Profile

Wall Street Journal and New York Post are suing Perplexity AI for copyright infringement https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-uploaded-images%2F2024-10%2F667b4160-9028-11ef-b8ff-d937644449a5&resize=1400%2C933&client=19f2b5e49a271b2bde77&signature=08c9b6b6479439b6c92401d24dcdc5dd6ee490ff The Wall Street Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, and the New York Post are suing AI-powered search startup Perplexity for using their content to train its large language models. Both News Corp. publications are accusing Perplexity of copyright infringement for using their articles to generate answers to people's queries, thereby taking traffic away from the publications' websites. "This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce," the publishers wrote in their complaint, according to the Journal.  In their lawsuit, the publications argued that Perplexity can serve users not just snippets of copyrighted articles, but the whole thing, especially for those paying for its premium subscription plan. They cited an instance wherein the service allegedly served up the entirety of a New York Post piece when the user typed in "Can you provide the fultext of that article." In addition, the publications are accusing Perplexity of harming their brand by citing information that never appeared on their websites. The company's AI can hallucinate, they explained, and add incorrect details. In one instance, it allegedly attributed quotes to a Wall Street Journal article about the US arming Ukraine-bound F-16 jets that were never in the piece. The publications said they sent a letter to Perplexity in July to raise these legal issues, but the AI startup never responded.   Various news organizations have sued AI companies in the past for copyright infringement. The New York Times, as well as The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet, sued OpenAI for using their content to train its LLMs. In its lawsuit, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft "seek to free-ride" on its massive investment in journalism. Condé Nast previously sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity to demand that it stop using its publications' articles as responses to users' queries. And in June, Wired reported that Amazon had started investigating the AI company over reports that it scrapes websites without consent.  News Corp. is asking the court to prohibit Perplexity from using its publications' content without permission, and it's also asking for damages of up to $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement. Whether the company is willing to negotiate a content agreement remains to be seen — News Corp. struck a licensing deal with OpenAI earlier this year, which allows the ChatGPT owner to use its websites' articles for training over the next five years in exchange for a reported $250 million. This article originally appeared on Engadget at

Engadget

Wall Street Journal and New York Post are suing Perplexity AI for copyright infringement

Wall Street Journal and New York Post have sued Perplexity AI for using their articles to train its large language model.

Engadget

Wall Street Journal and New York Post are suing Perplexity AI for copyright infringement

Wall Street Journal and New York Post have sued Perplexity AI for using their articles to train its large language model.

Meta is bringing back facial recognition with new safety features for Facebook and Instagram https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-uploaded-images%2F2024-10%2F5be2a330-8fef-11ef-99f7-8e4dd931f8f0&resize=1400%2C787&client=19f2b5e49a271b2bde77&signature=f4b162b7b6283588dea7a4d795656c14dc211162 Meta is bringing facial recognition tech back to its apps more than three years after it shut down Facebook’s “face recognition” system amid a broader backlash against the technology. Now, the social network will begin to deploy facial recognition tools on Facebook and Instagram to fight scams and help users who have lost access to their accounts, the company said in an update. The first test will use facial recognition to detect scam ads that use the faces of celebrities and other public figures. “If our systems suspect that an ad may be a scam that contains the image of a public figure at risk for celeb-bait, we will try to use facial recognition technology to compare faces in the ad against the public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures,” Meta explained in a blog post. “If we confirm a match and that the ad is a scam, we’ll block it.” The company said that it’s already begun to roll the feature out to a small group of celebs and public figures and that it will begin automatically enrolling more people into the feature “in the coming weeks,” though individuals have the ability to opt out of the protection. While Meta already has systems in place to review ads for potential scams, the company isn’t always able to catch “celeb-bait” ads as many legitimate companies use celebrities and public figures to market their products, Monika Bickert, VP of content policy at Meta, said in a briefing. “This is a real time process,” she said of the new facial recognition feature. “It's faster and it's more accurate than manual review.” Separately, Meta is also testing facial recognition tools to address another long-running issue on Facebook and Instagram: account recovery. The company is experimenting with a new “video selfie” option that allows users to upload a clip of themselves, which Meta will then match to their profile photos, when users have been locked out of their accounts. The company will also use it in cases of a suspected account compromise to prevent hackers from accessing accounts using stolen credentials. The tool won’t be able to help everyone who loses access to a Facebook or Instagram account. Many business pages, for example, don’t include a profile photo of a person, so those users would need to use Meta’s existing account recovery options. But Bickert says the new process will make it much more difficult for bad actors to game the company’s support tools “It will be a much higher level of difficulty for them in trying to bypass our systems,” Bickert said. With both new features, Meta says it will “immediately delete” facial data that’s used for comparisons and that the scans won’t be used for another purpose. The company is also making the features optional, though celebrities will need to opt-out of the scam ad protection rather than opt-ion. That could draw criticism from privacy advocates, particularly given Meta’s messy history with facial recognition. The company previously used the technology to power automatic photo-tagging, which allowed the company to automatically recognize the faces of users in photos and videos. The feature was discontinued in 2021, with Meta deleting the facial data of more than 1 billion people, citing “growing societal concerns.” The company also faces lawsuits, notably from the Texas and Illinois, over its use of the tech. Meta paid $650 million to settle a lawsuit related to the Illinois law and $1.4 billion to resolve a similar suit in Texas. It’s notable, then, that the new tools won’t be available in either Illinois or Texas to start. It also won’t roll out to users in the United Kingdom or European Union as the company is “continuing to have conversations there with regulators” in the region, according to Bickert. But the company is “hoping to scale this technology globally sometime in 2025,” according to a Meta spokesperson. This article originally appeared on Engadget at

Engadget

Meta is bringing back facial recognition with new safety features for Facebook and Instagram

Meta will begin to deploy facial recognition tools on Facebook and Instagram to fight scams and help users who have lost access to their accounts, ...

