Windows Update Restored, UK Web Archiving, Online Climate Denial, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2023

Windows Update Restored, UK Web Archiving, Online Climate Denial, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Ars Technia: Windows 95, 98, and other decrepit versions can grab online updates again. “If you have any interest in retro-computing, you know it can be difficult to round up the last official bug fixes and updates available for early Internet-era versions of Windows like 95, 98, and NT 4.0. A new independent project called ‘Windows Update Restored’ is aiming to fix that, hosting lightly modified versions of old Windows Update sites and the update files themselves so that fresh installs of these old operating systems can grab years’ worth of fixes that aren’t present on old install CDs and disks.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

British Library UK Web Archive Blog: UK Web Archive Technical Update – Summer 2023. “At the end of the last quarter, we launched the 2023 Domain Crawl. This started well (as described in the 2023 Q1 report) but a few days later it became clear the crawl was going a bit too well. We were collecting so quickly, we started to run out of space on the temporary store we use as a buffer for incoming content. The full story of how we responded to this situation is quite complicated, so I wrote up the detailed analysis in a separate blog post. But in short, we took the opportunity to move to a faster transfer process and switch to a widely-used open source tool called Rclone.”

Deutsche Welle: Why is climate denial still thriving online?. “Amid the worst heat waves ever recorded in the United States, China, Mexico, Siberia and beyond, and near-unanimous scientific consensus that humans have induced global heating — in large part by burning fossil fuels — how does such denial continue to flourish?”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BBC: Video games: YouTube channel NoClip rescues tapes from landfill. “As a keen gamer, Danny O’Dwyer’s no stranger to quests. But the documentary maker’s just embarked on a different type of mission. He’s rescued thousands of tapes containing rare video game footage – demo reels, interviews and behind-the-scenes clips – from being sent to landfill and lost forever.”

The Register: China outsources censorship to web giants to break the fake news business model . “Revealed on Monday, the 13 rules apply to ‘self-media’ – publishers and social media accounts not operated or approved by government, and therefore the responsibility of social media and hosting platforms. Platforms will have to enhance review processes for new accounts and name changes. Accounts with political, government, military or media logos must be manually reviewed, and blocked if found to be imposters.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds. “Some of America’s largest tax-prep companies have spent years sharing Americans’ sensitive financial data with tech titans including Meta and Google in a potential violation of federal law — data that in some cases was misused for targeted advertising, according to a seven-month congressional investigation.”

Reuters: Spain’s High Court Shelves Israeli Spyware Probe on Lack of Cooperation . “Spain’s High Court on Monday shelved an investigation into the use of Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group’s ‘Pegasus’ software to spy on Spanish politicians, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and several ministers.”

Variety: Elon Musk, Twitter Slapped With $500 Million Lawsuit Over Ex-Employee Severance Payments “The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a class of employees terminated since Musk’s takeover of the company in late October 2022. The suit seeks damages of at least $500 million as well as orders compelling Twitter and Musk ‘to abide by all terms of the severance plan by paying all terminated employees what they are owed,’ according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Copenhagen: Extreme measuring device can bring quantum technology to your smartphone. “University of Copenhagen researchers have invented a ‘quantum drum’ that can measure pressure, a gas leak, heat, magnetism and a host of other things with extreme precision. It can even scan the shape of a single virus. The invention has now been adapted to work at room temperature and may be finding its way into our phones.”

Montclair State University: Buffalo Supermarket Shooter Plagiarized 80% of Rationale Section of Manifesto from Hate Sites, Study Shows. “A new study by Daniela Peterka-Benton from the Department of Justice Studies and Bond Benton from the Center for Strategic Communication at Montclair State University demonstrates the extent to which Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron’s manifesto – the public statement for why he perpetrated the attack – was derived from hate content he consumed online.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 14, 2023 at 12:33AM
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Claude 2, Twitter, GIMP, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2023

Claude 2, Twitter, GIMP, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, July 13, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: New ChatGPT rival, Claude 2, launches for open beta testing. “On Tuesday, Anthropic introduced Claude 2, a large language model (LLM) similar to ChatGPT that can craft code, analyze text, and write compositions. Unlike the original version of Claude launched in March, users can try Claude 2 for free on a new beta website. It’s also available as a commercial API for developers.”

