiaohongshu > > Olga’s Mandarin-speaking AI lookalikes began emerging in 2023 - soon after she started a YouTube channel which is not very regularly updated. > > About a month later, she started getting messages from people who claimed they saw her speak in Mandarin on Chinese social media platforms. > > Intrigued, she started looking for herself, and found AI likenesses of her on Xiaohongshu - a platform like Instagram - and Bilibili, which is a video site similar to YouTube. > > “There were a lot of them [accounts]. Some had things like Russian flags in the bio,” said Olga who has found about 35 accounts using her likeness so far. > > After her fiancé tweeted about these accounts, HeyGen, a firm that she claims developed the tool used to create the AI likenesses, responded. > > They revealed more than 4,900 videos have been generated using her face. They said they had blocked her image from being used anymore. > > A company spokesperson told the BBC that their system was hacked to create what they called “unauthorised content” and added that they immediately updated their security and verification protocols to prevent further abuse of their platform. > > But Angela Zhang, of the University of Hong Kong, says what happened to Olga is “very common in China”. > > The country is “home to a vast underground economy specialising in counterfeiting, misappropriating personal data, and producing deepfakes”, she said. > > This is despite China being one of the first countries to attempt to regulate AI and what it can be used for. It has even modified its civil code to protect likeness rights from digital fabrication. > > Statistics disclosed by the public security department in 2023 show authorities arrested 515 individuals for “AI face swap” activities. Chinese courts have also handled cases in this area. > > But then how did so many videos of Olga make it online? > > One reason could be because they promoted the idea of friendship between China and Russia. > > Beijing and Moscow have grown significantly closer in recent years. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin have said the friendship between the two countries has “no limits”. The two are due to meet in China this week. > > Chinese state media have been repeating Russian narratives justifying its invasion of Ukraine and social media has been censoring discussion of the war. > > “It is unclear whether these accounts were coordinating under a collective purpose, but promoting a message that is in line with the government’s propaganda definitely benefits them,” said Emmie Hine, a law and technology researcher from the University of Bologna and KU Leuven. > > “Even if these accounts aren’t explicitly linked to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], promoting an aligned message may make it less likely that their posts will get taken down.” > > But this means that ordinary people like Olga remain vulnerable and are at risk of falling foul of Chinese law, experts warn. > > Kayla Blomquist, a technology and geopolitics researcher at Oxford University, warns that “there is a risk of individuals being framed with artificially generated, politically sensitive content” who could be subject to “rapid punishments enacted without due process”. > > She adds that Beijing’s focus in relation to AI and online privacy policy has been to build out consumer rights against predatory private actors, but stresses that “citizen rights in relation to the government remain extremely weak”. > > Ms Hine explains that the “fundamental goal of China’s AI regulations is to balance maintaining social stability with promoting innovation and economic development”. > > “While the regulations on the books seem strict, there’s evidence of selective enforcement, particularly of the generative AI licensing rule, that may be intended to create a more innovation-friendly environment, with the tacit understanding that the law provides a basis for cracking down if necessary,” she said. > > 'Not the last victim’ > > But the ramifications of Olga’s case stretch far beyond China - it demonstrates the difficulty of trying to regulate an industry that seems to be evolving at break-neck speed, and where regulators are constantly playing catch-up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not trying. > > In March, the European Parliament approved the AI Act, the world's first comprehensive framework for constraining the risks of the technology. And last October, US President Joe Biden announced an executive order requiring AI developers to share data with the government. > > While regulations at the national and international levels are progressing slowly compared to the rapid race of AI growth, we need “a clearer understanding of and stronger consensus around the most dangerous threats and how to mitigate them”, says Ms Blomquist. > > “However, disagreements within and among countries are hindering tangible action. The US and China are the key players, but building consensus and coordinating necessary joint action will be challenging,” she adds. > > Meanwhile, on the individual level, there seems to be little people can do short of not posting anything online. > > Meanwhile, on the individual level, there seems to be little people can do short of not posting anything online. > > “The only thing to do is to not give them any material to work with: to not upload photos, videos, or audio of ourselves to public social media,” Ms Hine says. “However, bad actors will always have motives to imitate others, and so even if governments crack down, I expect we’ll see consistent growth amidst the regulatory whack-a-mole.” > > Olga is “100% sure” that she will not be the last victim of generative AI. But she is determined not to let it chase her off the internet. > > She has shared her experiences on her YouTube channel, and says some Chinese online users have been helping her by commenting under the videos using her likeness and pointing out they are fake. > > She adds that a lot of these videos have now been taken down. > > “I wanted to share my story, I wanted to make sure that people will understand that not everything that you're seeing online is real,” says she. “I love sharing my ideas with the world, and none of these fraudsters can stop me from doing that.”
