Twitter, Heardle, Genealogy, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, April 16, 2023

Twitter, Heardle, Genealogy, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, April 16, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Vox: Is Twitter finally dying?. “Vox spoke with over half a dozen current and former Twitter employees, advertising and marketing experts, and users about the current state of the company. Many of those who worked at Twitter said the platform was only alive because of the technical strength and reputation it’s built over the past 17 years.”

Engadget: Spotify will shut down ‘Heardle’ on May 5th. “Spotify has some disappointing news for Heardle fans: the company is shutting down the song-guessing game, which it bought last summer. ‘Thanks for playing Heardle, but unfortunately we have to say goodbye,’ a message on the Heardle webpage reads. ‘From May 5th, Heardle will no longer be available.'”

Genealogy’s Star: United States Social Security NUMIDENT records added to FamilySearch.org. “The Social Security Administration created these records to track the earnings of US workers and determine benefit entitlements. The publishable index only contains information for deceased individuals and was gathered from all three record types in the collection: applications, deaths, and claims.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to Run a ChatGPT-like AI on Your Own PC. “You can run a ChatGPT-like AI on your own PC with Alpaca, a chatbot created by Stanford researchers. It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. You just need at least 8GB of RAM and about 30GB of free storage space.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

New York Times: The End of Faking It in Silicon Valley. “When start-up valuations were soaring, they were seen as visionary kingmakers. It was easy enough to convince the world, and the investors in their funds — pension funds, college endowments and wealthy individuals — that they were responsible stewards of capital with the unique skills required to predict the future and find the next Steve Jobs to build it. But as more start-up frauds are revealed, these titans of industry are playing a different role in lawsuits, bankruptcy filings and court testimonies: the victim that got duped.”

BBC: The ‘ninjas’ fighting climate change denial on Twitter. “Secretive internet vigilantes have made it their mission to fight climate change denial on Twitter. But, as a vicious information war rages online, do they risk becoming the very trolls they claim to be targeting?”

The Verge: Bluesky is my favorite Twitter clone yet. “Bluesky is really, really fun. Yes, the platform is essentially just Twitter but decentralized. And yes, the Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky is one of many services emulating how Twitter looks right now. But after spending a few hours in Bluesky since getting my beta invite this week, it’s so far the service where I feel the most joy.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Asia One: Gone in 2 hours: Retiree loses $70k in life savings after installing fake Google Play app on phone. “He had just gotten his pension totalling $30,000 in January this year. Within the same month, it was all gone, along with $40,000 of his life savings. Within two hours, his DBS bank account was near-emptied by cybercriminals.” This article takes place in Singapore. $30,000 Singapore dollars equals $22,549.61 American dollars at this writing. $40,000 Singapore dollars is just over $30,000 American.

Washington Post: Leaked secret documents detail up to four additional Chinese spy balloons. “U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of up to four additional Chinese spy balloons, and questions lingered about the true capabilities of the one that flew over the continental United States in January and February, according to previously unreported top-secret intelligence documents.”

Reuters: Google must face trial over Sonos patents, California judge says. “Alphabet’s Google received a mixed ruling on Thursday from a San Francisco federal judge in a patent lawsuit brought by Sonos Inc over wireless audio technology, failing to invalidate all of the patents before a trial but narrowing Sonos’ claims.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of California Davis: UC Davis Study Finds Tweets Can Amplify, Disrupt, Unite and Divide. “Department of Communication researchers said their findings both in an observational study and simulation speak to the ongoing debate about social media’s contributions to political polarization, misinformation and echo chambers. To conduct their research, they analyzed millions of Twitter posts across the United States, finding that, among other things, people do not always isolate in their own communities, particularly during large world events.”

Ars Technica: Hype grows over “autonomous” AI agents that loop GPT-4 outputs. “Since the launch of OpenAI’s GPT-4 API last month to beta testers, a loose group of developers have been experimenting with making agent-like (‘agentic’) implementations of the AI model that attempt to carry out multistep tasks with as little human intervention as possible. These homebrew scripts can loop, iterate, and spin off new instances of an AI model as needed.” Good morning, Internet…

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April 16, 2023 at 05:29PM
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World Water Map, Google Currents, US Population, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, April 15, 2023

World Water Map, Google Currents, US Population, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, April 15, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Geographic: National Geographic Society and Utrecht University Launch World Water Map . “The Map provides an interactive view of the sectors of water use; how much water people consume for agricultural, industrial, and household use; and what’s left for nature. The Map, which builds on hydrological models made by Utrecht University, consists of over 40 years of historical data and will be updated periodically to monitor changes in water availability and demand.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Google will shut down Currents, the work-focused Google Plus replacement. “Google has announced that it’ll shut down Currents, which was introduced in 2019 as a replacement for Google Plus for G Suite.”

