Archives for April 6, 2022

First News Mints NFT, Apple & Meta Get Phished, Twitter Announces Musky Edit Button, and Artful AI Scares Digital Artists

Hi, TTN readers! It’s another Thursday! I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: First News on 570 mints an NFT, Apple and Meta get phished by social engineers, Musk forces Twitter to release Edit button, and a new AI generates pictures and makes edits. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

Get the first First News on 570 NFT

Y’all thought we were joking, but now you can purchase First News on 570’s first NFT. Purchasers will get an authentic download of the April 7, 2022 show, and only 5 listeners will be able to listen to the best technology segment on radio. Listeners can purchase the NFT from Rarible and use any of the supported wallets.

For all of my tech heads in the audience, it was minted using Ethereum and signed using my Coinbase wallet.

Have fun and enjoy FFNo570’s first digital product!

Courtesy: WALL-E 2

APPLE AND META GET PHISHED BY FAKE LAW ENFORCEMENT

For the last 16 years, I have been required to take IT Security and Awareness training to protect various government and private health systems. Phishing is a type of social engineering hacking attack used to steal data, credentials, and other information by posing as IT or official people needing information. Last week, Apple and Meta reported being exploited by phishing attacks from hackers pretending to be law enforcement officials. The companies were giving data to hackers as part of false Emergency Information Requests. Technology and data companies often provide information to law enforcement under subpoena, but EIRs are usually life and death situations and don’t require a subpoena. The companies admitted to the exploits in which users’ personally identifiable information had been shared including email and physical addresses.

TWITTER ANNOUNCES EDIT BUTTON AFTER MUSKY STOCK PURCHASE

If there’s been an outspoken Twitter user it has been Elon Musk. Musk, my generation’s Howard Hughes – love him or hate him, has been targeted by the SEC for his use of the platform before major company moves, used the platform to troll tax policies, and frequently polls users on how he thinks the platform should refresh itself. Twitter users have been asking for an edit button for years, but have rebuffed the feature citing users prefer other functions over it. Well, since Elon Musk’s 9.2% stock purchase. The purchase makes Musk Twitter’s largest shareholder. Twitter has announced development of an ‘Edit’ button which will be tested on its subscription service. The Musk poll cited 73% of 4 million users wanted the feature, and it looks like its happening. Tech commentator Stephanie Humphries doesn’t think the stock purchase is the “flex” it seems en pixel, and it does seem as if Elon Musk fancies himself as a new age Carl Icahn. Without the class.

ARTISTS CRY FOUL AS AI CREATES PICTURES AND MAKES EDITS

Yesterday, OpenAI, the AI company which has said some of its technologies are too dangerous for human consumption, announced an update to its DALL-E image generation tool. DALL-E is a mashup of Salvadore Dali and WALL-E the lovable robot. DALL-E is able to take text as input and create a new image from the phrasing. According to OpenAI, DALL-E.2 creates realistic images that combine concepts and attributes with style. It uses a new technique called diffusion which takes random dots and gradually makes a pattern with the dots as it “recognizes” specific aspects of an image. DALL-E.2 isn’t commercially available, but researchers can join a waitlist to get access. I’ve already requested access. Why? Because I bend the knee to our robot overlords.

The Latest Companies Quitting Russia

Intel has announced it is suspending operations in Russia.

Twitter is moving to curb the content Russian leaders post on the platform.