Engadget

Meta is bringing back facial recognition with new safety features for Facebook and Instagram

Meta will begin to deploy facial recognition tools on Facebook and Instagram to fight scams and help users who have lost access to their accounts, ...

Pagers explode simultaneously in hundreds of Hezbollah members’ pockets https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-uploaded-images%2F2024-09%2F8de428e0-7523-11ef-bbe5-bf46ec61d7b7&resize=1400%2C931&client=19f2b5e49a271b2bde77&signature=5c1587f43e0be3c183f1a20eedb2b53cf0b67323 An attack in Lebanon reportedly killed eight people and injured over 2,700. Hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously on Tuesday, leading the Iran-backed militant organization to blame Israel. A day after Israeli leaders warned of escalating its military campaign against Hezbollah, pagers belonging to the Lebanese group’s members exploded at once. Witnesses reported seeing smoke emanating from the victims’ pockets, followed by sounds reminiscent of fireworks or gunshots. Lebanon’s health minister said 200 of the injured were in critical condition. He added that many victims had facial injuries, especially to the eyes. Hand and stomach injuries were also common, according to the health minister. Among those wounded was Mojtaba Amini, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, according to Iranian state media. The New York Times says Israel’s military declined to comment. It’s unclear how the perpetrators orchestrated or carried out the attacks. It’s also unknown whether the pagers were tampered with physically or if the attacks were somehow carried out using software. The latter, as far-fetched as it sounds, could lead to widespread panic about the safety of any battery-containing mobile devices. NYT reports some in Lebanon were scared to use their phones after the attacks, with one resident crying out, “Please hang up, hang up!” to their caller. The Times reports that Hezbollah, long suspicious of cellphone use near the Israeli border due to the devices’ geolocation capabilities, recently switched from mobile phones to pagers. In February, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah reportedly warned the group that their phones were dangerous and could be used by Israel as spy tools. He advised the group that they should “break or bury them.” Experts reportedly don’t yet know precisely how the pagers were distributed to Hezbollah’s members. They say that Iran, given its history of supplying Hezbollah with arms, tech and other military aid, would have been pivotal to their adoption and delivery. This article originally appeared on Engadget at

Engadget

More electronic devices reportedly exploded in Lebanon a day after coordinated pager attack

An attack in Lebanon on Tuesday reportedly killed eight people and injured over 2,700 — with hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members de...

Engadget

More electronic devices reportedly exploded in Lebanon a day after coordinated pager attack

An attack in Lebanon on Tuesday reportedly killed eight people and injured over 2,700 — with hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members de...

How to watch the It's Glowtime Apple event and the iPhone 16 reveal https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-uploaded-images%2F2024-08%2F513d6430-661c-11ef-8d3f-a802639e0805&resize=1400%2C830&client=19f2b5e49a271b2bde77&signature=142f31a13d33a30de090f02213b7e2f041dd29b1 Right now is probably the worst time to buy an iPhone if you're looking to upgrade your current phone. Instead wait a couple more weeks because Apple's new line of iPhone 16s will be announced on Monday. Not only will you have more iPhones to choose from, but you could also score a previous model at a lower price. The Apple event will be held September 9 at 1PM ET (10AM PT) at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino. You can livestream Apple's It's Glowtime event on YouTube (which we’ve embedded above for your convenience), as well as on Apple’s site. As far as new products go, we’re expecting four new iPhone models to be announced: The iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Don’t expect a huge leap forward from the iPhone 15, which our senior editor Billy Steele called the “most substantial update to the regular iPhone in years.” Instead, the major push will be around iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence. In terms of hardware, there'll be the usual more powerful processor, screen sizes may adjust slightly and there’s supposedly a new dedicated camera button for the Pro models. Away from iPhones, we’ll likely also get new Apple Watch models (Series 10 or Series “X,” and maybe an Ultra 3), alongside new AirPods in both entry- and Pro-level models. You can get the scoop on everything we expect at the event in our in-depth what we expect at the iPhone 16 launch article. For anyone not planning to buy any new Apple devices this year, you'll still have access to the latest iOS 18 update, likely later in September, as long as your device is eligible (find out here). Here's everything coming with the iOS 18 update this year, including Apple Intelligence and more home screen customization options. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low and Billy Steele will be on the ground in Cupertino to liveblog the iPhone event, so look out for real-time news and analysis on September 9. This article originally appeared on Engadget at

Engadget

How to watch today's iPhone 16 launch event, live soon with a new Apple Watch and AirPods

We're anticipating a new lineup of iPhones, along with a new line of Apple Watches and AirPods.

Engadget

How to watch today's iPhone 16 launch event, live soon with a new Apple Watch and AirPods

We're anticipating a new lineup of iPhones, along with a new line of Apple Watches and AirPods.