Newsletter Archives

• The time has come for AI-generated art

  Posted on April 14, 2025 at 02:45 CDT by Catherine Barrett • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.15 • 2025-04-14

  Look for our BONUS issue on April 21, 2025!!

  MEDIA

  

  By Catherine Barrett

  The horse may have five legs, but it’s already out of the barn.

  AI-generated images are here to stay, and we need to learn how to recognize them and use them legitimately. They’re not authoritative depictions of how things look, but they are handy for illustrating ideas. In what follows, I’ll tell you how they work and address ethical and practical concerns.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.15.0, 2025-04-14).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Media AI, ChatGPT, Copilot, DALL-E, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Leonardo.ai, Midjourney, Newsletters

• Where did the rest of AI go?

  Posted on January 20, 2025 at 02:42 CST by Michael Covington • Comment in the Forums

  AI

  

  By Michael A. Covington

  The term “artificial intelligence” goes back to the 1950s and defines a broad field.

  The leading academic AI textbook, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig — reportedly used at 1,500 colleges — mentions generative neural networks in only two of its 29 chapters.

  Admittedly, that book dates from 2021; although it hasn’t been replaced, maybe it predates the revolution. Newer AI books are mostly about how to get results using off-the-shelf generative systems. Is it time for the rest of AI to die out? I don’t think so.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.03.0, 2025-01-20).

  AI AI, Alan Turing, Artificial Intelligence, ELIZA, Generative AI, LLMs, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Newsletters, Turing Test

• The best stories of 2024 — updated!

  Posted on December 30, 2024 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.53 • 2024-12-30

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 6, 2025!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The year 2024 is now in the books. I’m pleased to report some positive moves this year that may make the tech industry’s products better for us all.

  I’ll give you some important updates today on (1) keeping artificial-intelligence services from creating malicious images, (2) minimizing social-media websites’ negative effects on users’ mental health, and (3) discovering how “answer engines” are improving on the tiresome linkfests of old-guard search giants.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.53.0, 2024-12-30).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Deepfakes, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Newsletters, OpenAI, Perplexity, Social Media

• Write 200 social-media posts in 10 minutes! Quality, right?

  Posted on October 28, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  I’ve been thinking about the profession of journalism lately, given the emails bombarding me these days about how I could create 240, 300, or even 1,200 articles per hour if I would only use the latest in chatbot tech.

  YouTube’s funny farm is overflowing with videos of such miracles. They tell me I could write a whole ebook in 24 hours — true writers never sleep, you know — and make $8,327 a week ($433,000 a year) merely by pressing a few buttons.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.44.0, 2024-10-28).

  Public Defender AI, Chatbot decay, Chatbots, ChatGPT, Generative AI, Newsletters

• Is this article plagiarism? Now you can find out.

  Posted on September 2, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.36 • 2024-09-02

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  An epidemic of plagiarism — outright duplication of other people’s works — is raging through chatbots and other artificial-intelligence technologies.

  One study shows that almost 60% of the outputs from some chatbots contain plagiarism. The good news? The latest detection software can be 100% accurate in separating AI-plagiarized text from original, human work.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.36.0, 2024-09-02).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender Chatbots, Copyleaks, Copyrights, Generative AI, Newsletters, Originality, Plagiarism, Plagiarism Checker, Plagscan, Quetext, Turnitin, Unicheck

• Get Office Copilot now — without paying

  Posted on September 2, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  It’s possible to get many of the AI features promoted for Copilot without paying Microsoft $30 per month.

  What you’ll get is less streamlined than in the paid product, but it’s still approachable. Besides, the paid version isn’t yet anywhere nearly as good as the hype.

  In this article, I’ll explain some of the ways you can use free Copilot with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You’ll be able to experiment and thus gain an appreciation for whether paid Copilot Pro or Copilot for Microsoft 365 are worth the cost.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.36.0, 2024-09-02).

