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This week, Figma CEO Dylan Field said the company would temporarily disable its AI “Make Design” feature after being accused of “intensively” training the tool on existing apps. The feature, unveiled at the company’s annual Config conference, aimed to boost the design process by generating UI layouts and components from text prompts, but was criticized after it appeared to mimic the layout of Apple’s Weather app.
YouTube quietly rolled out a policy change this week that allows users to request the removal of AI-generated or other synthetic content that simulates their face or voice. The move marks a shift in opinion at YouTube, where the company now views deepfakes as a privacy issue rather than just a content moderation problem.
Fisker has asked the Delaware bankruptcy judge overseeing the Chapter 11 proceedings to approve the sale of its remaining inventory of all-electric Ocean SUVs. If approved, the company will be able to sell its finished electric vehicles to a New York-based vehicle leasing company for around $14,000 per vehicle – a significant drop from the $70,000 starting price some of them once fetched.
News
Twitter meets Myspace for Generation Z: With the goal of bringing the “social” back to “social media,” a new app called “noplace” serves as a modern-day MySpace with colorful, customizable profiles—and has made it to the top of the App Store. Read more
How to avoid AI-powered fraud: Thanks to generative AI, online scams have become easier, cheaper, and even more convincing. We’ve put together a helpful guide to show you how to protect yourself and your loved ones. Read more
Turn off these silly video call reactions: If you’ve seen thumbs up and confetti on your screen during a video call, you’re not alone. Here’s how to disable this setting on your Apple devices. Read more
Amazon discontinues Astro for Business: Amazon has decided to discontinue its Astro for Business security robot just seven months after its launch as the company shifts its focus to the home version of Astro. Read more
A natural 1 for safety: The popular online tabletop and role-playing game platform Roll20 experienced a data leak that exposed some users’ personal information. The platform is currently notifying users about the leak. Read more
Cloudflare takes on AI bots: The publicly traded cloud service provider has launched a new, free tool to prevent bots from crawling websites hosted on its platform for data to train AI models. Read more
Is Gemini as good as Google claims?: Google claims its AI models can handle previously impossible tasks, such as summarizing several hundred-page documents, but new research suggests the models aren’t as good as the company claims. Read more
1 billion stolen records and counting: This year has seen some of the largest and most damaging data breaches in recent history. From AT&T to Ticketmaster, these are the biggest data breaches of 2024 so far. Read more
analysis
A year full of threads: Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter, just celebrated its first birthday. The social network now has 175 million monthly active users, but is still trying to find its own voice. Threads isn’t as news-rich as X, and it’s not as open as Mastodon or Bluesky – at least for now. Ivan Mehta looks back on the app’s first year and what it can learn from other social networks. Read more
Supreme Court opens hunting season on regulators: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court made one of the most consequential decisions it has ever made related to the technology industry: it overturned the 1984 case Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. On paper, wetlands and the EPA seem to have little to do with technology, but as Devin Coldewey writes, the decision exposes regulators to endless interference. Read more