social media Archives

Deepfakes are being used to push anti-Ukraine disinformation

Influence operations with ties to Russia and Belarus have been found using deepfakes to push anti-Ukraine disinformation.

Last week, AI News reported on the release of a study that found humans can generally no longer distinguish between real and AI-generated “deepfake” faces.

As humans, we’re somewhat trained to believe what we see with our eyes. Many believed that it was only a matter of time before Russia took advantage of deepfakes and our human psychology to...

1 March 2022 | Deep & Reinforcement Learning

Facebook claims its AI reduced hate by 50% despite internal documents highlighting failures

Damning reports about the ineffectiveness of Facebook’s AI in countering hate speech prompted the firm to publish a post to the contrary, but the company's own internal documents highlight serious failures.

Facebook has had a particularly rough time as of late, with a series of Wall Street Journal reports in particular claiming the company knows that “its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm” and “despite congressional hearings, its own pledges and numerous...

18 October 2021 | Ethics & Society

Twitter begins labelling ‘good’ bots on the social media platform

Twitter is testing a new feature that will give the good kind of bots some due recognition.

Bots have become a particularly hot topic in recent years, but mainly for negative reasons. We’ve all seen their increased use to share propaganda to sway democratic processes and spread disinformation around things like COVID-19 vaccines.

However, despite their image problem, bots can be an important tool for good.

Some bots share critical information around things...

10 September 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

Social media algorithms are still failing to counter misleading content

As the Afghanistan crisis continues to unfold, it’s clear that social media algorithms are unable to counter enough misleading and/or fake content.

While it’s unreasonable to expect that no disingenuous content will slip through the net, the sheer amount that continues to plague social networks shows that platform-holders still have little grip on the issue.

When content is removed, it should either be prevented from being reuploaded or at least flagged as...

17 August 2021 | Ethics & Society

You can now buy AI technologies from TikTok

From the company’s owner, not your favourite TikTok influencer.

Behind every successful TikTok video is a bunch of clever algorithms helping to make it a viral sensation. The company’s owner, ByteDance, launched a new division last month called BytePlus which sells TikTok’s AI technologies.

Up for grabs is the recommendation algorithm behind the ForYou feed, computer vision tech, automatic speech-to-text and text-to-speech, data analysis tools, and...

5 July 2021 | Enterprise

F-Secure: AI-based recommendation engines are easy to manipulate

Cybersecurity giant F-Secure has warned that AI-based recommendation systems are easy to manipulate.

Recommendations often come under increased scrutiny around major elections due to concerns that bias could, in extreme cases, lead to electoral manipulation. However, the recommendations that are delivered to people day-to-day matter just as much, if not more.

Matti Aksela, VP of Artificial Intelligence at F-Secure, commented:

“As we rely more and more on AI...

24 June 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

Opinion: How AI can protect users in the online world

With more than 74 percent of Gen Z spending their free time online - averaging around 10 hours per day - it's safe to say their online and offline worlds are becoming entwined. With increased social media usage now the norm and all of us living our lives online a little bit more, we must look for ways to mitigate risks, protect our safety and filter out communications that are causing concern. Step forward, Artificial Intelligence (AI) - advanced machine learning technology that plays an...

30 March 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

Facebook uses AI to help people support each other

Facebook has deployed an AI system which matches people needing support with local heroes offering it.“United we stand, divided we fall” is a clichéd saying—but tackling a pandemic is a collective effort. While we’ve all seen people taking selfish actions, they’ve been more than balanced out by those helping to support their communities.

Facebook has been its usual blessing and a curse during the pandemic. On the one hand, it's helped people to stay connected and...

2 October 2020 | Meta (Facebook)

Facebook pledges crackdown on deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election

facebook deepfakes ai usa presidential elections 2020 artificial intelligence social media

Facebook has pledged to crack down on misleading deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election later this year.

Voter manipulation is a concern for any functioning democracy and deepfakes provide a whole new challenge for social media platforms.

A fake video of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, went viral last year after purportedly showing her slurring her words as if she was intoxicated. The clip shows how even a relatively...

8 January 2020 | Meta (Facebook)

Mozilla shares YouTube horror tales in campaign for responsible algorithms

mozilla youtube algorithms horror stories campaign ai artificial intelligence recommendations

Mozilla has launched a campaign for more responsible algorithms by sharing YouTube horror tales crowdsourced from social media.

We've all scratched our heads at some recommendations when using online platforms. Just yesterday, Verge reporter Megan Farokhmanesh shared how her Instagram recommendations have been plagued by some rather bizarre CGI images of teeth.

Farokhmanesh's account is of a recommendation algorithm going rogue in a relatively harmless and amusing way,...