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- ⚡️ X's massive disinformation problem
⚡️ X's massive disinformation problem
PLUS: San Francisco's driverless taxi battle heats up
Rowan Cheung
October 10, 2023
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Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.
The world is watching on X as horrors unfold during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
But disinformation is flooding the platform — making it harder than ever to discern fact from fiction. Let’s dive in…
In today’s tech rundown:
😵💫 Disinformation explodes on X amid Israel-Hamas conflict
🚖 Waymo driverless taxis expand while Cruise stumbles in SF
🛠️ 7 New products
📰 7 quick stories
Read time: 3 minutes
TODAY’S HEADLINES
TWITTER/X
Image source: Midjourney
The Rundown: A wave of manipulated videos, fake images, and out-of-context footage flooded X (formerly Twitter) amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas over the weekend — with the platform grappling with an ‘unprecedented scale’ of misleading content.
The details:
Real footage was largely drowned out by manipulated content, due to X's algorithm boosting sensational but false posts.
Changes under Elon Musk, including firing critical moderation staff and diminishing the value of verified blue checks, enabled the disinfo surge according to experts.
Musk himself made the situation worse by recommending notorious disinformation accounts to his 150 million followers.
The rise of AI-generated fake media will only increase the challenge of spotting and stopping weaponized lies during global news coverage.
The relevance: While Twitter has previously been where many turn to get real-time news, the platform’s changes (alongside the rise in AI) have made user feeds a minefield for discerning fact from fiction. And the scary part — its likely only going to get worse.
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WAYMO
Image source: Waymo
The Rundown: Waymo just expanded its driverless ride-hailing service area in San Francisco, while rival Cruise is navigating a series of setbacks including fleet cuts and crashes.
The details:
Waymo opened its San Francisco service to tens of thousands of additional riders this week after an initial slow roll-out.
The move comes after California ruled to allow 24/7 commercial robotaxi operations, despite facing opposition from San Francisco.
Waymo competitor Cruise was ordered to halve its fleet over "concerning incidents", including an AV recently running over a pedestrian.
The relevance: The robotaxi rivalry in SF highlights the remaining challenges surrounding the tech — with most experts still seeing years of progress needed for safe urban autonomous driving at scale. But the capabilities are likely much farther along than the general public realizes.
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SNIPPETS
Edinburgh to host the UK's first exascale supercomputer, enhancing AI research and national innovation.
Apple's next-gen Vision Pro headsets aim for a lighter design and may offer preinstalled prescription lenses, with a potential launch between 2025-2027.
Merlin Entertainments collaborates with Immersive Gamebox, introducing enhanced gaming venues in 2023 featuring brands like Squid Game and PAW Patrol, eyeing global expansion.
Google's 2017 ad auction tweak, "Project Momiji," potentially netted billions by narrowing bid gaps, according to US Justice Department testimony.
California passed a law requiring venture capital firms to annually report the diversity of their investment portfolio, hoping to increase transparency and funding for women and minorities.
Instagram's Threads app is working on a ‘Trends‘ feature to better compete with X, showing buzzy topics and number of related posts.
French startup Mecaware raised €40 million to scale up its unique CO2-based battery recycling technology that extracts critical metals like lithium and cobalt from batteries and scrap.
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THAT’S A WRAP
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