US Census Bureau: Census Bureau Releases New U.S. Population Estimates by Age and Sex. “In the coming months, the Census Bureau will release additional population estimates for cities and towns, as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Rolling Stone: Why Some Taylor Swift Stans Are Ganging Up On ‘Gaylors’: Report. “Researchers from the social media firm Graphika found that harassment runs amok in the fan community — and it can teach us a lot about how people behave online.”

Mashable: Popular B2B business dumps Twitter over Musk’s API price hike. “Over the past few weeks, countless indie developers have announced that they would have to shut down their Twitter-based apps due to the new exorbitant pricing that Twitter began rolling out for its API. However, it’s not just small-time developers making the decision to pass on paying $42,000 per month to Twitter. Just this week, one of the biggest companies in the customer support and live chat space made the call to drop Twitter too.”

Indiana University: IU alumnus, award-winning Black documentarian gifts collection to Black Film Center & Archive. “Now, scholars, filmmakers and members of the IU community will have access to this film and many other audiovisual materials from [Jerald] Harkness, an IU alumnus, as he makes IU’s Black Film Center & Archive the home for his film collection. The gift consists of master copies, outtakes, interviews and other production elements from Harkness’ award-winning, 30-year career. Also included are Harkness’ home movies and preliminary interviews from incomplete projects.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

University of Exeter: Nations must clarify the law of cyberspace to tackle online threats and warfare. “Cyber threats pose a growing risk to our societies by spreading misinformation, disrupting critical services and undermining trust in democratic institutions. Since most rules of international law were developed in the pre-digital age, it is far from clear how these rules apply to mitigate cyber threats.”

Associated Press: TikTok ban gets final approval by Montana’s GOP legislature. “Montana’s House gave final passage Friday to a bill banning the social media app TikTok from operating in the state, a move that’s bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America many national lawmakers envision due to concerns over potential Chinese spying.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New York Times: Twitter Is Broken. Thanks, Elon.. “I’d been open to Musk’s purchase of the social network, but half a year in, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. Musk moved fast and broke nearly everything — the speed and totality with which he’s ruined the site have been almost impressive. By Musk’s own reckoning, the company is now worth less than half of what he paid for it. It has lost many large advertisers, most of its employees and, with them, much of its functionality.”

Harvard Medical School: AI Tool Predicts Colon Cancer Survival, Treatment Response. “A new artificial intelligence model designed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan could bring much-needed clarity to doctors delivering prognoses and deciding on treatments for patients with colorectal cancer, the second deadliest cancer worldwide.”

Quartz: Free speech warrior Elon Musk’s Twitter is muting Indian voices worldwide. “In a BBC interview, Elon Musk claimed that India’s ‘extremely strict’ social media rules were the reason for censoring tweets critical of the Modi government.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Alabama: Little Free Libraries to Pop Up Around Campus Soon. “The University of Alabama could soon see miniature libraries popping up around campus. The first one was recently established in front of the SGA office in the Student Center. The tiny stands are known as Little Free Libraries and they will house everything from fiction to textbooks.” Good morning, Internet….

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April 15, 2023 at 05:31PM
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International Mission Board, Vermont State University, Parler, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 14, 2023

International Mission Board, Vermont State University, Parler, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Adam Matthew Digital: New digital archive expands awareness of Baptist society’s mission. “With some material pre-dating the Virginia-based society’s creation in 1845, the [International Mission Board]’s extensive archives reveal the lives and missions of Southern Baptist missionaries across the globe. The experiences of figures including Lottie Moon are told through periodicals and journals, biographies, log books, photographs and more, while John Day, the IMB’s first black missionary, features heavily in the African-American Heritage Collection.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

VT Digger: Vermont State University president Parwinder Grewal resigns as system pauses library changes. “Vermont State University president Parwinder Grewal has resigned after less than a year in the position and less than three months before the university is set to officially launch. Controversial changes to libraries and sports programs will also be paused at the direction of the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees, officials said in a press release Friday.”