Daily Beast: ‘Just Better’: Even Musk’s Own Twitter Employees Are Using Threads. “Ever since Meta launched its competitor to Twitter last week, Elon Musk has been attempting to tear it down, denouncing Threads’ approach to content moderation, threatening to sue for the supposed theft of ‘trade secrets,’ and even challenging Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a penis-measuring competition. Some of his employees, however, are thoroughly enjoying the new app.”

How-To Geek: GIMP 2.99.16 Has New Interface Options and More File Formats. “GIMP is one of the most popular photo editors around, as it provides a free alternative to paid applications like Adobe Photoshop. GIMP 2.99.16 is now available with a bunch of new features and improvements.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Japan Times: TikTok content under scrutiny with Taiwan election heating up . “Scroll through TikTok in Taiwan, and you’ll find a rolling stream of videos covering the heated campaign for next January’s presidential election. That’s making the island the next battleground in the war over political disinformation and the debate over whether China’s government can manipulate the popular app to its advantage — a concern shared in Washington ahead of the 2024 U.S. election.”

New York Times: Artifacts Stolen From Kenya Decades Ago Are Returned. “Throughout the 1980s, vigango, sacred wooden memorial statues, were stolen from Kenya, sold to art dealers and eventually arrived at tourist shops and museums. Now, as part of a continuing effort to repatriate these looted cultural artifacts, officials from the Illinois State Museum and other museums and universities will visit Nairobi this week for a ceremony to recognize the return of the vigango to the National Museums of Kenya.”

Bloomberg: Google Says It Will Fix Vietnam Flag Issue on Image of Island. “Google said it is working to replace a satellite image on its mapping software in which a rendering of the Vietnamese flag on the rooftop of a building in the Spratly Islands appeared to be deleted or altered.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Google hit with lawsuit alleging it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools. “Google was hit with a wide-ranging lawsuit on Tuesday alleging the tech giant scraped data from millions of users without their consent and violated copyright laws in order to train and develop its artificial intelligence products.”

Politico: Social media riot shutdowns possible under EU content law, top official says. “Social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat will face possible shutdowns when they don’t crack down on problematic content during riots under the European Union’s content law, Internal Commissioner Thierry Breton said Monday.”

IOL (South Africa): Judge frowns upon magistrate’s use of Google for evidence in criminal case of cybercrime kingpin. “The fact that a magistrate, who granted bail to alleged cybercrime kingpin, James Junior Aliyu, used Google for legal knowledge on some aspects of the case, had an acting judge frowning.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Copenhagen: ChatGPT promotes American norms and values. “ChatGPT, the revolutionary new AI chatbot, reflects American norms and values – even when queried about other countries and cultures. The mismatch has been demonstrated in research from the University of Copenhagen. The AI spun web of cultural bias is a major problem according to the study’s researchers.”

TechCrunch: China’s search engine pioneer unveils open source large language model to rival OpenAI. “In February, Sogou founder Wang Xiaochuan said on Weibo that ‘China needs its own OpenAI.’ The Chinese entrepreneur is now inching closer to his dream as his nascent startup Baichuan Intelligence rolled out its next-generation large language model Baichuan-13B today.”

Stanford University: A new approach to genetic genealogy sheds light on African American ancestry. “Traditional measurements of genetic ancestry rarely offer information on specific ancestors in a family tree. A new approach to genetic ancestry developed by Stanford researchers yields insight into African American history by providing estimates of the number of African and European genealogical ancestors in typical family trees.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 13, 2023 at 05:28PM
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Maine Newspapers, Twitter, Hardware Projects, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2023

Maine Newspapers, Twitter, Hardware Projects, More: Wednesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Seacoast Online (Maine): Discover York history: 100 years of York newspapers are now online. “Thanks to a generous grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, 100 years’ worth of the York Weekly and other town newspapers have been completely digitized. York Public Library, in partnership with Old York Historical Society, Advantage Preservation, and York Weekly, recently announced the long-awaited unveiling of the York History Digital Archive.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Twitter is blocking Threads links in searches. “While Twitter’s new CEO has been trying to convince us that the platform can’t be replaced by Threads, it seems the company is privately rather less confident. A developer noticed that Twitter is blocking Threads links in searches, with others confirming it.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 18 Unique Creative Projects to Reuse Your Old PC. “When you’re upgrading to a new PC, you might wonder what to do with your old hardware. You could sell it or keep it as an emergency backup machine, but you could also put it to more creative uses.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Philadelphia Magazine: How Josh Shapiro’s Social Media Skills Turned the I-95 Rebuild Into an Online Party. “On Friday, June 23rd, after a fire truck holding a city’s worth of mascots made the inaugural journey across a repaired patch of Interstate 95, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro held a press conference. Flanked by politicians and construction workers and state employees, Shapiro looked out into the crowd and noticed someone.”

