Tech
Apple urged to withdraw ‘out of control’ AI news alerts
Apple is facing fresh calls to withdraw its controversial artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.
The product is meant to summarise breaking news notifications but has in some instances invented entirely false claims.
The BBC first complained to the tech giant about its journalism being misrepresented in December but Apple did not respond until Monday this week, when it said it was working to clarify that summaries were AI-generated.
Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian, told the BBC Apple needed to go further and pull a product he said was “clearly not ready.”
Mr Rusbridger, who also sits on Meta’s Oversight Board that reviews appeals of the company’s content moderation decisions, added the technology was “out of control” and posed a considerable misinformation risk.
“Trust in news is low enough already without giant American corporations coming in and using it as a kind of test product,” he told the Today programme, on BBC Radio Four.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the world’s largest unions for journalists, said Apple “must act swiftly” and remove Apple Intelligence to avoid misinforming the public – echoing prior calls by journalism body Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“At a time where access to accurate reporting has never been more important, the public must not be placed in a position of second-guessing the accuracy of news they receive,” said Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary.
The RSF also said Apple’s intervention was insufficient, and has repeated its demand that the product is taken off-line.
Tech
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Tech
Reddit groups ban X links in protest at Musk arm gesture
More than 100 Reddit communities have banned users from posting links to X in protest at owner Elon Musk’s controversial arm gesture at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s return to office.
The billionaire twice extended his arm out straight as he thanked the crowd for “making it happen.”
Critics, including some historians, said it was a Nazi salute – Mr Musk has dismissed that, saying comparisons with Hitler were “tired” and “dirty tricks.”
However many Reddit users have been unpersuaded by his response describing his actions as “hateful”, leading the moderators of scores of communities – or subreddits – to stop content being shared on X.
X has not commented but Reddit has stressed there is no sitewide ban on X links, telling the BBC in a statement it “has a longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of association”.
However the platform relies heavily on community moderation, where unpaid individuals known as Redditors decide what is – and isn’t – allowed to be published on their own corner of the website.
In many instances, those Redditors have reached a different conclusion, deciding Mr Musk’s actions were so offensive that they won’t link to content from their subreddits on X, potentially reducing traffic, engagement and – ultimately – revenue.
The biggest subreddits to have enforced the ban include basketball community r/NBA, which has 15 million members, female-focused community r/TwoXChromosomes, which has 14 million members, and American football community r/NFL, which has 12 million members.
It is worth remembering that subreddits are almost always run by fans – it does not mean that the NFL or NBA organisations are taking a stance against Musk.
The BBC has independently verified that at least 100 subreddits have banned X posts.
Of this number, more than 60 have at least 100,000 members.
But the actual number that have instituted the ban will likely be significantly higher by taking into account smaller subreddits with only a few thousand members.
And there are many more communities discussing a potential blacklisting.
Tech
How to make oxygen on the moon
Inside a giant sphere, the engineers pored over their equipment. Before them stood a silvery metal contraption swathed in colourful wires – a box that they hope will one day make oxygen on the moon.
Once the team vacated the sphere, the experiment began. The box-like machine was now ingesting small quantities of a dusty regolith – a mixture of dust and sharp grit with a chemical composition mimicking real lunar soil.
Soon, that regolith was gloop. A layer of it heated to temperatures above 1,650C. And, with the addition of some reactants, oxygen-containing molecules began to bubble out.
“We’ve tested everything we can on Earth now,” says Brant White, a program manager at Sierra Space, a private company. “The next step is going to the moon.”
Sierra Space’s experiment unfolded at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center this summer. It is far from the only such technology that researchers are working on, as they develop systems that could supply astronauts living on a future lunar base.
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