Reuters: Parler to shut down temporarily after Starboard buys social media platform. “Parler, a social media app popular with U.S. conservatives, was sold to digital media conglomerate Starboard for an undisclosed sum and will be shut down temporarily to give its new owner time to roll out a revamped version of the platform.”

ChinaFile: Updates to Our Database of Arrests Related to the Hong Kong National Security Law. “We updated our suite of graphics tracking the impact of Hong Kong’s National Security Law. It now includes information on the 248 individuals arrested between July 2020, when the law went into effect, and March 31, 2023. Information on these individuals’ cases, compiled by our partners at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, includes grounds for arrest, and, where applicable, resulting charges and convictions.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Wired: Meet the ‘Anti-Woke’ Job Board for Christian Nationalists . “Standing next to the eldest son of the recently indicted former president in the RedBalloon advertisement is the company’s unfortunately named founder, Andrew Crapuchettes. RedBalloon’s origin story goes back to 2021, when Crapuchettes claims he was fired from his role as CEO at his former company, EMSI, for being ‘too conservative and Christian.'”

The Verge: How two insurgents are taking on Twitter. “Today I want to look at two different ways that insurgents are attempting to take on Twitter and what they tell us about where Twitter may be vulnerable. It’s a deeper-than-usual dive into how social products get built — but if you’re the sort of person who wonders, as I do, when we can all be done with Twitter for good, you have to first ask yourself what kind of product could actually succeed in making Twitter irrelevant.”

New York Times: They’re Over Being Real. “When Night Noroña, 17, a high school student in Redding, Calif., downloaded the app in August, he liked seeing that his friends’ lives were less glamorous than the highlight reels they posted to Instagram suggested, he said. But after a few months, he tired of scrolling through nearly identical pictures of their laptop screens and deleted the app. Most of his friends no longer use it either, he said.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Google Chrome emergency update fixes first zero-day of 2023. “Google has released an emergency Chrome security update to address the first zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks since the start of the year.”

Bloomberg: Google’s Monopoly Delayed Innovations Like ChatGPT, DOJ Says. “ChatGPT and other technology innovations may have been released years ago if Google hadn’t monopolized the search market, the Justice Department told a federal court Thursday.”

Ars Technica: House Republican tries to protect Musk and Twitter from FTC investigation. “A Republican lawmaker who chairs a key House committee subpoenaed Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan today in an attempt to rein in the agency’s ongoing investigation into Twitter.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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April 15, 2023 at 12:44AM
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Kevin Roche, College Student Enrollment, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 14, 2023

Kevin Roche, College Student Enrollment, Twitter, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, April 14, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

SEARCH GIZMO OF THE DAY: Clumpy Bounce Topic Search
Clumpy Bounce uses Wikipedia categories to make lists of popular pages within a category. It then builds hyperfocused Google queries based on the pages you pick from that list.

NEW RESOURCES

The Architect’s Newspaper: An archive at Yale University and a new website continue the legacy of architect Kevin Roche. “Yale University Library’s Manuscripts and Archives has acquired an archive of the career of architect Kevin Roche. Roche’s family has donated correspondence, project documentation, interviews, drawings, and photographs from the architectural firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA) to cement the architect’s legacy. In addition to the archive at Yale, a legacy website for KRJDA has also launched.”

EdScoop: Data dashboard maps future college enrollment trends . “The Student Trends and Enrollment Projections Dashboard allows users to explore enrollment scenarios and visualize the potential makeup of state or institution-level student populations. The tool is designed to help institutions develop their short- and long-term enrollment strategies, particularly as they continue to evaluate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their ability to attract and retain students.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BBC: Twitter staff cuts leave Russian trolls unchecked. “Hundreds of Russian and Chinese state propaganda accounts are thriving on Twitter after Elon Musk wiped out the team that fought these networks, the BBC has found. The unit worked to combat ‘information operations’, coordinated campaigns by countries such as Russia, China, and Iran, made to influence public opinion and disrupt democracy.”

USEFUL STUFF

Fast Company: Your guide to Twitter alternatives . “Early Twitter rivals like Mastodon and Hive Social failed to take the world by storm. But a new batch of short-post social media channels is arriving, with some coming from familiar names. Here’s a look at the companies that have launched Twitter alternatives—as well as some on the horizon.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Hill: White House says social media companies have ‘responsibility’ to manage platforms amid leaked document fallout. “White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday said social media companies have a ‘responsibility’ to manage their platforms to avoid the spread of material that could damage national security amid the fallout of sensitive leaked documents that circulated on Discord, Twitter and other platforms.”