University of Georgia: Georgia Newspaper Project transitions to digital preservation. “Since 1953, the Georgia Newspaper Project at the University of Georgia Libraries has microfilmed more than 100 community newspapers, providing free access to the stories of the state’s small towns, big cities, and close communities. But with an 11-year backlog and outdated equipment no longer in production, the future of the project is in flux, and librarians are seeking partnerships to transform the practice using 21st century technology.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: U.S. and E.U. Complete Long-Awaited Deal on Sharing Data. “A deal to ensure that data from Meta, Google and scores of other companies can continue flowing between the United States and the European Union was completed on Monday, after the digital transfer of personal information between the two jurisdictions had been thrown into doubt because of privacy concerns.”

Haaretz: Twitter Facing Lawsuit Brought by Jewish Students in Europe Over Antisemitic Tweets. “A German court has ruled that a lawsuit accusing Twitter of allowing hateful content to proliferate on its platform can go ahead, adding yet another challenge for the embattled social media giant.”

CNN: Japan’s largest port hit with ransomware attack. “Japan’s busiest shipping port said Thursday it would resume operations after a ransomware attack prevented the port from receiving shipping containers for two days. The expected restoration of the Port of Nagoya, a hub for car exports and an engine of the Japanese economy, will ease concerns about any wider economic fallout from the ransomware attack.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Verge: Google’s medical AI chatbot is already being tested in hospitals. “Google’s Med-PaLM 2, an AI tool designed to answer questions about medical information, has been in testing at the Mayo Clinic research hospital, among others, since April, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning. Med-PaLM 2 is a variant of PaLM 2, which was announced at Google I/O in May this year. PaLM 2 is the language model underpinning Google’s Bard.”

Washington Post: Opinion: How today’s Twitter has made conservative boycotts more successful. “Initially, this sounded crazy. The timing is suspicious, I grant, but coincidences happen. And it didn’t look to me as if Twitter was the main vector for attacks on Mulvaney, et al. — they seemed to emanate from conservative sites such as the Daily Wire. Over time, however, I’ve come around — and what convinced me was watching people try to agree on a Twitter alternative.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 13, 2023 at 12:46AM
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PACER, Twitter, Migrating from Evernote, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2023

PACER, Twitter, Migrating from Evernote, More: Wednesday ResearchBuzz, July 12, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Motherboard: ‘It’s About the Little Victories’: Government Closer to Paying $125 Million it Overcharged for Court Records. “Impacted parties in a $125 million class action lawsuit regarding charges by the U.S. court records system PACER may have started to receive notifications about the settlement, according to a website dedicated to the lawsuit. The news highlights the massive fees that some PACER users can face, and what critics see as an overpricing for public records that some argue should be free to access.”

CNBC: Twitter traffic is ‘tanking’ as Meta’s Threads hits 100 million users. “User traffic on Twitter has slowed since the launch of Meta’s text-based platform Threads, which has already surpassed 100 million sign-ups since its debut last week.” Let me state here: I don’t believe that 100 million user number. My suspicion is that Facebook is using Threads’ integration with Instagram to play counting games, but I don’t know for sure. On the other hand, Twitter’s activity has fallen off a cliff. I don’t know where they’re going, but Twitter users are definitely leaving from what I see.

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: How to move your notes out of Evernote. “When an app is depended on by a large number of people — especially one that’s been around long enough so that a number of its users may have a lot of data stored in it — and major changes are instituted, the first thought that many will have is: what will happen to my data?”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Sky News: Twitter wins big name backer against Threads – but it’s the Taliban. “Twitter has won the support of a big name backer against fast-growing rival Threads – but it’s the Taliban. A leader of the hardline Islamist group, which seized power in Afghanistan in summer 2021, said Elon Musk’s platform was a tolerant place that allowed freedom of speech to thrive.”

New York Times: The Twitter Watch Party Is Over. “‘Sharknado’ may not be long remembered as cinema, but it is a historical emblem of the way millions of people shared the experience of live TV at a certain time. A decade later, that time is ending, because of the ways Twitter and TV have changed.”