  Microsoft 365 ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Copilot Pro, DALL-E, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Meta AI, Newsletters, Office

• Your government at work

  Posted on August 26, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.35 • 2024-08-26

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  While most of the world was distracted by the question of whether anyone in their right mind would voluntarily swim in the Seine, there were major legal developments affecting the tech world.

  In a two-part series, I’ll first summarize what the US federal government has been up to. In the follow-on column, I’ll cover some notable actions taken by state governments and private individuals.

  First, the feds.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.35.0, 2024-08-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Legal Brief AI, Antitrust, ByteDance, Credit cards, Deepfakes, Federal Trade Commission, Generative AI, Google, Newsletters, Targeted Pricing, Terms of Service, TikTok

• Google is declaring war on clickbait — but who’s winning?

  Posted on June 24, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Faced with an onslaught of AI-generated websites that invent hundreds of articles out of whole cloth each day, Google says it’s imposed new rules requiring sites to provide original and genuinely helpful information.

  The Mountain View search giant announced recently that changes to its algorithms had reduced “spammy, low-quality content” by 45%.

  It’s admirable that Google is actively trying to eliminate the junk that’s being generated en masse by artificial-intelligence bots. But the search engine’s accomplishment so far is like a naval commander saying, “The ship is sinking from numerous breaches in the hull, but the good news is that we’ve patched 45% of the holes.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.26.0, 2024-06-24).

  Public Defender AI, Fake Websites, Generative AI, Google, Misinformation, Newsletters, Reverse Phone Lookups

• Protecting yourself from AI deepfakes

  Posted on May 20, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  It has been apparent for some time that developments in generative artificial intelligence present serious potential for harm.

  A recent example has made the problem concrete.

  On January 17, 2024, the Baltimore Sun broke the news with the headline “Baltimore County Public Schools investigating Pikesville High principal’s alleged ‘highly offensive’ recording.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.21.0, 2024-05-20).

  Legal Brief AI, Deepfakes, Generative AI, Legal, Newsletters, Privacy, Revenge, Security

• Can you detect AI deepfake images with your own eyes?

  Posted on April 8, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Artificial-intelligence image generators now produce such lifelike output — and the AI apps are improving their accuracy every day — that we’re seeing an increasing number of surprising, enraging, and manipulative videos and stills. All this forces us to ask, “Is it real, or is it AI?”

  The answers will be crucial to us, as AI bots unstoppably expand into all aspects of our day-to-day lives. Phony images — often called deepfakes or fauxtography — are scrambling free elections around the world. And AI-generated videos that overlay women’s faces onto the nude bodies of porn stars can ruin the mortified victims’ lives and even cause suicides.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.15.0, 2024-04-08).

  Public Defender AI, Deepfakes, Generative AI, Newsletters

• The best news of the year

  Posted on December 18, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The year 2023 revealed many poor decisions made by Internet giants. Almost every big company seemed to make at least one techno no-no.

  The good news is that the year also saw several positive developments — or, at least, an incremental change that might lead to something better.

  I’ll update you today on some of the most significant news. These situations were first described in stories that I originally covered in an AskWoody column this year.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

  Public Defender Generative AI, images, iMessage, Keyboards, Newsletters, RCS, Rich Communication Services, SMS, TenKeyLess, Texting

• Anyone can render you naked with three mouse clicks

  Posted on October 30, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Artificial-intelligence technologies have so invaded our lives that now dozens of sketchy websites enable anyone to upload a picture of your face and immediately receive an AI-generated nude that’s completely photorealistic.

  Tech-savvy perverts have published fake nudes of celebrities for years, of course. But making those falsified images required at least some talent with Photoshop and other image-editing tools.

  At the new AI-fake websites, you just upload a fully clothed headshot of anyone. You then click, click, click, and you have a “nudified” copy. Most people would believe the resulting image is an actual photograph of how the victimized person supposedly looked at the time.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.44.0, 2023-10-30).

  Public Defender AI, Deepfakes, Generative AI, images, Newsletters, Watermarks
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