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Meta bets on AI chatbots to retain users

Meta is planning to release AI chatbots that possess human-like personalities, a move aimed at enhancing user retention efforts.

Insiders familiar with the matter revealed that prototypes of these advanced chatbots have been under development, with the final products capable of engaging in discussions with users on a human level. The diverse range of chatbots will showcase various personalities and are expected to be rolled out as early as next month.

Referred to as...

1 August 2023 | Applications

Meta’s chatbot hates Facebook and loves right-wing conspiracies

A chatbot called BlenderBot was launched by Meta on Friday and it’s already been corrupted by the darker parts of the web.

To ease us in with the odd but harmless, BlenderBot thinks it’s a plumber:

https://t.co/KWEHxoXpqg also has thoughts on the Deep State and thinks it’s a plumber. I did not suggest this. pic.twitter.com/SbOj7hziSg

— Jeff Horwitz (@JeffHorwitz) August 7, 2022

Like many of us, BlenderBot criticises how Facebook...

10 August 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

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

Meta claims its new AI supercomputer will set records

Meta (formerly Facebook) has unveiled an AI supercomputer that it claims will be the world’s fastest.

The supercomputer is called the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC) and is yet to be fully complete. However, Meta’s researchers have already begun using it for training large natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision models.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZnykn1tDSE

RSC is set to be fully built in mid-2022. Meta says that it will be the fastest in the...

25 January 2022 | Applications

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

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

AR overtakes AI as the ‘most disruptive’ emerging technology

A new report from GlobalData finds that professionals now believe AR will disrupt their industry more than AI.

70 percent of the 2,341 respondents across 30 business sectors picked AR as disrupting their industry most out of a selection of seven emerging technologies: AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, IoT, blockchain, and 5G.

Filipe Oliveira, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “This change in how people see AR will likely be long term, and not just a temporary...

28 July 2021 | Apple

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

Facebook is developing a news-summarising AI called TL;DR

Facebook is developing an AI called TL;DR which summarises news into shorter snippets.

Anyone who’s spent much time on the web will know what TL;DR stands for⁠—but, for everyone else, it’s an acronym for “Too Long, Didn’t Read”.

It’s an understandable sentiment we’ve all felt at some point. People lead busy lives. Some outlets now even specialise in short, at-a-glance news.

The problem is, it’s hard to get the full picture of a story in just...

16 December 2020 | Meta (Facebook)

Information Commissioner clears Cambridge Analytica of influencing Brexit

A three-year investigation by the UK Information Commissioner's office has cleared Cambridge Analytica of electoral interference.

Cambridge Analytica was accused in March 2018 of using AI tools and big data to influence the results of the Brexit referendum and the US presidential election. Most objective observers probably felt the case was overblown, but it's taken until now to be confirmed.

“From my review of the materials recovered by the investigation I have found...