Mashable: Young people are using TikTok and online communities to quit vaping nicotine. “TikTok, in recent years, has dominated the world of social media by pushing creative boundaries, spreading good vibes, and entertaining us during those idle moments in the grocery store checkout line. But beyond hot takes and get ready with me videos, the social media platform is also bringing millions of young people together to help them quit vaping nicotine for good.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: UK battles hacking wave as ransomware gang claims ‘biggest ever’ NHS breach. “Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs five London-based hospitals and serves more than 2.5 million patients, was recently added to the dark web leak site of the ALPHV ransomware gang. The gang, also known as BlackCat, says it has stolen 70 terabytes of sensitive data in what it claims is the biggest breach of healthcare data in the United Kingdom.”

Australian Associated Press: Google ordered to hand over details of anonymous sender. “Google has been ordered to hand over the account information and IP address of a person who allegedly defamed a Victorian Labor candidate in an email. Nurul Khan was endorsed to run for the Labor Party in last year’s state election but an email littered with allegations against him was sent to ministers and news organisations on November 9.”

Politico: Social media companies, beware: Governor says lawsuits coming in Utah. “Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday he is getting ready to sue social media companies for the harm caused to his state’s young people. ‘In the coming months, you will see lawsuits being filed by the state of Utah to hold them accountable,’ Cox, a Republican, said during an interview on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Toronto Star: The angst of baby boy billionaires means we all suffer. “I am unable to decide which faux-wrestler has damaged my life more, Zuck, who killed journalism, or Musk, who bought Twitter from Jack Dorsey, who turned my brain into rolled oats. Even picking on these two is evidence of a mental fault. There are many rich men causing havoc, including Peter Thiel, Erik Prince, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Everyone wants to bench-press now.”

Cornell Chronicle: Game-playing automaton acts like an ‘irrational’ human. “Researchers were able to simulate human behaviors using a probabilistic finite automaton, a well-known model of limited computational power. They programmed the automatons to compete against each other in a wildlife poaching game, as either a rhino poacher or a ranger trying to stop the poaching. When the automatons could remember everything, they settled into an optimal game strategy. But when researchers limited their memories, they took some decision-making shortcuts – the same kinds as actual humans playing the game.”

University of Waterloo: Search engines and social media can forecast disease outbreaks. “Internet search engine queries and social media data can be early warning signals, creating a real-time surveillance system for disease forecasting, says a recent University of Waterloo study. Using the example of COVID-19, researchers found there was an association between the disease’s prevalence and search engine queries and social media posts.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 12, 2023 at 05:31PM
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Abu Dhabi Historical Photography, Kick, Stable Diffusion, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2023

Abu Dhabi Historical Photography, Kick, Stable Diffusion, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Time Out Abu Dhabi: New York University Abu Dhabi releases 12 historical photo albums. “In a celebration of the region’s rich past, Akkasah, New York University Abu Dhabi’s photographic archive, has just released 12 digital photo albums showcasing beautiful historic images dating from the 1890s to the 1960s. The over 1,500 photographs and prints from NYU Abu Dhabi’s al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art feature people and landscapes from across the region.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: Kick surges to 12 million signups and cuts “unnecessary exposure” to controversial categories. “The platform–which has been working overtime to pitch itself as a viable alternative to Twitch–was co-founded by Stake.com co-founder Ed Craven, and since the beginning has made it clear that, unlike Twitch, it’s a haven for gambling streams. But it seems to have realized rampantly promoting gambling might not be the best move.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: How to AI Upscale Any Image With Stable Diffusion. “Disappointed by the low resolution of your Stable Diffusion creations? Or maybe you have older ‘real’ photos you’d like to upscale? Stable Diffusion WebUI has tools for just that, and we’ll walk you through the process while sharing some tips we’ve learned along the way.”

Larry Ferlazzo: This Week’s Free & Useful Artificial Intelligence Tools For The Classroom. “At least, for now, I’m going to make this a weekly feature which will highlight additions to THE BEST NEW – & FREE – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS THAT COULD BE USED IN THE CLASSROOM.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BBC: Twitter Blue accounts fuel Ukraine War misinformation. “False and misleading posts about the Ukraine conflict continue to go viral on major social media platforms, as Russia’s invasion of the country extends beyond 500 days. Some of the most widely shared examples can be found on Twitter, posted by subscribers with a blue tick, who pay for their content to be promoted to other users.”

