The Future is Rated X

Deepfake Era, Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday

From her tour to the Grammys to the movie business to the NFL playoffs, Taylor Swift is a central character in many stories. Now she has a starring role in a story she wants nothing to do with. Well, it's not really her. It's her likeness. And in this show, she's neither the opener nor the anywhere near the closing act. Trolls have flooded X with graphic Taylor Swift AI fakes. "Sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift have been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) over the last day in the latest example of the proliferation of AI-generated fake pornography and the challenge of stopping it from spreading. One of the most prominent examples on X attracted more than 45 million views, 24,000 reposts, and hundreds of thousands of likes and bookmarks before the verified user who shared the images had their account suspended." By then, the images were everywhere. One of the reasons Swift is such a massive star is because fans connect with the universality of the experiences she shares in her songs. Sadly, this will be true for her deepfake experience, too. Casey Newton in Platformer: The Taylor Swift deepfakes are a warning. "At its most basic level, this is a story about X, and not a particularly surprising one at that. When Elon Musk took over X, he dismantled its trust and safety teams and began enforcing its written policies — or not — depending on his whims ... Separating consensual, permissible adult content from AI-generated harassment requires strong policies, dedicated teams and rapid enforcement capabilities. X has none of those, and that's how you get 45 million views on a single post harassing Taylor Swift. It would be a mistake, though, to consider Swift's harassment this week solely through the lens of X's failure. A second, necessary lens is how platforms that have rejected calls to actively moderate content have created a means for bad actors to organize, create harmful content, and distribute it at scale." And at this point, it's hard to imagine that even platforms (or government agencies) that want to stop the spread of AI-doctored content will be able to keep up with the trolls and the tech. SciAm: AI Audio Deepfakes Are Quickly Outpacing Detection. Even in the best hands, AI and social media are a toxic mix. And it's rarely in those hands. Elon Musk's AI startup is reportedly looking to raise up to $6 billion.

+ The Swift story came out during the same week that we learned of the deepfake Joe Biden audio that was used by a robocaller to try get voters to stay home during the New Hampshire primary. (Listen for yourself.) Again, these technological fakes won't be limited to the famous or the powerful. Crooks are already using voice cloning to scam grandparents out of money. Deepfake Joe might describe that as a bunch of malarkey. And we're about to experience malarkey at scale.

2

Eerie Canal

You already know that terror attacks by the Houthis are putting shipping traffic in the Red Sea at risk. But climate is another risk factor when it comes to delivering stuff across the world and to your front stoop. NYT (Gift Article): Panama Canal Drought Slows Cargo Traffic. "The Panama Canal Authority has reduced daily traffic through the narrow corridor by nearly 40 percent compared with last year. Many ships have already diverted to longer ocean routes, which increases both costs and carbon emissions, while the global shipping company Maersk recently announced they will shift some of their cargo to rail."

3

Fat Chance

"In a way, Lilly fell backward into the obesity-drug business. Soon after Chief Executive Officer David Ricks took the top job in 2017, he sent one of his top scientists, Daniel Skovronsky, on a mission to find Lilly’s most promising diabetes research. Skovronsky found a small study looking into the safety of a compound called tirzepatide, a combination of GLP-1 with another hormone. While sifting through the report, he noticed something strange. Some participants had lost so much weight while taking the drug that they dropped out of the trial." Bloomberg (Gift Article): How a Lucky Break Fueled Eli Lilly’s $600 Billion Weight-Loss Empire.

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: During winter in Ennis, Alaska, it's dark, cold, mysterious, and otherworldly. That makes for a perfect setting for the latest iteration of an HBO classic, this time starring Jodie Foster. True Detective: Night Country.

+ What (Else) to Watch: Let's stick with crime series. This one takes place on the streets of London, where "an anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives -- a young woman in the early stages of her career and a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy -- into a fight to correct an old miscarriage of justice." Check out Criminal Record on AppleTV.

+ What to Hear: "There's just a toughness and a certain darkness about him now that really didn't exist before. He's still extremely committed to this war, to winning this war. ... And he's very single minded, almost obsessive, in pursuing that goal." It's a long way from his comedy career. Simon Shuster talks to Fresh Air about how war changed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Let's hope war changes the GOP members of Congress in time to let Zelenskyy win this thing.)

5

Extra, Extra

Trial Run: "The United Nations’ top court on Friday ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering Jerusalem to end the military offensive." OK, now let's do Hamas and its Iran backers. And then Putin.

+ Running From the Truth: "Donald Trump abruptly stormed out of court during closing arguments in the E. Jean Carroll damages trial Friday as her attorney was telling jurors the former president is a liar who thinks 'the rules don't apply to him.'" (With any luck, this will be one of the last times Trump leaves a court room on his own recognizance.)

+ TikTokShock: "Amy and Ano are identical twins, but just after they were born they were taken from their mother and sold to separate families. Years later, they discovered each other by chance thanks to a TV talent show and a TikTok video. As they delved into their past, they realised they were among thousands of babies in Georgia stolen from hospitals and sold, some as recently as 2005. Now they want answers."

+ Alabama Execution: Alabama carries out first known execution with nitrogen gas in the US. Now the state’s AG expects more states to follow.

+ Love the Sinner: For hours, I waited (nervously) for Novak Djokovic to turn the match around and add another unthinkable win to his unimaginable record at the Australian Open. But it never happened. In part because he was off his game. And in part because Jannik Sinner was very much on his. Any time Novak loses in a major, it's news. Sinner ends Djokovic's reign in Australian Open semifinals.

+ Vintage Clothing: Apparently, a majority of land hermit crab species now use trash for shells. (So I suppose they should thank us?)

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Feel Good Friday

"His father's voice, the sounds of passing cars and scissors clipping his hair: An 11-year-old boy is hearing for the first time in his life after receiving a breakthrough gene therapy."

+ Daughter saves her mother’s life with organ donations — twice. (The rest of our mothers: "And you never even bother to call.")

+ ‘I just count the laps’: Canadian swimmer, 99, breaks three world records. (If I can out of a pool and dry myself off at that age, I'll consider it a win.)

+ The National Hole-in-One Registry has determined that the odds of making two aces in one round are 67 million-to-1. Cliff Romme just defied those odds.

+ World's first white rhino IVF pregnancy could save subspecies with only two living animals remaining. (Cut to the Baby Rhino a few years from now: "I never asked to be born!")