A wave of disinformation online contributed to a surge of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta who were trying to reach Europe, resulting in about 90 deaths.

Also: Google executives jump ship in race for AI dominance

Hello, TechScape readers! Danielle Abril, editor of the Guardian’s Reworked series on AI and the future of work, filling in for Blake Montgomery this week. Major legal battles against Meta over child safety are playing out in courts across the US – and the tech giant is losing. Recent rulings raise big questions about social media companies’ responsibility to their youngest users. Meanwhile, more key executives have jumped ship from Google as it battles OpenAI and Anthropic in the race for AI dominance, and Meta’s smart glasses face a fearsome backlash. Let’s dig in!

‘I’ve definitely lost followers’: influencers face backlash over Meta ‘pervert glasses’ content

This man was secretly snapped by someone with smartglasses. He’s not alone in calling that a violation of privacy

Tell us: do you believe you have been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent?

Restaurants, pubs and theatres ban Meta’s ‘spy glasses’ over privacy fears

‘I’m not spying’: how Meta’s smartglasses have divided opinion

Bernie Sanders calls on Silicon Valley to ‘pause AI development’ in interest of humanity

Rising number of UK children report seeing explicit deepfakes of themselves

The White House’s plan to vet potentially dangerous AI is cloaked in secrecy

‘This is very real redlining’: outrage in Little Rock as two datacenters loom

Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI

SpaceX beats revenue expectations in first earnings report after IPO crash

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© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

Descubre cómo un eclipse de 1133 pasó de presagio medieval a dato científico: una historia de cronistas, cálculos astronómicos y pistas que conectan el pasado con el presente a través de los cielos.

For years, social media companies have faced pressure from users and government watchdogs to stop misinformation from distorting

Bluesky has added a new feature that lets you hide reposts from a specific person in your feeds. The tool might be helpful if you want to stop seeing reposts from that one person who clogs up your feed with reposts of things you don't care about. If you follow me, I may be that person, I'm sorry. I try not to be.

You can hide reposts from individual users by going to their profile, clicking the three dots button, and selecting the option to "Hide reposts in feeds." (X offers a similar toggle.)

Bluesky also says that it's launching a beta feature that will automatically add post numbers to threads. For long threads, it could be a useful w …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Platforms like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google are facing a long road of litigation.

The release of Muse Glimmer, a model that can be freely downloaded and modified, is likely to intensify a debate over whether A.I. should be restricted.

VHS Dates advertises itself as resurfacing lost dating service videotapes from the 1980s. The account’s followers have been genuinely touched.

Las excavaciones realizadas durante el pasado mes de julio en el conjunto monumental de Guadalupe han sacado a la luz los restos cimentarios de la que fuera Hospedería de los Reyes Católicos, un edificio histórico desaparecido que nada tiene que ver con la actual Hospedería del Real Monasterio que hoy funciona en el mismo enclave. […]

Using ‘spy glasses’ made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creators

It was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. “PERV,” read one. “Out here pushing creep glasses,” said another. His mistake? Documenting the moment with Meta’s “spy glasses”.

Despite being marketed as the latest must-have gadget, Meta’s smartglasses, which can record video footage while being worn, have faced a vicious backlash, particularly relating to concerns about surveillance. There are widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people, especially women, without their consent, and the resultant footage being posted on social media. This has earned them the label of “pervert glasses”, and content creators, no matter how they are used, have faced a flood of negative comments for deploying them.

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© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Self-censorship is rising and traditional publishers steer clear of controversial topics. Mike Fairclough explains why he has launched a new publishing venture – and why it matters now.

The post Why I Founded Free Speech Press appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

X is ending its controversial revenue-sharing program for content creators, which has seen numerous revisions under Elon Musk's reign. In its place, it's launching a new Original Content Rewards program on September 8th. To be eligible, creators must have at least 500 verified followers and at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in the last 90 days, among other requirements.

Creators will then earn revenue based on "qualified impressions" on "original content."Qualified impressions are unique impressions from Premium subscribers "on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50% of the post is visible." What qualifies a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Credit where credit is due: this sounds much better than the program it's replacing.

A Syitren lançou no Kickstarter o RM1, um leitor de CD com estrutura em acrílico transparente que expõe o mecanismo do CD a girar e toda a eletrónica interna. Este já ultrapassou, em muito, o objetivo de financiamento inicial.

The post Syitren RM1 é um leitor de CD transparente que transforma a mecânica em obra de arte appeared first on Tek Notícias.

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Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or ‘nudified’ content easier to produce

Children in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses, as a safety watchdog warned AI is making such content easier to produce.

The Report Remove service, which blocks intimate images from appearing online, said there had been a rapid increase in imagery that had been digitally manipulated or “faked” in some way, including with AI and nudification tools.

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© Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

The penalty, imposed by a state judge, is on top of a $375 million fine ordered by a jury that found Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms.

Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against users

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m into a fund aimed at redressing adverse mental health impacts from the social media giant’s platforms.

The Thursday ruling comes as a part of the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March. At the time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, and imposed the maximum penalty: a $375m fine.

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© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jill Connelly/Getty Images

The move lifts a rule that said a single television-station owner could not reach more than 39 percent of U.S. households.

As imagens captadas pela sonda Danuri permitiram aos investigadores da Administração Aeroespacial da Coreia do Sul confirmar que a colisão do estágio superior do foguetão da SpaceX causou alterações na superfície lunar. Além da Danuri, a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter da NASA também vai fotografar o local do impacto.

The post Foguetão da SpaceX deixou uma nova cratera na Lua? Sonda sul-coreana capta o antes e depois do impacto appeared first on Tek Notícias.

After his fall from grace, media’s former enfant terrible is now sober and helping others with his addiction recovery newsletter and podcast, The Small Bow

Every other Tuesday, AJ Daulerio wakes up at 5.30am and meditates for five to 20 minutes before beginning his multistep daily journaling protocol: reading a selection from a poetry anthology, then a passage from one of his daily wisdom readers (his go-to is a heavily annotated copy of Leo Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom); writing his Fear of the Day and gratitude list, then sharing his spiritual takeaway in a note to his three kids.

After a banana and coffee, Daulerio trains Brazilian jujitsu before hitting a 9.45am meditation at Besant Lodge – a community center just below the Hollywood sign that once served as a meeting place for mid-century mystics – immediately followed by him leading a recovery meeting of his own through Zoom.

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© Photograph: Storm Santos/Contour RA by Getty Images

© Photograph: Storm Santos/Contour RA by Getty Images

© Photograph: Storm Santos/Contour RA by Getty Images