Washington Post: Social media injunction unravels plans to protect 2024 elections. “A July 4 injunction that places extraordinary limits on the government’s communications with tech companies undermines initiatives to harden social media companies against election interference, civil rights groups, academics and tech industry insiders say.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Sacramento Bee: California bill to make Facebook, Google pay for news is delayed until 2024. “A California bill that would make Google and Facebook pay for news content that they use on their platforms to sell ads won’t be moving forward this year. Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, announced Friday that Assembly Bill 886 is being made a two-year bill, meaning it won’t be taken up again until 2024.”

Boing Boing: Emoji ruled legally binding in Canada. “Giving a digital thumbs up to a request is a binding legal agreement, rules a Canadian court. When asked to confirm a contract for flax, a flax seller responded with a ‘thumbs up’ emoji. The buyer relied on this thumbs up, and a lawsuit arose when the flax did not arrive.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Emotional stability and rational thinking are key to fake news sharing and detection, study finds. “New research suggests that two psychological models play a key role in sharing and detecting of fake news across a diverse range of topics. The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, found that higher levels of emotional instability were predictive of sharing fake news and higher levels of rational thinking were predictive of the capacity to detect fake news on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.”

Route Fifty: Cities extract mobility insights from ride-hailing company data. “With access to real-time mobility data from a variety of sources, cities can improve transit efficiency and meet sustainability, accessibility and equity goals.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 12, 2023 at 12:08AM
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Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia Northern Ireland Genealogy Twitter More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz July 11 2023

Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia, Northern Ireland Genealogy, Twitter, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, July 11, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

New-to-me, from New Indian Express Indulge: An atlas of the past . “Launched in 2020, [Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia] is a collaboration between Cambridge and a host of archaeologists and researchers throughout India and Pakistan to develop an open-source and free database of heritage sites throughout the Indus River Basin. It aspires to be the first complete catalogue of heritage in the region and is funded in its current form until the end of March 2024.”

Irish News: Genealogy enthusiasts gifted new index of more than three million searchable names. “GENEALOGY enthusiasts have been gifted a new index containing more than three million searchable names, to mark the centenary of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Around 3.2 million name indexes, relating to valuation records for the period 1864 to 1933, are now free to access as a result of a partnership between PRONI and well-known genealogy platform Ancestry.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Daily Beast: Musk Melts Down as Threads Nears 100M Users: ‘Zuck is a Cuck’. “‘Zuck is a cuck,’ Musk tweeted under a screenshot of a Threads exchange between Zuckerberg and the account for fast food joint Wendy’s, referencing a sexual fetish in which someone enjoys watching their partner fornicate with someone else. He then abandoned all subtlety in tweeting a final request: ‘I propose a literal dick measuring contest.'”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

ProPublica: Right-Wing Websites Connected to Former Trump Lawyer Are Scamming Loyal Followers With Phony Celebrity Pitches. “A mysterious network called AdStyle is placing ads with fake endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk on conservative sites based in the U.S. and abroad.” I see those on non-conservative too.

Kyiv Post: Fake Ukrainian Casualties Spread by Russian Propagandists. “StopFake, which is affiliated with the School of Journalism at the highly regarded National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said that ‘Russian Telegram channels, as well as social media trolls, are spreading disinformation about alleged Ukrainian sites showing a large number of “victims of the counteroffensive.”‘”

Los Angeles Times: Inside the growing movement to digitize LGBTQ+ stories: ‘We’re reverse-engineering new memories’ of the past. “ONE Foundation seeks to engage people with LGBTQ+ history through personal stories to foster empathy and human connection across generations. ‘Periodically Queer’ strives to bring the intimacy and bond associated with physical archives to a digital landscape.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Dark Reading: Google Searches for ‘USPS Package Tracking’ Lead to Banking Theft. “Threat actors are impersonating the United States Post Office (USPS) in a legitimate-looing malvertising campaign that diverts victims to a phishing site to steal payment-card and banking credentials, researchers have found.”

Mother Jones: How I Got “Crime-Pilled” by a Bunch of Very-Online Web Sleuths. “…internet sleuths searching and gossiping about a ghost killer in Austin is the latest in a series of internet-fueled crime dramas that have played out across the country. Just recently for The Atlantic, McKay Coppins covered the town of Moscow, Idaho, a community left in paranoia and fear after social media detectives flocked to the area to ‘help’ search for a killer (spoiler alert: It made things worse).”

