cognitive warm up. First of all, and I’m assuming you’re on Instagram, keeping your photos safe from AI. What happened, in typically secret meta behavior, was that the social media company (I refuse to call it an AI company) enabled a setting that allowed any other Instagram user to access photos posted by any Instagram account that had a public viewing setting. That is, as long as you don’t opt out, the AI can use it – and after much outrage, it looks like it’s been stopped for the time being. The only hint of that change: Open Instagram > Profile page > Sandwich menu at the top right > Scroll down to “Sharing and Reuse” > Turn off the toggle for Posts and Reels. Meta released the Muse media generation models just a few days ago. Of course they would like to give it some free data from unsuspecting users. This company has always operated this way.
Three main reasons why I think this is a bad idea.
- Anyone can generate AI images based on your public Instagram profile without your knowledge, and Meta certainly won’t tell you if someone has created an impersonation account.
- Public Instagram photos can be used by threat actors to create deepfakes, and this is where this type of policy implementation by Meta could enable Muse to create fairly believable fake images.
- Many companies think ‘vibe coding’ is cool. Little wonder that researchers earlier this year identified a ‘Confused Deputy’ vulnerability in Meta’s AI chatbot support that was capable of making changes to user accounts (such as resetting passwords or changing registered email addresses) unless two-factor authentication was enabled by the user.
As Danny Bradbury bluntly states in a blog for security firm Malwarebytes, “You would also hope that the company would retroactively delete any images someone created before you opted in, but that’s not happening either.” Basically, you have to be situationally aware of any meta apps you’re using on a regular basis.
First, on Neural Dispatch
gemini shine on macos
Just last week, I reported that Google is the smartest AI company ever. There’s another chapter in that exhibition of utility-driven focus for AI. If you are an Apple Mac user, and also have the Google Gemini app installed on a MacBook or iMac or Mac Mini or Mac Studio, you will now be able to automate time-consuming tasks on the computing device. Google’s Gemini Spark is now coming out with a capability spectrum that includes sorting files into specific folders or locations, creating documents based on specific prompts pulling data from computing devices and Google Workspaces, and soon, the ability to run tasks remotely.
“And soon, you’ll even be able to run tasks remotely. You can assign a multi-step task to Gemini Spark from your phone — like ask it to find a specific sales report on your Mac, pull up the total revenue numbers, and email it to you — and let it execute the task on your computer while you’re away,” says Srinivasan Venkatacharya, vice president of engineering at Google DeepMind.
Starting with Google AI Ultra customers in the US, Google is also introducing support for the Custom Model Context Protocol (MCP), meaning users will be able to connect their most-used apps to Spark for deeper context. There are already integrations for popular software, including Canva and Dropbox. That’s not all, because Spark can track stuff for you.
“We’re also giving Gemini Spark the ability to intelligently track topics and react to events in real-time. For example, if you want to keep up to speed on highlights and analysis after your favorite football team plays, Spark brings you the latest information as soon as the match ends. Or, if a stock reaches a certain threshold, you can ask Spark to send you a detailed financial report,” says Adam Coimbra, director of product management, Gemini Apps.
The latest on wired knowledge
Is everyone surprised?
are you shocked? I’m certainly not surprised. But it turns out, there is the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). In a pointed warning, it becomes clear that central banks now fear that the so-called AI gold risk could provide the basis for the next big financial shock. Technology itself is not flawed, but what happens around it is flawed.
The BIS Annual Economic Report clearly states, “The ambiguity of Al-sector financing exacerbates these vulnerabilities. Hyperscalers, chip makers and Al Labs are linked through a complex web of private arrangements. The most prominent is circular financing: chip makers and hyperscalers take equity stakes in Al Labs or neocloud providers, who in turn commit to multi-year purchases of chips or computing power. Data center construction boom These are outsourced to third parties who lease facilities to hyperscalers over long periods of time. Contracts with embedded exit clauses are generally poorly disclosed, carrying the risk of the same asset being mortgaged multiple times. Such arrangements account for a large portion of sector-wide financing and further revenues.
First, AI companies are building an ecosystem that leverages enormous benefits, and the longevity of revenue streams as well as demand has not yet proven sustainability.
If demand for AI is not at the astronomical level that AI companies want us to believe it will be, there will be a huge gap between the amount borrowed and the ability to repay. This will extend the downturn in the credit markets.
Circular financing is a big risk, because funding each other and booking future sales from each other makes it difficult to actually assess real demand.
AI generated actors
Remember Tilly Norwood? I talked at length about AI ‘actors’ a few months ago (I often spot trends ahead of time). That was the first test of the waters. Now, the AI company called Particle6 Productions, which created (or originated?) Tilly Norwood, says the AI actor will star in a comedy-drama film called “Misaligned.”
As they say, it will be “a hybrid production with traditional film and TV professionals – such as directors, writers and editors – working alongside AI experts, with AI training and advice built into the production itself.” The company believes that AI can support premium film production but emphasizes the case where AI technology is limited to such an extent that human skills and decisions are not eliminated from the process. Needless to say, the entire Tilly Norwood saga has already drawn criticism from Hollywood, including from the actors union SAG-AFTRA, which criticized the studio for “using stolen performances to put actors out of work, endangering artists’ livelihoods, and devaluing human artistry.”