Wall Street Journal: Amazon Joins Microsoft, Google in AI Race Spurred by ChatGPT. “Both Microsoft and Google, via its chatbot Bard, have also invested in AI tools that are aimed largely at consumers. AWS is forging a different path, so far avoiding a major investment in an outside AI company or consumer-facing tools. It says it wants to act as a neutral platform for businesses that want to incorporate generative AI features.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CISA: U.S. and International Partners Publish Secure-by-Design and -Default Principles and Approaches. “This guidance, the first of its kind, is intended to catalyze progress toward further investments and cultural shifts necessary to achieve a safe and secure future. In addition to specific technical recommendations, this guidance outlines several core principles to guide software manufacturers in building software security into their design processes prior to developing, configuring, and shipping their products.”

Kyiv Independent: Russia fines Wikipedia for second time over article about war in Ukraine. “A Moscow court again fined Wikipedia for refusing to remove an article in Russian about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, RFE/RL reported. The court fined the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, 2 million rubles (around $25,000) for refusing to remove an article titled ‘Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.'”

AFP: EU privacy watchdog sets up ChatGPT task force. “The European Union’s central data regulator said Thursday that it was forming a task force to help countries deal with wildly popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, ramping up the pressure on its US maker OpenAI. Italy temporarily banned the programme last month over allegations its data-gathering broke privacy laws, and France’s regulator said Thursday that it had opened a formal procedure after receiving five complaints.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Cornell Chronicle: One-size-fits-all content moderation fails the Global South. “Social media companies need content moderation systems to keep users safe and prevent the spread of misinformation, but these systems are often based on Western norms, and unfairly penalize users in the Global South, according to new research at Cornell.”

The Tyee: We Should Be Archiving MPs’ Newsletters. “It is the collection of large and small acts of transparency, like MPs posting their householders online, that helps rank Canada as one of the best democracies in the world. Canadians might therefore expect that making householders readily available to anyone who requests one is normal. Not so.”

STAT News: Google will let health care customers test its generative AI model, ramping up rivalry with GPT-4. “Accelerating medicine’s AI race, Google is releasing a version of its generative language model to health care customers who will begin testing its ability to perform specific tasks in medical and research settings, STAT has learned.” Good morning, Internet…

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April 14, 2023 at 05:29PM
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Identifying Stolen Art, Google Maps, PBS, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023

Identifying Stolen Art, Google Maps, PBS, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

CNN: FBI launches app to help identify stolen art. “On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released an app-based version of the US National Stolen Art File (NSAF), its database of stolen artworks and culturally significant objects. The NSAF app was initially designed for law enforcement and art industry workers, but anyone in the world can use it to verify cultural property’s legal status with a few taps and swipes.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Google Maps is adding new features to make it easier to explore national parks. “Google is introducing new Maps features to make it easier for users to navigate national parks using the app. The tech giant says the new updates are designed to help users find the information they need when visiting a national park, such as discovering things to do and finding your way around the park.”

Axios: PBS stops tweeting after Musk adds “government-funded” label. “PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet ‘government-funded news.’ Why it matters: PBS joins NPR, another major editorially independent outlet that receives some government funding, in halting its Twitter activity in light of the new label.”

The Verge: Android 14’s first beta introduces a back arrow that matches your background. “New gesture navigation and sharing features are rolling out in the first Android 14 beta build available to early public adopters.”

USEFUL STUFF

Boing Boing: Service for finding new music that sounds like your faves. “On Songs Like X, you can find new music that sounds similar to your favorite songs. Simply type in a name of a song you like in the search bar, and you’ll be presented with a list of songs that the site deems as similar.” I tried this using a New Orleans DJ named Big Choo. This site gave me better recommendations than Tidal.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Mother Jones: How MAGA Conspiracies Infected Autism Groups. “This world of dubious autism treatments used to be mostly limited to private social media groups and conferences. Indeed, beginning about a decade ago, the very notion of autism as a disorder began to lose currency among many autistic people and scientists who study autism: They started to view the condition not as an affliction, but rather as an innate brain difference. Autistic people experience the world differently, and that difference, they say, is something to be honored rather than treated.” I have strong feelings about this for obvious reasons, but I’ll not melt your monitor with my comments.

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: New Leaked Documents Show Broad Infighting Among Russian Officials. “The new batch, which contains 27 pages, reinforces how deeply American spy agencies have penetrated nearly every aspect of the Russian intelligence apparatus and military command structure. It also shows that the breach of American intelligence agencies could contain far more material than previously understood.”