Reuters: Google accuses India antitrust body of protecting Amazon in Android probe. “Google has accused India’s antitrust body of ordering changes to its business model ‘only to protect’ rival Amazon, which complained about its struggles to develop a modified version of the Android system due to Google’s restrictions, legal papers show.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Mary Sue: Tumblr Continues to Be the Best Social Media Site in a Sea of Internet Chaos. “Listen. I’ve written about Tumblr before. I won’t hide that I unapologetically grift for this website, despite its storied history. Tumblr is a mess of broken social norms and skrunkly mcturgl humor. It has gone through multiple poor UI changes and has cost its investors thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Yet it’s exactly this nature of chaos, anarchy, and piss-n-grit sensibilities that make it the website I love to call home.”

MIT News: Study: Microtargeting works, just not the way people think. “A new MIT-led study found that tailoring political ads based on one attribute of their intended audience — say, party affiliation — can be 70 percent more effective in swaying policy support than simply showing everyone the single ad that is expected to be most persuasive across the entire population.”

Montclair State University: Study Examined Social Media Reactions to Affirmative Action, Student Loan Forgiveness SCOTUS rulings. “The study examined more than 150,000 posts between June 27 and July 3 on major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter. The research team utilized search queries to discover how social media users in the U.S. reacted to the separate, landmark rulings regarding Affirmative Action and Student Loan Forgiveness.” Good morning, Internet…

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July 11, 2023 at 05:32PM
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WordPress Google ChatGPT More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz July 10 2023

WordPress, Google, ChatGPT, More: Monday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, July 10, 2023
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

WordPress News: 6.3 Live Product Demo. “Want to learn more about WordPress 6.3, planned for release on August 8, 2023? Join the WordPress community for a first look at 6.3 in action during a live product demonstration.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Land: Google ranks AI-generated ‘Star Wars’ article lacking E-E-A-T. “Despite constant reminders to create helpful content and the importance of E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) – Google Search still finds ways to rank content in top positions that shouldn’t be there. Look no further than A Chronological List of Star Wars Movies & TV Shows, published yesterday on Gizmodo (note: it was updated today with multiple corrections).”

Ars Technica: ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots. “According to data firm Similarweb, ChatGPT’s mobile and desktop traffic worldwide decreased by nearly 10 percent from May to June. Another data firm, Sensor Tower, reported that ChatGPT’s iPhone app downloads have been steadily dipping since they peaked in early June. This, the Post suggested, could be a sign that consumer interest in chatbots and other AI tools is waning as tech companies heavily invest in AI product development.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How Threads’ Privacy Policy Compares to Twitter’s (and Its Rivals’). “If you’re hesitant to share your personal data with a company on the receiving end of a billion dollar fine, that’s understandable. For those who are curious, however, here’s what we know about the service’s privacy policy, what data you hand over when you sign up, and how it compares to the data collected by other options.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Eurogamer: Assassin’s Creed Mirage has an unlockable database for history buffs. “Assassin’s Creed Mirage will include an interactive history feature available in the game at launch, allowing you to delve deeper into the real world version of the game’s Baghdad setting. This option appears to be an alternative to the more involved Discovery Tour mode that popped up some time post-launch in Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla.”

AFP: Netherlands to ban mobile phones from classrooms. “The Netherlands said Tuesday it will ban mobile phones from classrooms in a bid to stop tech disrupting lessons. Mobiles, tablets and smartwatches are getting in the way of students’ learning and will not be allowed in class from next year, the Dutch government said.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Louisiana Illuminator: Trove of government records will be on new transparency website. “Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed into law a bill to create a new transparency website to give the public in-depth access to a trove of government finance records. It will cover every agency, board, commission, department, courthouse and government entity at the state and local levels.”

New York Times: China Took Her Husband. She Was Left to Uncover His Secret Cause.. “He was brilliant, quirky and intensely private — and also, she now suspects, an anonymous dissident blogger who had won fame for years of evading the surveillance state.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid: A European scientific project studies how to regulate AI-created disinformation. “The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating in a European research project, called SOLARIS, to analyse the political risks associated with multimedia content created using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The objective is to propose regulatory innovations in this regard from the field of Law in order to fight against fake news and disinformation created with this technology.”

Poynter: How content creators spread misinformation about immigration policies. “Before making the arduous journey from their home countries toward the U.S. in search of a better life, migrants usually resort to the internet, social media and applications like WhatsApp to inform themselves on how to reach their final destination.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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July 11, 2023 at 12:03AM
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