Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - AI Assistants Misrepresent News Content 45% of the Time (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: New research coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC has found that AI assistants – already a daily information gateway for millions of people – routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested. The intensive international study of unprecedented scope and scale was launched at the EBU News Assembly, in Naples. Involving 22 public service media (PSM) organizations in 18 countries working in 14 languages, it identified multiple systemic issues across four leading AI tools. Professional journalists from participating PSM evaluated more than 3,000 responses from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity against key criteria, including accuracy, sourcing, distinguishing opinion from fact, and providing context.

Key findings:
— 45% of all AI answers had at least one significant issue.
— 31% of responses showed serious sourcing problems – missing, misleading, or incorrect attributions.
— 20% contained major accuracy issues, including hallucinated details and outdated information.
— Gemini performed worst with significant issues in 76% of responses, more than double the other assistants, largely due to its poor sourcing performance.
— Comparison between the BBC’s results earlier this year and this study show some improvements but still high levels of errors.

Submission + - Algorithms Will Be 'Driving the Majority of Facebook News,' Says Facebook (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook’s news section, which was previously reported to be imminent, is here: The company is rolling out Facebook News in a limited test in the U.S. as a home screen tab and bookmark in the main Facebook app. In a blog post, Facebook’s Campbell Brown (vice president of global news partnerships) and Mona Sarantakos (product manager, news) said that news articles will continue to appear in the main News Feed. However, they said that creating a specific tab focused on journalism “gives people more control over the stories they see, and the ability to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app.” It sounds like Facebook News will use both human editors and algorithms to determine which stories you see — an unusual move for a company that’s been hesitant to police the content posted by users and advertisers. Specifically, there will be a section called Today’s Stories, curated by a team of journalists to highlight the biggest national news stories of the day.

At the same time, Facebook will also provide algorithmic story suggestions based on your interests and activity. You’ll be able to hide articles, topics and publishers you don’t want to see, and browse sections devoted to business, entertainment, health, science and technology, and sports — topics where Facebook users apparently felt underserved. “Regarding personalization, publishers worry that machine learning has limits and they’re right,” Brown and Sarantakos wrote. “We have progress to make before we can rely on technology alone to provide a quality news destination.” Nonetheless, they suggested that algorithms will be “driving the majority of Facebook News,” and that they’ll be working to ensure that those algorithms are also surfacing “new forms of journalism in the digital age, including individual, independent journalism.”

Submission + - Alarming rise in teens needing glasses blamed on screens (studyfinds.org)

Submitted by pgmrdlm
pgmrdlm writes: BIRMINGHAM, England — So many people, especially young people and teenagers, spend a significant period of time each day staring at a screen of some kind, whether that be a computer, smartphone, tablet, or the regular old TV. Now, a new study is warning parents that all that screen time may be behind a stunning rise in children who need prescription glasses.

According to the report released by United Kingdom-based eye care company Scrivens Opticians, the percentage of 13-16 year olds in the U.K. who need glasses has nearly doubled over the past seven years — from 20% in 2012 to 35% in 2018. Two-thirds of those teens were diagnosed as being myopic, or short-sighted.

Researchers theorize that this significant increase in eye problems among young people is likely linked to excessive time spent staring at screens, which can lead to eye strain, shortsightedness, and blurred vision. In fact, the study also found that the average 13-16 year old spends around 26 hours per week staring at a smartphone, playing video games, or watching TV.

Submission + - CompuServe's forums are closing on December 15 (fastcompany.com)

Submitted by harrymcc
harrymcc writes: In the era before the web, the forums on CompuServe were indispensable for everything from getting tech questions answered to chatting about movies. They still exist, albeit in diminished form. But Oath, which owns AOL, which owns what's left of CompuServe, is about to finally shut them down. I wrote about the sad news for Fast Company.

Submission + - Vault 7: CIA Has Malware for Hacking Air-Gapped Networks via USB Thumb Drives (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: WikiLeaks dumped today the manuals of several hacking utilities part of Brutal Kangaroo, a CIA malware toolkit for hacking into air-gapped (offline) networks using tainted USB thumb drives. The CIA uses these tools as part of a very complex attack process, that allows CIA operatives to infect offline, air-gapped networks.

The first stage of these attacks start with the infection of a "primary host," an Internet-connected computer at a targeted company. Malware on this primary host automatically infects all USB thumb drives inserted into the machine. If this thumb drive is connected to computers on an air-gapped network, a second malware is planted on these devices.

This malware is so advanced, that it can even create a network of hacked air-gapped PCs that talk to each other and exchange commands. To infect the air-gapped computers, the CIA malware uses LNK (shortcut) files placed on the USB thumb drive. Once the user opens and views the content of the thumb drive in Windows Explorer, his air-gapped PC is infected without any other interaction.

Submission + - TSA body scanner opt-out no longer guaranteed (twitter.com)

Submitted by codguy
codguy writes: Up to now, airline passengers have been able opt-out of the TSA's Advanced Imaging Technologies (AIT) whole body scanners, and request a physical pat-down for their security check. But ProPublica journalist Julia Angwin points out that a rule change on December 18, 2015 now allows the TSA to compel some passengers to use these scanners instead of giving them a pat-down. The updated rule says that "While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening, TSA may direct mandatory AIT screening for some passengers," (source http://www.dhs.gov/sites/defau...). Of course, the criteria for when this can happen is completely unspecified, and one can easily imagine them abusing this by deciding to compel anyone who requests a pat-down to go through the scanners for some reasonable cause from their perspective. Guilty until proven innocent?

Slashdot Top Deals

Overflow on /dev/null, please empty the bit bucket.

Close