Reuters: Google to ask judge to toss U.S. antitrust lawsuit over search dominance. “Google will likely argue Thursday that the U.S. Justice Department’s allegations that it broke antitrust law to build and maintain its dominance of search are flawed and that its lawsuit should be thrown out, according to court filings.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ars Technica: Surprising things happen when you put 25 AI agents together in an RPG town. “A group of researchers at Stanford University and Google have created a miniature RPG-style virtual world similar to The Sims, where 25 characters, controlled by ChatGPT and custom code, live out their lives independently with a high degree of realistic behavior. They wrote about their experiment in a preprint academic paper released on Friday.”

Wall Street Journal: Is Big Tech’s R&D Spending Actually Hurting Innovation in the U.S.?. “The findings, published this past week in a paper from researchers at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Census Bureau, show that when inventors join large firms, they get a pay bump, but they also produce fewer new innovations, relative to inventors hired by young firms. The research is based on a gigantic data set, including 760,000 U.S. inventors and their patent-filing histories.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Check out Search Gizmos when you have a minute. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you.

April 14, 2023 at 12:48AM
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Maryland Traffic Accidents, Opera Browser, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023

Maryland Traffic Accidents, Opera Browser, Twitter, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, April 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

SEARCH GIZMO OF THE DAY: Category Cheat Sheet
CCC takes a Wikipedia category, reviews the first 500 pages in it, and gets their page view counts for the past month. Then the top 20 most-viewed pages in the category are listed with brief summaries and a link back to the full Wikipedia page.

NEW RESOURCES

CBS Baltimore: Maryland DOT unveils new data dashboard to help prevent deadly highway crashes. “The Maryland Department of Transportation showcased a new tool to help prevent deadly crashes on the state’s highways. Before unveiling it, MDOT revealed 563 people died in these crashes in 2022. It’s the same number as 2021.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Opera brings its free VPN to iOS to rival Apple and Google’s paid alternatives. “Opera, the makers of an ad-blocking web browser, whose most recent claim to fame is having TikTok built-in, announced today it’s rolling out an updated version of its iOS app that now includes its free VPN.”

Politico: Twitter releases more political ad data after POLITICO report. “Twitter’s latest data shows revenue from political advertising since early March was more than 50 times higher than the company had previously reported. Twitter did not explain why it released more data, or why at least two promoted tweets identified by POLITICO were still not included. The company’s press email still replies with a poop emoji.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: How to clean up your Google Contacts (and why you should). “The only thing you’ll need is the Google Contacts app installed on your mobile device. I’ll demonstrate on a Pixel 6 Pro, so if you’re using a different device, the instructions may slightly differ.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Elon Musk reportedly purchases thousands of GPUs for generative AI project at Twitter. “Despite recently calling for a six-month pause in the development of powerful AI models, Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently purchased roughly 10,000 GPUs for a generative AI project within Twitter, reports Business Insider, citing people familiar with the company. The exact nature of the project, however, is still a mystery.”

Motherboard: ‘Overemployed’ Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs. “Over the last few months, the exploding popularity of ChatGPT and similar products has led to growing concerns about AI’s potential effects on the international job market—specifically, the percentage of jobs that could be automated away, replaced by a well-oiled army of chatbots. But for a small cohort of fast-thinking and occasionally devious go-getters, AI technology has turned into an opportunity not to be feared but exploited, with their employers apparently none the wiser.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Washington Post: Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says. “The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic.”

Reuters: S.Korea’s top court tells Google to disclose user information sharing -report . “South Korea’s top court on Thursday said Alphabet Inc’s Google should disclose whether the technology giant had shared local user information with third parties, news agency Yonhap reported, sending the case back to a lower court.”

Government Technology: States Push to Curtail Children’s Access to Social Media. “Several states are pushing legislation that would limit online access and social media use by kids, setting up yet another potential confrontation between states and Congress on technology policy.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Hawaii: Insta-worthy catch? Social media helps UH Hilo researchers track changes in fisheries. “While studying new fishing habits that arose during the pandemic and how those changes were impacting local fisheries, the researchers also confirmed something interesting about data collection in the age of social media. Catch photos posted to Instagram told a story about changes in fishing behavior much more quickly than conventional approaches to data collection.”

