The Download: blocking AI porn, and brain data privacy
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
AI image generator Midjourney blocks porn by banning words about the human reproductive system
The news: The popular AI image generator Midjourney bans a wide range of words about the human reproductive system from being used as prompts, MIT Technology Review has discovered.
What’s included? The list of banned words seem to skew predominantly female, including terms such as “placenta,” “fallopian tubes,” and “mammary glands.” The company says it’s banning these words as a stopgap measure to prevent people from generating shocking or gory content while it “improves things on the AI side.”
Why it matters: Midjourney’s crude banning of prompts relating to reproductive biology highlights how tricky it is to moderate content around generative AI systems. It also demonstrates how the tendency for AI systems to sexualize women extends all the way to their internal organs. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
How your brain data could be used against you
Our senior biotech reporter Jessica Hamzelou has been in Lisbon, Portugal this week to attend a scientific conference on brain stimulation. Neuroscientists, brain surgeons, psychiatrists, and ethicists gathered to discuss how to best use the technologies that use magnetic or electrical pulses to change the way our brains work.
We’re still getting to grips with how these technologies work, but in the meantime, some are generating huge amounts of data about individuals’ brains. There’s a chance this data could be used against people in a court of law, making it vital that we start thinking about these uses, and how to protect brain data, now. Read the full story.
Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly biotech and health newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 China has cracked down on ChatGPT access
It was never officially available, but now the workarounds users have been exploiting have been cut off too. (The Guardian)
+ China is unsurprisingly upbeat about its own native chatbots, though. (Reuters)
+ Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT is coming next month. (CNBC)
+ ChatGPT is everywhere. Here’s where it came from. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The US has filed more charges against Sam Bankman-Fried
Including conspiracy to commit bank fraud.(WP $)
+ Prosecutors provided more details on how his money-spreading political schemes worked. (Vox)
+ What’s next for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)
3 AI-generated voices can trick banking systems
This highlights how vulnerable voice-activated security measures now are to hacking. (Motherboard)+ GPT-powered deepfakes are becoming big business. (Fast Company $)
4 Chip makers are fighting it out for federal funding
Firms in the US are jostling to make their case for grants. (NYT $)
+ What’s next for the chip industry. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The European Commission has banned staff from using TikTok
It’s worried the app is a threat to the security of its workers’ devices. (FT $)
6 Migrants are using ticket scalpers’ tools to enter the US
Auto clickers fill in border control’s online forms in the blink of an eye. (Rest of World)
7 How the Buy Nothing movement fell apart
The frugal community thrived on Facebook. Then it tried to leave. (Wired $)
+ Former evangelists are denouncing the group and are going it alone. (NY Mag $)
8 Jet skis are going electric
They’re a lot more efficient—and quieter.(IEEE Spectrum)
9 Where does virtual reality go from here?
The man who coined the word “metaverse” has thoughts. (FT $)
+ The metaverse is a new word for an old idea. (MIT Technology Review)
10 What coffee without beans tastes like
It’s being touted as a more sustainable alternative. (Neo.Life)
Quote of the day
“You being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes.”
—How a political consultant working for Sam Bankman-Fried described the kinds of causes he should fund, Motherboard reports.
The world is moving closer to a new cold war fought with authoritarian tech
Despite President Biden’s assurances that the US is not seeking a new cold war, one is brewing between the world’s autocracies and democracies—and technology is fueling it.
Authoritarian states are following China’s lead and are trending toward more digital rights abuses by increasing the mass digital surveillance of citizens, censorship, and controls on individual expression.
And while democracies also use massive amounts of surveillance technology, it’s the tech trade relationships between authoritarian countries that’s enabling the rise of digitally enabled social control. Read the full story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ I can’t get enough of this vigorous Tom Jones and Janis Joplin duet (thanks Mike!)
+ For shipwreck treasure hunters, finders aren’t always keepers, unfortunately.
+ These pictures confirm what we already knew: Lana Del Rey is the absolute coolest.
+ The secrets behind Rihanna’s impressive floating Super Bowl stage.
+ This rubber hand illusion experiment is utterly fascinating.