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‘Where is the line between satire and inappropriately representing a politician that could alter the course of an election?’. That’s the question Dr Sally Epstein, a machine learning engineer, poses. Despite being less than two years old, the term ‘Deep Fake’ has skyrocketed into modern vocabulary. With it, come the same questions of consent, truth, and whether this technology is overstepping the line. But what started as a tool for creating memes on Reddit is quickly taking a life of its own due to neural networks. This is a simplified idea of what neural networks are, and what they mean for the evolution of Deepfakes. (Using many images of Nicolas Cage to illustrate.) The best of The Future Of Everything A weekly look into the future The future of Time: Is technology making time go quicker? The future of Numbers : What comes after the giga, tera, peta, exa, zetta and yottabyte? The future of People : Racism ‘won’t go away’ even if … [Read more...] about Deepfakes will completely redraw the lines between reality and fake news

Facebook has launched a UK arm to its international fact-checking initiative. The move comes after more than two years of criticism about how the social network has handled the spread of misinformation on its platform. Full Fact, a fact-checking charity founded in 2010, will review stories, images and videos which have been flagged by users and rate them based on their accuracy. The charity’s efforts will focus on misinformation it perceives to be the most damaging, such as fake medical information, false stories around terror attacks and hoaxes around elections. Facebook’s leadership has been repeatedly criticised by politicians in recent years as problems of misinformation and foreign interference have plagued elections around the world. The Brexit referendum and 2017 general election were both found to have been tarnished by so-called fake news, while online mistruths around the NHS and immigration have been blamed for stoking division in nations around the world. … [Read more...] about Facebook launches UK fact-checking initiative to tackle fake news

THE UK is now past the peak of the third wave, promising new data has shown today. After a rapid rise in cases as Delta spread, and a sudden decline in the past few weeks , Britain appears to be on the way back to calmer Covid waters. New figures from the ZOE Covid Study app show a significant downturn from the peak seen last month, in the most recent data from five days ago. Dr Claire Steves, lead scientist and Reader at King’s College London, said: “ According to the latest ZOE incidence figures, the number of new daily cases in the UK has finally begun to fall, with a UK R value around 0.9. "This is the good news the UK has been waiting for but, we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves, this pandemic definitely isn’t over yet as cases remain very high." According to the latest data from the app, there are currently about 46,905 new daily symptomatic cases in the UK. This is a drop from 60,271 new cases last week. When broken down into people with and without … [Read more...] about Third Covid wave ‘HAS peaked and virus is in retreat’ as new data gives UK ‘news it’s been waiting for’

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has issued instructions for a strict clampdown clamping down on the spreading of fake news and doctored videos on social media, especially stories and videos which amount to incitement of communal violence. This comes on the heels of an FIR filed against social media platform Twitter in the Loni police station in Ghaziabad, for flouting the new IT rules that came into effect on May 25. Recently, there was news about a 72-year-old man Abdul Samad Saifi being beaten up by some youths in Ghaziabad. A video of the incident was posted on Twitter, which went viral afterwards. Saifi claimed that his beard was cut off and he was forced by his assaulters to chant “jai Shree ram” and “Vande Mataram”. Though the first claim was validated by the police, the second one was vigorously denied by the Loni police, who said in a statement that no such incident had ever occurred and this claim (of being forced to chant Jai Shree Ram) was not mentioned in … [Read more...] about CM Yogi Issues Strict Instructions to Curb the Spread of Fake News in UP

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Vaccine skepticism among Fox News viewers hit its lowest level since March this week, a new Morning Consult poll found , suggesting new pro-vaccine statements by some of the network’s anchors and other GOP figures could be helping to combat Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, which remains disproportionately high. Key Facts Morning Consult, which conducts weekly polls tracking vaccine skepticism among between 26,675 and 43,054 U.S. adults, reported 27% of Fox News viewers were unsure about or unwilling to get the Covid-19 vaccine in its August 2 poll. That 27% figure marks a record low for Fox News viewers since the question was first asked in March, and is down from 30% last week and 37% in mid-March. Fox News viewers still have the highest rate of vaccine skepticism among mainstream media consumers, as those who get their news from CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times all have vaccine … [Read more...] about Vaccine Skepticism Among Fox News Viewers Drops To Record Low, Poll Finds