Tech News – Page 83 – by Arlin Schaffel

Siri is being left behind – and Apple knows it

According to “more than three dozen former Apple employees who worked in its AI and machine learning groups,” Apple’s attempts to improve Siri have been hampered by “organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition,” with the software now “widely derided” by many still working at the company. According to “more than three dozen former Apple employees who worked in its AI and machine learning groups,” Apple’s attempts to improve Siri have been hampered by “organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition,” with the software now “widely derided” by many still working at the company.
https://www.techradar.com/news/siri-is-being-left-behind-and-apple-knows-it

The Imgur Apocalypse Is Going to Break Large Parts of the Internet

If you want to test a free platform’s ability to protect content over the long haul, here’s a fun test: Upload an image, post it somewhere, then wait a decade to see if it sticks around. Odds are, it won’t. Which is why, perhaps, it’s not totally surprising to learn that Imgur, a popular photo-uploading service that has been informally tied to Reddit since its 2009 founding, will remove two types of content from its platform starting next month: explicit or pornographic imagery, and images uploaded anonymously—the latter with a lean on unused images, according to the company. While technically banned from Imgur for years through its community rules, adult content hasn’t been actively removed (and is incredibly popular). Until now.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3vkq/the-imgur-apocalypse-is-going-to-break-large-parts-of-the-internet

Snapchat introduces AI chatbot to mixed reviews

The feature, dubbed My AI, is pinned to the top of users' chat feeds and only paid subscribers can remove it. Snap called My AI "an experimental, friendly, chatbot" which can perform tasks such as answering questions, offering advice, or planning trips. A Snap spokesperson told the BBC the "vast majority" of people with early access to My AI had been enjoying it, with millions of messages sent per day.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65388258

Microsoft Edge caught leaking every website you visit to Bing

image via 9to5google.com

This week a Reddit user spotted that Microsoft’s Edge browser has been sending all visited URLs to “bingapis.com.” When users visit a URL on their browser, that data is sent to Bing for nearly all URLs. While there appears to be nothing malicious going on here, the issue has privacy implications as there’s no disclosure this is happening and it is enabled by default. In a statement, Microsoft confirmed that it is aware of these reports and that the company will take “appropriate action to address any issues,” but offered no explanation of why this is happening.
https://9to5google.com/2023/04/26/microsoft-edge-bing-urls/

Grimes says anyone can AI-generate her voice “without penalty”

On Sunday night, Canadian musician Grimes tweeted that she would split 50 percent royalties on "any successful AI generated song" that uses her voice, reports The Verge. As an independent artist, Grimes says anyone can use her voice without penalty. "I have no label and no legal bindings," she says.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/04/grimes-says-anyone-can-ai-generate-her-voice-without-penalty/

Lonely Parrots Love Video Chatting With Each Other, Study Finds

In an absolutely delightful new experiment, a team of scientists was able to show that once taught how, pet parrots can and will FaceTime their parrot friends. During a three-month experiment, the researchers taught a total of 18 pet birds how to "engage in video-calling other parrots" to see if such a system can improve their lives. And as it turns out, the parrots loved their new parrot-to-parrot video-calling system.
https://futurism.com/parrots-video-chat-study

Elon Musk removes Twitter’s ‘government-funded media’ labels after outlets flee the platform

Twitter has removed the “government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels that led several news outlets to stop tweeting on the platform. When asked why Twitter has dropped the labels, Elon Musk says it was a “suggestion” from Walter Isaacson, the author of his upcoming biography, according to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn. Neither NPR, PBS, nor CBC have said whether they will resume their activity on Twitter now that the labels are gone. In a statement provided to The Verge, CBC spokesperson Leon Mar says the organization is “reviewing this latest development and will leave our Twitter accounts on pause before taking any next steps.” NPR and PBS didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment, but we’ll update this article if we hear back.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692449/elon-musk-twitter-government-funded-media-labels-removed