- Mumbai billboard collapse: Eight dead and dozens injuredwww.bbc.com Mumbai billboard collapse: Fourteen dead and dozens injured
Tens of people are still feared to be trapped with a rescue operation under way, emergency services say.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/15388716
> Mumbai billboard collapse: Eight dead and dozens injured > > > Tens of people are still feared to be trapped with a rescue operation under way, emergency services say. > > Archived version: https://archive.ph/Pru6m
- Ocasio-Cortez: State of US health care is ‘barbarism’www.thehill.com Ocasio-Cortez: State of US health care is ‘barbarism’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) described the state of health care in America as “barbarism” in a forthcoming episode of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) podcast. In a preview of Wednesday’s ep…
- Metro South Trash Cam: A Tangible Manifestation of the Contemporary Conditionwww.oregonmetro.gov Metro South trash cam
Watch garbage flowing in and out of Metro's transfer station in Oregon City, just south of Portland.
It's hard for me to explain in words how disturbing I find this. Here's a manifestation of how we as a culture see "stuff" and how we relate to the material world.
- Renters need to make roughly $20,000 more a year to afford the typical rent than they did 5 years agofortune.com Renters need to make roughly $20,000 more a year to afford the typical rent than they did 5 years ago
“Since pre-pandemic, the income needed to afford rent has increased by 31.5%,” Zillow’s chief economist, Skylar Olsen, wrote yesterday.
- Pesticide Use Has Increased by Over 80% since 1990, Causing Pollinator Declines and Water Contaminationmedium.com Pesticide Use Has Increased by Over 80% since 1990, Causing Pollinator Declines
The Alarming Rise of Pesticide Use in Industrial Agriculture and Its Impact on Pollinators and Water Quality
- Video - The Dead Internet Theory is WRONG (but its worse than you thought) - [An analysis of the rise of Bad Bot on the web]
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
Video description > The Dead Internet Theory needs to be reworked, because its grossly misunderstood and based on bad claims and anecdotal evidence. There is one piece of evidence that actually supports this claim and the premise of the report focuses on an even bigger issue, bad bots are wrecking the internet
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More Links:
https://www.imperva.com/resources/reports/2023-Imperva-Bad-Bot-Report.pdf
https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/infographics/bot-traffic-report-2016/
https://securitytoday.com/articles/2023/05/17/report-47-percent-of-internet-traffic-is-from-bots?m=1
https://www.msspalert.com/news/bots-clutter-and-compromise-the-internet-mssp-imperva-reports
https://cybernews.com/news/most-internet-traffic-comes-from-bots/
I've checked the company:
> Imperva offers application security, data security, network security and application performance solutions. The company’s products are designed to protect applications and APIs against DDoS attacks, bots and supply chain attacks; protect sensitive data in cloud and on-premises environments; and defend networks against DDoS attacks and ensure business continuity. The company had more than half a billion dollars in revenue (TTM) in 2022, and over 1,400 employees.
https://www.imperva.com/company/press_releases/thales-completes-acquisition-of-imperva/
- 29% of US households have jobs but struggle to cover basic needs: They are 'one emergency from poverty,' one expert sayswww.cnbc.com 29% of households have jobs but struggle to cover basic needs: They are 'one emergency from poverty,' one expert says
Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, are defined as ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
- Morte Psíquica
Eu escrevi algo, é bem curto, eu gostaria de ouvir as opiniões. Aceito críticas do que posso melhorar, caso queiram acrescentar algo, fiquem a vontade.
Acredito que possa ter haver com a comunidade
- I think it's extremely invasive that amazon is telling me this
even the name is too much imo, when i delivered pizza some places had their system like this, i don't like strangers knowing that. it's too personal.
the picture is really, really too far. only the most utter HOA boomer could even potentially spin needing to know that. and you can of course imagine the issues with it.
- Poll: Around 25% of young people in the lowest-income households feel “people like me don’t have much of a chance in life”medium.com Poll: Around 25% of young people in the lowest-income households feel “people like me don’t have…
A Troubling Lack of Opportunity for Young People in Poverty
- School board votes to restore Confederate names to schools in Shenandoah County - It Passed
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
- Nearly half of cancer patients have more than $5,000 in medical debt, even though most are insuredwww.nbcnews.com Nearly half of cancer patients have medical debt, even though most are insured
A survey from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network found that 98% of patients had health insurance when they incurred medical debt.
- 54% of young Americans say food costs are the biggest strain on their financeswww.cnbc.com 54% of young Americans say food costs are the biggest strain on their finances
Over half of young Americans say that rising food prices are the most noticeable effect of inflation.