The Tablet: New Discovery Finds Hidden Text Between the Lines of Biblical Passages. “The findings stem from the research of Grigory Kessel, a medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who believes the hidden texts may date back 1,750 years…. Kessel was able to rediscover the hidden text, which could be found in Matthew chapters 11 and 12, with ultraviolet photography. The hidden words were found under three layers of text in a manuscript.”

Stanford News: The promise – and pitfalls – of medical AI headed our way. “Doctors across all disciplines, with assistance from artificial intelligence, may soon have the ability to quickly consult a patient’s entire medical file against the backdrop of all medical health care data and every published piece of medical literature online. This potential versatility in the doctor’s office is only now possible due to the latest generation of AI models.” Good morning, Internet…

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April 13, 2023 at 05:28PM
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National Recording Registry, NPR, Substack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023

National Recording Registry, NPR, Substack, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, April 12, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Library of Congress: National Recording Registry Inducts Music from Madonna, Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, Daddy Yankee. “Madonna’s cultural ascent with ‘Like a Virgin,’ Mariah Carey’s perennial No. 1 Christmas hit, Queen Latifah’s groundbreaking ‘All Hail the Queen’ and Daddy Yankee’s reggaeton explosion with ‘Gasolina’ are some of the defining sounds of the nation’s history and culture that will now join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. The 2023 class also includes the first sounds of a video game to join the registry with the Super Mario Bros. theme, powerful voices of women, important inductions of Latin music, and classic sounds of rock and pop from the 1960s to the ‘80s.”

NPR: NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as ‘state-affiliated media’. “NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter’s decision to first label the network ‘state-affiliated media,’ the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.”

Ars Technica: Substack debuts feature that spooked Musk into suppressing Substack tweets. “Today, Substack officially rolled out Notes, the product that creates a feed that allows Substack creators and subscribers to interact. It functions so much like Twitter that it controversially caused Twitter to restrict links to Substack. But Substack doesn’t see Notes as a Twitter rival, telling Ars that Substack has no plans to become the next Twitter.” The way they describe it, it sounds more like RSS.

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Salem News: Guanci drops out of mayor’s race after Twitter revelations. “Mayoral candidate Paul Guanci said Tuesday that he is dropping out of the race after revelations surfaced that he liked derogatory Twitter comments regarding race, gender, immigration and election denial. Guanci deleted his Twitter account before he announced his candidacy last week, but screenshots of the account were provided to The Salem News.” They’re also in the Wayback Machine. Yuck.

Ars Technica: The mounting human and environmental costs of generative AI. “Over the past few months, the field of artificial intelligence has seen rapid growth, with wave after wave of new models like Dall-E and GPT-4 emerging one after another. Every week brings the promise of new and exciting models, products, and tools. It’s easy to get swept up in the waves of hype, but these shiny capabilities come at a real cost to society and the planet. Downsides include the environmental toll of mining rare minerals, the human costs of the labor-intensive process of data annotation, and the escalating financial investment required to train AI models as they incorporate more parameters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Kodi discloses data breach after forum database for sale online. “The Kodi Foundation has disclosed a data breach after hackers stole the organization’s MyBB forum database containing user data and private messages and attempted to sell it online. Kodi is a cross-platform open-source media player, organizer, and streaming suite, that supports a vast array of third-party add-ons enabling the users to access content from various sources or customize their experience.”

The Guardian: Twitter forced to remove harmful content aimed at Brittany Higgins and partner. “Australia’s eSafety commissioner deployed tough new cyber abuse powers for the first time to force Twitter to remove severely harmful content targeting Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, last year.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Hackaday: Wolverine Gives Your Python Scripts The Ability To Self-Heal. “[BioBootloader] combined Python and a hefty dose of of AI for a fascinating proof of concept: self-healing Python scripts.”

Reuters Institute: Will AI-generated images create a new crisis for fact-checkers? Experts are not so sure. “I spoke to several journalists, experts, and fact-checkers to assess the dangers posed by visual generative AI. When seeing is no longer believing, what are the implications this technology has on misinformation? How will this impact journalists and fact-checkers who debunk hoaxes? Will our information channels be flooded with ‘propaganda and untruth’?”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Washington Post: The Washington Post’s 2023 Peeps diorama contest winners. “After 364 days of antici-Peep-tion, The Washington Post’s annual Peeps diorama contest has returned with a sweet, sugary bang. This year’s participants drove the challenge to previously unimaginable levels, harnessing unmatched creativity and referencing the year’s most iconic moments (Swifties, are you Ready For It?) in the process.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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April 13, 2023 at 12:41AM
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